The tremendous success of BravoCon, the Bravo network’s fan convention featuring over 150 stars of its reality shows, speaks to just how invested its audiences have become. Launched in 2019 in New York with the second in 2023 in Las Vegas, tickets sold out in a day. In total, the event generated an estimated $13.5 million. A third BravoCon was recently announced for 2025.
Bravo isn’t the only network whose reality shows have devoted followings. After six seasons, the dating show “Love is Blind” is one of Netflix’s highest-rated series, while the 2023 premiere episode of ABC’s “The Golden Bachelor” (featuring a 72-year-old male lead) delivered the franchise’s best ratings in years. And love them or hate them, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” renamed “The Kardashians” when it moved from E! to Hulu in 2022, has been a cultural juggernaut since 2007 — so long that the once-youngest member of the family, who was 10 when the show premiered, is now a mother of two.
Technically, competitions like “The Amazing Race,” “Survivor” or even “Iron Chef” can be categorized as reality. But when we think of reality television, we think of shows like “The Real Housewives” or “Selling Sunset” that center on people’s personal lives, offering dishy, headline-making drama.
Understanding the appeal of these shows means taking a look at the genre’s evolution. PBS’s “An American Family,” a 1973 12-hour docuseries about the lives of a California family, the Louds, is widely cited as the first reality show. During the filming process, the couple divorced and their son came out as gay, both boundary-pushing reveals at the time. It drew an impressive viewership, yet the next landmark reality series didn’t occur until 1992 when MTV debuted “The Real World.” Birthing a format that nearly every series still employs — an edited combination of documentary-style footage and individual “confessionals” where cast members air their opinions and grievances about each other — was an instant hit. Doubling down on its success, MTV and its sister network VH1 rolled out shows like “Road Rules” (essentially “Real World” set in a cross-country camper) and “Hogan Knows Best,” which documented the colorful lives of Hulk Hogan’s family in Clearwater, Fla.
The television writers’ strike that lasted from November 2007 to February 2008 was the inflection point that inspired other networks to follow suit. “By then, we had ‘American Idol’ and ‘Survivor,’ but with the absence of writers during the strike, the industry broadly leaned into reality because, number one, they could do it without writers and, number two, it’s relatively inexpensive to produce,” explains Alfred L. Martin Jr., associate professor of cinematic arts at the University of Miami and author of “Rolling: Blackness and Mediated Comedy.” Bravo aired its first Real Housewives franchise, “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” in 2006 and quickly followed up in 2008 with “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” and “The Real Housewives of New York.” Other series that premiered over the next several years included “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” “Toddlers & Tiaras,” “Duck Dynasty,” “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” “Dance Moms,” “Jersey Shore” and “Sister Wives.”
“The initial appeal was ordinariness,” says Martin. Following the lives of everyday people, rather than fictitious characters, fascinated audiences. Their challenges were ones many of us experienced, like the journey to find love or navigating family dynamics.
But as more and more shows were ordered and the competition grew, so did the pressure to maintain ratings. As a result, premises and plotlines became noticeably heightened. Whereas a season of “The Bachelor” ended in an engagement, “Married at First Sight” ended with legally binding nuptials. The verbal bickering of the Real Housewives was topped by physical altercations on shows like “Bad Girls Club.” The “Chrisley Knows Best” cameras continued filming despite — or perhaps because of — Todd and Julie Chrisley’s 2022 conviction of criminal bank fraud and tax evasion, which resulted in years-long prison sentences for both.
What all these shows had to continue delivering, says Martin, is the soap opera factor. “There’s also a good degree of schadenfreude,” he notes. “Some of us just enjoy watching people fail.”
In a 2021 report for Business Insider, freelance reporter Laura Entis echoed this sentiment in describing her own reasons for tuning in, describing what she called “an element of smugness.” She wrote, “My life is far from perfect, but at least I’m not getting wasted on camera or flipping over tables to make a point.”
Not everyone agrees it’s a harmless guilty pleasure. While entertaining us, critics have pointed out that these shows often normalize and even celebrate extreme behavior and promote negative stereotypes. Conflict must be continually stoked to keep viewers turning in. Recently, a wave of reality personalities has come forward with accusations of unhealthy filming conditions that prioritize eliciting juicy storylines over their mental health.
Offscreen, the fandoms can get dark. On social media, supporters of one reality star will threaten and doxx (post private information like their home address, job affiliation and phone number to encourage personal attacks) those of another. The stars themselves have been targets of social media harassment, as have their family members. There have been numerous reports of death threats.
In a 2023 Medium post titled “What Makes Reality TV So Addicting?” writer Grace Wang compares the root of this dangerous online conduct to addiction. And in a published report, Northwestern Medicine, a nonprofit healthcare system affiliated with the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Ill., confirms mass frequent consumption of TV, sometimes referred to as “binge-watching,” has been shown to increase dopamine production in the brain, promoting addictive mannerisms.
Martin doesn’t believe in media addiction, but he does point to a boundary-crossing trend in toxicity in the media landscape. “Look at our politicians. If you support one candidate over another, people are doxxing you. If you post a non-glowing Beyoncé review, people will come after you. Unfortunately, social media offers anonymity in online spaces, allowing people to be far nastier than they’d be in face-to-face interaction,” he says.
Yet, for many, the allure of being cast on reality TV has never been more enticing. From the exposure and notoriety, many of today’s reality stars have achieved the wealth and fame once reserved for Hollywood A-listers. They’ve gone on to act, sing, host talk shows, found lucrative businesses and appear in Super Bowl ads.
Relatability, in other words, has been replaced with aspiration.
“They’ve become a legitimate force in entertainment,” says Martin. “So now it’s about, ‘Oh my god, I could become the next bestselling author, I could be on the cover of Vogue.’ It feeds our desire for celebrity and it feeds into the American dream, where anything could happen — the dream that you, too, can be a star. Today, I think that’s a big part of what keeps the machine going.”
For those of us at home, being realistic about the so-called “reality” of these shows is probably the healthiest way to enjoy them, Martin suggests. “At the end of the day, reality television is like any other television show. It’s highly produced and curated. There’s a villain edit and an angel edit.
“It’s also worth noting that the industry has moved away from calling it reality television and started referring to it as ‘unscripted,’” he adds. “That signals this notion that, in some ways, it’s kind of just improv.”
Wang concurs in her post, pointing out that in post-production, footage is manipulated, musical scores are added to increase tension and a narrative, if it doesn’t exist, is manufactured. “Viewers should approach watching reality programs with empathy and lightheartedness, avoiding taking everything too seriously,” she writes. “There is always another side to each story.”
