It's no secret that reality television shows aren't nearly as "real" as they're presented. After years of allegations of fraud and misrepresentation, many reality TV producers have started referring to their programming as "unscripted drama." This is actually a much more accurate term for the shows they make. Competitions like Survivor and "controlled living environment" shows like The Real World are meticulously cast, produced, and edited to come up with a packaged product that will hold the viewer's attention, provide consistent drama, and fulfill a human interest desire. If you happen to get cast in a reality show, there are a number of things you should know going in that will make the experience smoother and more rewarding.

Many reality TV stars have come out against the producers of their shows, because they were unhappy with how the "reality" of the experience was portrayed. Since Survivor first aired, information about how reality shows are produced has steadily leaked out, mostly from unhappy contestants. Most reality shows start with a basic concept like "mismatched strangers live together in a house" or "ten single women compete with each other for the attention of celebrity X" or "three families race around the world to win a prize." The producers choose their contestants, do extensive screen testing and personality background checks. Then they engineer situations that will activate the desired reaction from their stars. At the end of the competition, or the end of filming, the producers pour over footage with "writers" and create compelling character storylines that they can string together throughout the season. These narratives may or may not actually be true. The producers are far more concerned with emphasizing character drama and exaggerating tension than accurately presenting the facts.

After reality shows air a few of the stars are usually unhappy with the end results. They might, for instance, have watched a scene in which the camera shows them yelling at someone, and then cuts to another contestant. Trishelle Cannatella, from MTV's The Real World and VH1's The Surreal Life, confessed at InstantCast LIVE! that she was very unhappy with way she was portrayed by producers on The Surreal Life. Footage of her yelling at producers was used to engineer a fight scene with one of her castmates. As a contestant on a reality show it's better to come out of the production with the understanding you've provided the producers with raw material for them to work with, not documented truth.

There are other common reality-bending techniques used by producers you should be aware of. Aside from cutting clips together in a non-chronological or misleading way, editors will often splice together audio from unrelated clips. They play this audio over scenes in order to create a "plot" moment or consistent rivalries. The number of cameras and microphones on any given reality TV set are limited. Though they try their best to capture everything, producers occasionally hear of an incident that wasn't caught on tape or wasn't recorded properly. When this happens, it is fairly routine for the contestants to reenact the scene for cameras. At this point the pretense of reality is gone, and you need to be ready to start acting. Producers have been known to go as far as actually writing dialogue and telling contestants which people they should hate and which people they should like.

Many reality TV show stars have admitted to acting crazy or emotional in order to receive more screen time. Whatever the goal of a reality show is, the main competition for the contestants is to get as much camera time as possible. Reasonable, well-mannered, passive people tend to get ignored. Basically, there's nothing wrong with hamming it up a bit to call attention to yourself. The more the audience is interested in you, the more focus the producers will give you. People don't watch reality shows to see normal people doing mundane things. Just remember that the job of the producer is to provide an entertaining TV show. Have fun, act up, and don't take the finished product too seriously.

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