Watching ‘American Pickers’ on the History Channel will have you thinking people are natural-born hagglers. You might be surprised, however, to learn that most of the items featured on the show have a price that was agreed upon off-camera. Oftentimes, the negotiation is all an act.
Not only that, but most of the credit for picking the items goes to the producers — not the hosts! There is an actual screening process involved designed to make sure that the items aired have some sort of entertainment value. Entertaining yet fake.
Guy's Grocery Games
Singer Guy Fieri has transitioned into a career as a celebrity chef a long time ago. His show involves challenging other chefs with culinary tasks. Some of you may not know, but Flavortown Market, the famous grocery store where the challenges take place, is all fake.
Well, the products are real, and so are the aisles, but that food that isn't being used gets donated to local charities. So the place may be fake but we're not mad about it.
Total Divas
More than anything else, pro wrestling matches are essentially displays of choreographed stunts. The fighting in itself is completely fake. So we can't really hold it against 'Total Divas' for being fake as well.
This show supposedly follows pro-wrestling women and their behind-the-scenes intrigue. However, Most of the show is scripted, as confirmed by some of the participants. These trained entertainers do just that — entertain. Even if it means displaying fake drama.
Dancing With the Stars
'Dancing With The Stars' has been on for more than 20 seasons and it keeps raking in some serious viewership. You may have noticed that some of these stars appear pretty professional prancing on the dance floor.
While there are no stunt doubles involved, some of them do have a dancing background, which gives them an unfair advantage, setting them up for a win. Some reports even claim that the producers regularly interfere with votes and use elimination as a threat held over the heads of participants who don't follow directions. Outrageous and fake.
Big Brother
CBS's 'Big Brother' is the ultimate reality show. It features strangers in a house with 24/7 cameras and different weekly challenges and public eliminations. Too bad it isn't real.
Well, to a certain degree. Yes, the participants are being constantly filmed, which makes completely faking it a little hard. However, the footage used in the regularly scheduled episodes is edited to favor some of them. Only viewers who subscribe to the nonstop online stream were able to get the full picture and context and spot the fake themselves.