When reality shows become a reality

Let's face it, reality shows are addictive. It doesn't matter if you are into the family reality shows, competitive reality shows or what some people call ratchet TV, it can be addictive. Reality shows are television shows that allow the public to enter into the world of celebrities, wanna be celebrities, or even everyday normal people on a weekly basis. Reality TV all started with The Real World that aired on MTV in 1992 and ended in 2013. Every year millions of people tuned in to MTV to watch the 7 strangers that lived in various parts of the United States come together in a location that is picked by MTV to live together for a couple of months. It created that great TV and the new era of modern soap operas. The difference is soap operas are fake and scripted and reality TV are real and "somewhat scripted".

Reality TV is scripted to a point where the producers and others who are behind the scene set up certain things to occur. Sometimes they would call a person's ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend and have them suddenly appear at a location that the person will be. And from there a story is built using the hidden emotions that has been buried between the two former couple. But as of recently, many reality shows have gone off script and has entered into that person's real life. The people who are on screen admit in interviews that they refuse to allow certain things happen or fall for the "suddenly" moments. Which is why reality shows are now becoming a reality.

You hear and see these people going to jail, talking about unexpected pregnancies, affairs, brawls, and the list goes on. Thanks to certain sites and blogs, you are able to keep up with these people and know their every move as they film the shows. You would think that people would be smart and not appear stupid to those who watch their every move on television. One show that comes to mind is a show that I've grown to love since it first aired in March of 2011.....Love and Hip Hop of New York that comes on VH1 on Mondays at 8pm. There is a love triangle between a man name Peter Gunz, who was once a well known rapper in the mid to later 90's and two women name Tara and Amina.

To make a long story short, Peter was with Tara for years and they have 2 boys together but eventually secretly married Amina. He kept lying to both women and both women kept falling for the same lies. Eventually, Amina gets pregnant and Peter continues to run between the two women. After what it appears that the two women try to put aside their differences because their kids are now step brothers and sisters, the chaos began all over again. Tara thinking it will be a good idea to move into the same building but separate floors where Amina and Peter lives so their boys can see their dad move, turns into a constant affair with Peter. In the end, Tara gets pregnant again (but didn't know she was 18 weeks) and Amina gets pregnant but because of the constant drama and affairs between Peter and Tara she decides to have an abortion. But during an interview, Amina announced that she is pregnant again.

You would think this is scripted but it isn't. Many people find it interesting to see the drama unfold in from of them every Monday but sometimes forget that our realty show is their reality. It baffles many women to see other women caught in a love triangle and can't understand why anyone, male or female would stay with someone who treats them like last week's leftovers... as trash. As entertaining it is, reality shows are  realtiy. We followed Teresa Giudice go to jail because of taxes, watched her family feel the absence of their mother and wife and the great reunion when she was released from prison a year later. You can't write that into a script. You can't write planned and unplanned pregnancies into a script.

I don't know how long reality TV will last. How long will people want to put their personal lives on television for others like myself give opinions, criticize and make us appreciate the simple drama that we go through in our own reality? I don't know when that time will come but until then, we will continue to sit back with a bowl of popcorn and be entertained by their reality show reality.