Essential Reality TV Tropes: Analyzing How TV Built Its Own "Reality"

Reality TV has become a genre unto itself 30 years after the first season of The Real World debuted as a “social experiment,” with character types, stock stories, and cliches that rival the laziest detective dramas. There’s the bald-faced lies, the knock-down, drag-out fights, the apology ritual, the alliances, villains and hot messes; and, of course, the drama. Here’s our list of the most essential tropes and characters in reality TV, and why some of them are just so played out that we wish they’d pack their bags.

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CHAPTERS
00:00 The biggest Reality TV tropes are...
01:07 The Villain
04:58 The Hot Mess
06:48 The Twist
09:24 The Big Fight
11:13 The Apology
12:44 The Tragic Backstory
13:39 When reality TV gets real

CREDITS
Executive Producers: Debra Minoff & Susannah McCullough
Chief Creative Director: Susannah McCullough
Associate Producer: Tyler Allen
Writer: Eric Thurm & Jackie Ferro
Narrator: Charly Bivona
Video Editor: Jacques Cote