So, if you watch reality TV of any kind, you'll notice that some things are scripted. An example in my case is when I watch Tanked. While they're shopping for fish to put in a tank, they act like it's the first time they've seen certain fish, despite the fact they've been in the aquarium business for 20 years. But there's one show that gets me thinking. In a home renovation show called Flipping Vegas, they often deal with people breaking into the house and stealing the copper plumbing to sell it for scrap. But the thing is, this happens so often, like in every other episode at the best, that I'm wondering if these break-ins are staged just to add some excitement to the show. I'm literally wondering if they just punch some holes in the walls, remove the copper plumbing and sell it for scrap themselves, and then when they're recording again, they act as if the house has been broken into when it really wasn't. There was one episode where I'm stuck on though, since in that episode, the copper had been 'stolen' in the middle of the night, and they had to fix everything up on the day of open house. It may be exciting to see them deal with such a tight timeline, but I feel like it's too risky to stage something like that.

Survivor.

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The origins of reality TV is the show COPS. It started with a writers' strike and network execs wanted to put on a show during prime time, but they didn't want to air any reruns as they'd have to pay the striking writers royalties, so they sent some cameramen to do ride alongs with local police. The show turned out to be a massive hit.

There have been lawsuits that have happened that revealed to the public that some of the events on COPS are staged. That's the origin of scripted reality TV.

The main reason why Reality TV existed in the first place was because it could be done for almost nothing since it didn't involve any writers and actors, who the TV stations normally had to pay.