39 Truly Shocking Reality Show Secrets That Will Forever Change How You Watch TV

Ever wondered why some contestants stay on for weeks on end against all odds? Well, you can thank The Bachelor producers for that. Former executive producer Scott Jeffress confirmed this in an interview for the book Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America’s Favorite Guilty Pleasure. “We would say, ‘We’d like you to keep this one because she’s good for TV, and this other one we’d like you to get to know better,'” he said.

RELATED: More Top Secrets About The Bachelor Revealed

According to what Selling Sunset creator Adam Divello told Variety, seasons 2 and 3 of the show were filmed concurrently but were released as separate seasons.

In order to avoid spilling the celebrity’s identity, The Masked Singer goes to extreme lengths to keep things under wraps. Staff are not allowed to use their phones under any circumstances and face embarrassing punishment if they do. Showrunner Izzie Pick Ibarra told Billboard, “Everyone tries to justify their need to use their phone, so if they want to do that, they have to go through the humiliating task of wearing this pageant sash.”

RELATED: Why Going to a Masked Singer Taping Is Like Visiting a CIA Compound

Queer Eye’s Bobby Berk always does incredible home transformations, but it takes no small budget to do so. Bobby told Vanity Fair he gets $20,000 per episode to complete his home transformations. While that may seem like a lot of money, most of it ends up going to construction costs.

Contestants on ABC’s Bachelor in Paradise are limited to two drinks an hour at the island resort. Former paradise participant Dean Unglert told Us, “They’ve got a little binder with your picture in it. Every time you get served a drink, they do a little tick mark in it and then every hour it resets. I remember there were ways to, like, not cheat the system, but just kind of get the most out of the experience.”

Although contestants need to bring their own clothes for the blind auditions, the show hooks them up after they move on to the next round. “We shop for each artist to come up with great looks. Once we get to the live shows, looks are customized for each specific performance,” revealed Audrey Morrissey, an executive producer of the show.

Dancing with the Stars celebrities and their partners have no say in their pairings on the popular dance show — no matter how much they might want to. Deena Katz, the talent co-executive producer, explained to Glamour in 2015, “We [decide] 100%.”

RELATED: What to Know About the Next Season of Dancing With the Stars

When more than the expected amount of couples got engaged on Love is Blind, producers simply couldn’t keep up with them all. In fact, two more couples got engaged that audiences never saw. “We weren't sure where the stories were going to go, everybody felt like they truly found the person they wanted to spend their life with and we had an abundance of story...we just didn't have time in the show to follow them, which is incredible to me,” said show creator Chris Coelen to E News.

According to season 2 contestant Kady McDermott, contestants have no way of knowing what time it is due to the lack of clocks in the Love Island villa. “You don’t even know what time it is! You’re not allowed clocks. You’re in your own secluded world, you know nothing - you don’t even know what day it is really,” Kady told Cosmopolitan.

There’s a reason the rose ceremonies always leave our hearts pumping! While the bachelor/bachelorette makes the final decision on who stays and who goes (minus producers’ input), the producers decide the order of the elimination during the rose ceremony.

Casting director Danielle Gervais explained to CNN, “There's a massive checklist the heroes have to meet, and all these requirements that these people have to have in order to really make for a wonderful hero."

Although the final episodes are only 30 minutes, filming usually takes around 10 hours. However, Jacques Torres explained to Vulture that some days can run even longer. “One day, I remember they had us do 14 hours. So it’s long,” he said. “Remember, the shows are 30 minutes long, so they have a lot [of] material to edit and cut.”

RELATED: The Unexpected Way Nicole Byer Made Wes From Nailed It! Famous

A private investigator is just one of the people involved when working to cast contestants for the dating show. Former contestant Darius Feaster revealed that when he reached the final round of casting, a psychologist and a private investigator were present. “The P.I. was asking me about my friends’ histories based on pictures from social media,” Darius said.

When the judges can’t make up their mind, they have someone else to turn to on the popular cooking show. In a 2015 interview with Entertainment Weekly, it was revealed that judges turn to a camera operator — named T-Bone — for additional help when they can’t make up their mind about a dish. Lucky T-Bone!

Unlike many other reality shows, Big Brother pays its contestant for their weeks on the show. Contestants get $1,000 each week they’re on the show. Even the evicted members that go to the jury house still receive their weekly pay.

Although it may look like the couples are extremely indecisive over their dream house, producers say the people are usually fairly sure of their home before the show films. A statement released to Entertainment Weekly by the show’s publicist explained, “To maximize production time, we seek out families who are pretty far along in the process.”

Performing on American Idol wasn’t for the faint of heart back in the day. According to The Washington Post, contestants picked their songs and immediately recorded them after Thursday’s elimination. They then spent the weekend rehearsing and shooting promotions before rehearsing three more times on Tuesday, the day of the live performance.

It turns out that celebrities do have a say in their unique costumes on The Masked Singer. Former contestant and comedian Margaret Cho told E News that she was presented with two options — a poodle and an alien — and she was able to choose between the two (P.S. she chose the poodle).

The Bachelor in Paradise crew don’t just get to sit in the sun and relax all day like you may think. Wells Adams, the bartender in Paradise, told TV Insider that he usually works an eight or nine hour shift daily — even later if there is a rose ceremony. “So yeah, I’d get up there, go set the bar up, and then they’d start sending people down to my bar. And it depends — if it’s a rose ceremony, then that’s a night shoot,” Wells said.