Reality TV is a world of competition, romance, and drama—a surreal, sometimes highly produced portrayal of human nature and society’s tiniest pockets. It’s a genre unto itself—a series of psychological experiments that double as entertainment, putting people in uncomfortable scenarios and hitting record. This week, we’re finding who the best reality TV character is, revisiting iconic reality TV moments, and diving deep into the genre’s impact not only on television but on our larger world.
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Reality TV Week
The Ringer is celebrating the best reality TV characters of all-time, revisiting iconic reality TV moments, and diving deep into the genre’s impact not only on television but on our larger world
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May 2, 2020
The Best Reality TV Character Bracket Final: And the Winner Is ...
CT and Johnny Bananas, two legends from ‘The Challenge,’ entered, but only one would leave victorious
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May 1, 2020
The Man, the Myth, the ‘Challenge’ Legend, Johnny Bananas
One half of the championship round of our Reality TV Characters Bracket relives past glories with us
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May 1, 2020
The Best Reality TV Character Bracket: It’s CT and Bananas in the Final
Thanks to some campaigning, it’s an all-‘Challenge’ final. Are we about to get Round 2 of the Bananas Backpack?
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May 1, 2020
Netflix Created the Perfect Reality Shows for Our Current Reality
‘Love Is Blind,’ ‘The Circle,’ and ‘Too Hot to Handle’ exist in worlds where face-to-face interactions are limited and social skills are beginning to regress, which feels all too real in 2020
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May 1, 2020
‘Joe Millionaire’ Turned Reality TV Into the Super Bowl. Then It Vanished.
The entertainment Ponzi scheme’s very existence relied upon layers of deception. That made it utterly thrilling—and, ultimately, impossible to replicate.
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May 1, 2020
Great Moments in Reality: Sandra Burns Russell’s Fedora on ‘Survivor’
Though Sandra Diaz-Twine was technically a villain on the 20th season of the show, no one had ever done something so heroic
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April 30, 2020
How ‘Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica’ Forecasted the Future of Reality TV
Jessica Simpson’s "chicken by the sea" gaffe on the show’s first episode, and its unsavory aftermath, showed producers that they’d found a formula for creating popular television
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April 30, 2020
The Best Reality TV Character Bracket: MTV’s Powerhouses Take Over
Half of the Elite Eight consists of characters from ‘Jersey Shore’ and ‘The Challenge.’ But Jeff Probst awaits.
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April 29, 2020
The Best Reality TV Character Bracket: The Sweet 16 Is Full of Perfect Matchups
A war of ‘The Hills,’ a Battle of the Brits, and Kim Kardashian versus Paris Hilton. Let’s go!
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April 29, 2020
The Best Seasons of ‘The Real World,’ Ranked
The MTV reality television franchise has spanned almost three decades and 33 seasons. Here are the best.
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April 29, 2020
Remembering the Bananas Backpack on ‘The Challenge’
A surprise faceoff between two legends lived up to the hype—for 19 adrenaline-raging seconds
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April 29, 2020
For a Time, the Story of Culture Was Told Through ‘The Real World’
In the late ’90s and early ’00s, the MTV reality show was so prevalent that countless other shows and movies—from ‘Reality Bites’ to ‘Chappelle’s Show’ to ‘Scrubs’—used it as a reference point
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April 28, 2020
Reality TV Character Bracket Upsets and Wes Bergmann of ‘The Challenge’
Juliet and Amelia talk about the upsets from Day 2 of the Best Reality TV Character Bracket, including Johnny Bananas beating Tyler Cameron
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April 28, 2020
The Best Reality TV Character Bracket: Kim Kardashian Finds Herself in a Dog Fight
The UMBC Golden Retrievers took down Virginia as a 16-seed two years ago. On Monday, a different sort of canine was nipping at the heels of one of the most famous people on earth.
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April 28, 2020
Fail Forward: The Lessons of Omarosa
A villain straight out of reality television central casting parlayed her infamy on ‘The Apprentice’ into a position at the White House
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April 27, 2020
The Ringer’s Best Reality TV Character Bracket and ‘Listen to Your Heart’ Episode 3
Juliet talks about some of her all-time favorite reality TV characters before breaking down the latest episode of ‘Listen to Your Heart’
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April 27, 2020
Our Favorite Characters Who Didn’t Make the Reality TV Bracket
The cases for Diddy, two members of the cast of ‘Jersey Shore,’ and a handful of others who just missed our field of 64
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April 27, 2020
Remembering “The Note” on ‘Jersey Shore’
In the show’s second season, Snooki and JWoww waltzed into an internet cafe and began typing up a letter about lust and infidelity. The world would never be the same.
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April 27, 2020
The Best Reality TV Character Bracket
It’s time to celebrate the other side of television—from the Kardashians to the best of ‘Survivor’ to the antagonists we love to hate