Ax Men, Wicked Tuna, Swamp People

I'm beginning to think that a good portion of these shows are scripted.

But then, it would be hard to script a broken ankle or a snake bite.

And Willie's wife was bitten by an alligator. I doubt that was scripted.

 

I believe that some is real.. But there is a whole lot that is scripted.

 

These shows are the reason cable service should be offered a la carte.

 

Some of its real, some of its not... some of its scripted, some of its not. It really depends on the show.

Quite a few reality shows actually do start off being "real" but then as the shows get renewed for more seasons they have to turn to more and more scripting:
- as the cast/show becomes popular there is less time for them to do the reality stuff as they need to spend time promoting the show, spending money, meeting fans, etc
- the less they are filming the less likely they are going to get stuff to air so the production company needs to come up with stuff to air
- they need to keep the show fresh, they can't just keep showing the same stuff over and over again for years

In the end most of these shows end up being driven by scenarios and situations that the production team comes up with.

So instead of following the cast around and hoping something happens they will instead do things like:
- "I heard this story about a guy a few states over and this is what happened to him..." and then the show will effectively recreate the situation
- or ask somebody outright "why don't you go over there and start doing that... and then have an accident"
- or they will take what is something very basic and simple and with the use of editing and voiceover make it seem like its something bigger and more dramatic than it is, IE: something breaks and the reality is that its a 5-10 minute fix job with a wrench and pair of pliers... but with fancy editing, inserted interviews, background music and voiceover they stretch the event out to 15 minutes of TV time and make it sound like some critical crisis was averted - which is just better tv than "their machine just blew a gasket, something that happens typically twice a week in this line of work, jim is going to spend about 45 seconds repairing the gasket and then they'll be back at work"