Reality Shows That Treated Contestants Like Trash

The following article includes mentions of sexual misconduct allegations, mental health struggles, and addiction.

With the backstabbing, cast member brawls, and tear-filled confessionals, reality TV isn't exactly known for its ethics. After all, who would watch a "Survivor" where nobody was voted off and everyone got along? 

Drama makes for good TV, and it's been a long-running secret that reality show producers know just how to push their subjects to the breaking point — but it's not always pretty. From isolation and mental manipulation to behind-the-scenes threats and misleading editing, these reality shows allegedly put their contestants through the ringer. And when that didn't work, there's always a conveniently placed jalapeno to help trigger some tears. 

At the end of their experience, some reality stars allegedly didn't even make a dime, while others were left with life-changing, extreme plastic surgery (it's still unfathomable that "The Swan" was given the green light). Don't believe the TV world can be so cruel? Just ask the cast members themselves. From "The Bachelor" to "Teen Mom," these reality shows allegedly treated their contestants like trash.

The morally questionable antics on Lifetime's scripted drama "UnREAL" may take creative license, but the show was actually based on what went on behind the scenes of "The Bachelor." The show's creator, Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, was a producer on ABC's hit reality series, and she drew from her experiences.

Speaking with The New Yorker, Shapiro claimed that "The Bachelor" wasn't the friendliest environment for contestants. As a producer, Shapiro said it was her job to dole out "terrible advice and to deprive [contestants] of sleep." To hand-craft intense crying scenes, Shapiro often lied to contestants, even telling women who were going to be dumped during the rose ceremony that the Bachelor secretly told producers he was going to propose to them. Diabolical, right? It gets worse. 

Shapiro also claimed producers primed each contestant to have a song that represented their relationship with the Bachelor. When the dejected lover left the ceremony stunned because producers pulled the old switcheroo, she'd be shuffled into a limousine that played her song. The car would then drive up and down the 405 highway in Los Angeles for as long as it took to get them to cry. According to Shapiro, executives told producers not to return until they got the waterworks or else they'd be fired. Shapiro's solution? She sometimes used a jalapeno or lemon to help her cry on cue, which in turn, elicited tears from the contestant.

The popularity of TLC's roster of wildly dramatic reality shows has led to some excellent perks for the stars. According to In Touch, The Duggars, who appear in various TLC hits like "Counting On" and "19 & Counting," get an estimated $25,000 to $45,000 per episode. Another TLC star, Kate Gosselin of "Kate Plus 8" fame, allegedly raked in "more than $40,000 per episode" (via Radar), earning her more than Taylor Schilling from "Orange Is the New Black."

Unfortunately, not all of TLC's stars are created equal. Those appearing in "90 Day Fiancé" allegedly make chump change comparatively. According to Reality Blurb, it is rumored that "only the American side of the couples" receive a salary, since their immigrant partners who appear on their show "typically don't have their work permits yet when filming starts." Even then, Starcasm reports that some of the stars make just $1,000 per episode or $2,500 per tell-all special. Just how low is $1,000 split two ways? "Teen Mom," which has similar ratings and viewership, allegedly gives stars around $250,000 per season.

The paltry payment has caused at least one star of the series and its various spin-offs to accuse the network of taking advantage of immigrants. "They destroy our lives with bad fame, but I don't receive any money," wrote Louis Mendez of "90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After" in a since-deleted Instagram post. "Only the American people [get paid] bc [sic] we are trash for them."

The music industry can be a cruel, cruel place — perhaps even crueler than the world of reality TV. Luckily, Diddy managed to hit his reality TV contestants with the worst of both worlds while simultaneously ruining the treasure that is a slice of New York cheesecake, which is a crime in itself if you ask us. 

Anyway, the cheesecake incident has gone down in hip hop history as one of the cruelest things Diddy has ever done (unless you buy into the conspiracy theory that he's responsible for Tupac's murder). The infamous moment occurred during the Season 2 premiere of "Making the Band 2," when he forced the newly assembled Da Band to walk 12.4 miles to get him a slice of Junior's strawberry cheesecake. Even though Manhattan had its own Junior's, Diddy demanded that Da Band trek all the way to Brooklyn on foot.

Surprisingly enough, the contestants mostly managed to complete the feat which took a whopping five-and-a-half hours. By the time they returned, Diddy had gone home for the night. Was it all for show? Probably. Did it make Da Band feel like trash? Definitely.

Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag are one of the most infamous couples in reality TV history. While the pair may have been painted as the antagonists of "The Hills," they claimed their poor portrayal was a product of MTV's constant threats. Their time with the show allegedly ended in a full-on brawl after the network fought to craft a storyline so twisted that Spencer "snapped."

"We played up to the characters we were told to be, and because they'd always threaten us with losing our place on 'The Hills,' we went along with it," Pratt claimed in the E! documentary, "After Shock: Heidi & Spencer" (via the Daily Mail). In an interview with The Daily Beast, Pratt said his breaking point was when producer Sara Mast allegedly tried to make him the catalyst for sister Stephanie Pratt's struggle with excessive drug and alcohol use. He claimed Mast tried to get him to punch Stephanie in the face to invoke "that Snooki effect" (this referred to the time "Jersey Shore" cast member Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi was punched in the face at a bar). As a result, Spencer screamed, "You want me to punch my sister in the face? Are you trying to get me to kill you?" 

According to MTV, he scared producers enough that he got himself booted from the series. Of course, that didn't stop Montag and Pratt from reprising their reality TV roles in the 2019 reboot, "The Hills: New Beginnings."

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Most '90s kids still have anxiety dreams about "Legends of the Hidden Temple's" silver monkey. While the task was undeniably the most difficult and set up a generation of young reality TV contestants for failure, it's not at all the most traumatic thing that happened on set.

Former contestant Keeli told SBNation that the final round of the game show, dubbed the Temple Run, "was practically impossible for a kid between the ages of 12 and 14 to complete." Not only did the Temple Run come after 12 hours of competition, Keeli claimed that the obstacle course set had significant issues, like doors that didn't open properly and essential props that were missing. 

But it wasn't the inevitable failure that traumatized Keeli, who appeared on the children's game show when she was 12 years old. It was the terrifying temple guards who left lasting emotional scars. "When the second guard got me and ushered me through that little door to the back of the set, I just burst into tears," she said. "I'm 31 and I can't go to haunted houses. I'm deathly afraid of things popping out of closets and doors, etc., at me. I can't watch scary movies where things jump out and scare people. Can I say that this is directly related to that? No, not 100 percent, but... ."

For primetime networks, reality game shows are a dime a dozen, so it's not surprising that the short-lived Fox series "Million Dollar Money Drop" had a few kinks that were never really worked out. This unfortunately came at the $800,000 expense of two contestants, who were forced to play a game they were destined to lose.

In 2010, Gabe Okoye and Brittany Mayti appeared on the show. As the game goes, they'd have $1 million to bet across various questions. They ended up placing $800,000 on the question, "Which of these was sold in stores first?" The options were Macintosh computers, Sony Walkmans, or Post-It notes. Okoye went with the Post-Its, but producers claimed it was the Sony Walkman. 

According to USA Today, fans later noted that Post-Its were actually sold before Walkmans but "under a different name and only in select parts of the country." They lost on a technicality. It was seemingly rigged, and Okoye and Mayti ended up going home without a dime. Though the series invited them back after the mistake, they were never reimbursed for the life-changing money they rightfully won.

"American Idol" has always been a little cruel. The first couple weeks of each series hinge on watching people sing, who are so delusionally untalented it should arguably be illegal to put them on TV. Then again, contestants are signing up to be judged — which does include the ridicule of the general public. Weirdly enough, the cruelest part of "American Idol" might just come after contestants win.

In 2015, Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips sued "American Idol" producers 19 Entertainment over his so-called "oppressive" contract. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the suit alleged that the company "manipulated" the singer into accepting jobs after his win, and he was even forced to perform a free gig for JetBlue that had no benefit to his own career. Instead, 19 Entertainment allegedly used the performance to land a JetBlue sponsorship for the "2013 American Idol Live Appearance Tour," which had nothing to do with Phillips. He also claimed the company lied to him about royalties, tried to finagle a larger percentage for themselves, and kept him in the dark about his own music. The star reportedly lacked so much creative control that he wasn't even told the name of his album until it was announced to the general public.

Phillips' lawsuit became one of the biggest scandals in "American Idol" history. According to HuffPost, the singer settled with the producers in 2017.

Aside from a critically-panned reboot, "Wife Swap" hasn't aired new episodes in nearly a decade. Nonetheless, former contestants are still dealing with trauma allegedly left behind from the series. One of these contestants is Heidi Mae, an influencer who appeared with her family more than 10 years ago during Season 6. In a bombshell TikTok video shared in November 2021, the star called "Wife Swap" the "worst mistake of our lives" and claimed producers labeled them "the bad family" right off the bat.

In the video, Mae claimed contestants had to have an extensive psychiatric evaluation to make sure they were "mentally sound enough" to appear on the show. Producers allegedly used the evaluation "to find [her] pain" and "[exploit] it for television." As such, her childhood insecurity of feeling alone was thrown immediately back in her face. "I kid you f**king not ... the first conversation with the 'other mother,' she ... looks me dead in the f**king eyes and she says, 'You are alone. Nobody cares about you. You have no friends. I don't care about you,'" Mae claimed. "And I just f**king broke down."

Mae told the Daily Dot that the "other mother" was equally "as manipulated." They later discovered producers were feeding her lies to purposely create beef between the families. All in all, Mae claimed the show was "ten days of pure hell" and that she's still dealing "with the after effects of it."