A lot of series have rolled out since reality TV started in the early ’90s, and it can be hard to keep track. Whether you want to look them up on your favorite streaming service or just feel like taking a walking down reality TV memory lane, here’s a look back at the best reality TV shows of all time.
30 best reality TV shows ever
The Real World
MTV’s The Real Worldwas the series that started it all. Launched in 1992, it followed the lives of seven or eight young adults as they lived in one space together in a new city while being filmed 24/7. The show tackled a slew of important social issues, including racism, sexuality, AIDS, substance abuse, abortion and death before it eventually ended in 2019.
Keeping Up With the Kardashians
Keeping Up With the Kardashians gives fans a peek at how the rich and famous live, by showcasing the Kardashian-Jenner family. The E! show, which is ending in 2021 after 20 seasons and 14 years of filming, mainly follows sister Kim, Khloeand Kourtney Kardashian, along with Kylie and Kendall Jenner, and their mom, Kris Jenner. It’s covered new relationships, breakups, babies, cheating, surrogacy, the pressures of fame and many, many more topics.
Jersey Shore
Jersey Shore completely blew people away when it launched on MTV in 2009. The show followed the lives of eight strangers at a vacation home in Seaside Heights, N.J., and brought a ton of one-liners, like “gym, tan, laundry,” “where’s the beach,” and “it’s T-shirt time” to the general public. The show went through six seasons and several spin-offs.
The Bachelor
This ABC dating show launched in 2002 as a way to help a single man find love with one of at least 25 women. The show’s format has stayed the same over several decades, featuring a rose ceremony to whittle down contestants, awkward group dates, coveted one-on-ones and regular cocktail hours. The Bachelor has been so successful, it’s launched several spinoffs, including Bachelor in Paradise, Bachelor Pad, and The Bachelor: Winter Games. Plenty of contestants have gone on to find love, become Instagram influencers or even have their own shows.
The Bachelorette
A year after the launch of The Bachelor, ABC released The Bachelorette with a similar format. This time, though, 25 men competed for the heart of one woman. The first Bachelorette was Trista Rehn, the runner-up from the first season of The Bachelor, and—worth noting—she’s still married to her top pick, Ryan Sutter. The show just wrapped up its 16th season.
American Idol
This singing competition has launched the careers of plenty of singers who are still big names today, including Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Jordin Sparks and Phillip Phillips. It originally aired in 2002 and whittled down contestants based on votes from the audience. The show started on FOX, went off the air in 2016, and then was revived by ABC in 2018.
RuPaul’s Drag Race
RuPaul’s Drag Race debuted in 2009 and featured drag queen RuPaul as a host, mentor and head judge. The goal of the award-winning show: To help find America’s next “drag superstar.” Contestants go through “mini” and “maxi” challenges to try to advance to score the top prize of $100,000 and a year’s supply of cosmetics. The show, which started on Logo and moved over to VH1, has been so successful, it airs internationally.
Married at First Sight
Based on a Danish series with the same concept, Married at First Sightpairs three to five couples together under the guidance of relationship experts. The couples agree to marry when they meet and spend their wedding night in a hotel before they leave for an eight-week honeymoon. After that, they live together for another eight weeks as a married couple. At the end, they have to decide whether to get divorced or stay married. Overall, about 30 percent of couples from the show are still married.
Million Dollar Listing
This show follows the lives and dealings of high-end real estate agents in Los Angeles. Several agents have cycled through since the show launched on Bravo in 2006, with Josh Flagg being the only original cast member still on the show. Million Dollar Listing was so successful, it’s spawned spinoffs like Million Dollar Listing New York and Million Dollar Listing Miami. The original version is now called Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles.
Top Chef
The cooking competition debuted in 2006 as a way for chefs to showcase their skills in high-pressure situations. Hosted by Katie Lee and later Padma Lakshmi, Top Chef puts contestants through quickfire and elimination challenges to whittle the field down to a final winner who gets a $100,000 prize. Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons and usually a guest are the celebrity judges.
The Biggest Loser
The Biggest Loser earned huge ratings each season, practically since its 2004 debut, as people tuned in each week to see overweight and obese contestants change their diet and exercise routines to try to lose the most weight possible. The show ran for 17 seasons, until it ended in 2016 over claims that the format promoted unhealthy eating behaviors and research that showed contestants often gained back the weight they lost and more. The show re-launched in 2020 with a more gentle approach.
Selling Sunset
The highly stylized Selling Sunset launched in 2019 on Netflix and became a mega-hit. The show follows the lives of a group of agents selling high-end real estate at the Los Angeles-based Oppenheim Group. Selling Sunset also leans heavily into what the agents do off the job, featuring weddings, breakups and plenty of arguments.
Road Rules
One of the original reality shows, Road Rules began airing in 1995 and jammed five to six young strangers into an RV. The contestants on the MTV show traveled from spot to spot and had to complete missions at each location while being filmed. The show went off the air in 2007, but will come back in a revamped form on Paramount+.
The Voice
The Voice debuted in 2011 and became a huge hit. The show has contestants do blind auditions before picking a coach who is interested in working with them. From there, the coaches mentor their contestants, who compete against each other until both viewers and the coaches pick who will be the winner of the show.
Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County
Way back before Lauren Conrad had her own lifestyle empire, she was just a wealthy teenager on reality TV. The showed featured the lives of Conrad, Kristen Cavallari, Stephen Colletti and more, as they navigated high school life in swanky Laguna Beach, California. The show later spun-off into The Hills, which followed Conrad’s life after she moved to Los Angeles.
The Hills
Speaking of The Hills, this show became an instant success when it debuted in 2006. It originally featured Conrad’s life as a Teen Vogue intern in Los Angeles and all the drama that came with it, but later pivoted to center around Cavallari, Heidi Montag and other cast members.
Jon & Kate Plus 8
Jon and Kate Gosselin, the parents of sextuplets and twins, became massively famous after the launch of their reality show on TLC. The show featured their daily lives managing their eight children, as well as their relationship with each other. After the couple went through a very public divorce, the show pivoted to focus on Kate’s life as a single mom of eight with a new title, Kate Plus 8.
Teen Mom
This MTV reality show is a spinoff of 16 and Pregnant and focuses on the lives of several young moms as they try to cope with new motherhood and other relationships. The show originally ran from 2009 to 2012, and was later revived in 2015. Teen Mom has had a bunch of spinoffs, including Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant and Teen Mom: Young Moms Club.
Fixer Upper
Fixer Upper launched an empire for Chip and Joanna Gaines, a couple who flip houses in their hometown of Waco, Texas. The show ran for six seasons on HGTV before the family decided to take a step back. A year later, they announced the launch of the Magnolia Network, with a new iteration of Fixer Upper.
Big Brother
The Big Brother concept is simple: Contestants live together in the same house and are filmed constantly. The series launched in the U.S. in 2000 and is hosted by Julie Chen. Guests in the house have to follow a set series of rules and, while they can leave any time, they can be forcibly removed if they break the rules (which prohibit things like violent behavior). People are evicted from the house over time, and the last resident remaining is the winner.
Dancing with the Stars
The show, which launched in 2005, recruits a group of celebrities and pairs them with a professional dancer who teaches them moves and choreography. Each week, the dancing couples perform and one duo is eliminated until the winner earns the coveted mirrorball trophy. DWTS has highlighted and even re-launched the careers of plenty of celebrities.
America’s Next Top Model
Tyra Banks earned an army of new fans in 2003 when she launched America’s Next Top Model, a show that taught young women the skills they needed to become working models. Despite big ratings at the start, the show was canceled in 2015 as audiences tuned out. It was revived in 2016 on VH1.
The Real Housewives of Orange County
Premiering in 2006, the Real Housewives of Orange County documented the lives of a group of wealthy, mostly married, women in California’s swanky Orange County. The show was such a hit, it launched spinoffs in nine different areas, along with miniseries, like Tamra’s OC Wedding.
Project Runway
This fashion design competition got people interesting in sewing again after it launched in 2004. Project Runway pits designers against each other to see who could win a series of competitions each week. Season winners, which include designer Christian Siriano, get a cash prize, a mentorship to launch their brand and, of course, exposure.
Love & Hip-Hop
VH1’s hit series showcases the personal and professional lives of hip-hop and R&B stars, managers and record producers in New York. Big names like Remy Ma, Ray J andCardi B. have been on the show. The original Love & Hip-Hop was so successful, it launched spinoffs in Atlanta, Hollywood and Miami.
Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica
Pop music fans collectively freaked in the early 2000s when the newly-married Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey launched a reality TV show about their lives. Cameras captured Simpson’s lovable naive personality (“Is this chicken, what I have, or is this fish? I know it’s tuna, but it says ‘Chicken…by the Sea’?”) and the careers of both. The show ended after three seasons when the couple announced they were divorcing.
The Simple Life
Socialites Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie became household names when they moved in with a farm family for five weeks. The two did all kinds of “normal” things, like going to Walmart and mucking stalls, and were filmed during the whole process. They also dropped memorable one-liners like, “What is Walmart? Do they, like, sell wall stuff?” and “what does ‘generic’ mean?”
Survivor
This survival competition debuted in 2000 and is still on today, making it one of the longest-running shows in reality TV history. The show puts a group of strangers in an isolated location, where they have to find food and shelter for themselves. Alliances between some contestants and regular eliminations up the drama, while the winner walks away with a $1 million prize.
90 Day Fiancé
90 Day Fiancé debuted in 2014 and became a massive hit for TLC. The show follows couples who have applied for or received a K-1 visa (which is only available for foreign fiancés of U.S. citizens). Because the visa is time-sensitive, they have 90 days to get married. The show has had a slew of spinoffs, including 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After and 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days.
The Amazing Race
The Amazing Race first aired in 2001 and featured teams of two people who go through a series of competitions around the world while racing against other couples. Teams are challenged to decipher clues, navigate foreign countries and perform physical and mental challenges that showcase local culture and history. The first team to arrive at the finish line gets the grand prize of $1 million.
Dance Moms
This show launched in 2011 and featured dancers at Pittsburgh’s Abby Lee Dance Company. While the show launched the careers of stars like Maddie Ziegler and JoJo Siwa, it mainly showcased the abrasive nature of studio owner Abby Lee Miller. Miller left the show halfway between season seven, but came back for season eight.
Below Deck
Bravo’s show about the lives of the crew members who work, live and bicker on a super-yacht during charter season was an instant hit. It’s been so successful that it’s launched spinoffs like Below Deck: Mediterranean and Below Deck Sailing Yacht.
Queer Eye for the Straight GuyandQueer Eye
When Queer Eye for the Straight Guy launched in 2003, it became a huge success. Each episode featured the “Fab Five,” a team of gay professionals in fashion, personal grooming, interior design, entertaining and culture who worked to make over a (usually straight) man. The show went off the air in 2007 but came back with an entirely new cast in a Netflix reboot in 2018.
Great British Baking Show
It may be filmed in the U.K., but the Great British Baking Show has fans around the world. The show features amateur bakers in the U.K. as they compete in weekly challenges to try to be named the best in the country. The winners don’t earn a huge cash prize or anything—instead, they get a bouquet of flowers, a cake stand and some fame.
Making the Band
Over the course of nine years, Making the Band churned out musical acts like O-Town, Da Band, Danity Kane, Day26 and Donnie Klang, and followed the groups as they tried to make it big. Early episodes showed the bands actually being formed, followed by footage of them making albums, and eventually going on tour. And, of course, there was plenty of drama. Next, there are some seriously underrated dating shows out there.
