Undercover billionaire, real or staged

[Dan H.]

I really like the show.  However I have found many reality shows, like the flipping shows, to be largely staged.  The drama in these flip shows is over the top.

So I was seeking opinions on if this show was rigged or legit.  

[Steve K.]

@Dan Heuschele I’m not familiar with the specific show but my sister is a Hollywood producer and has worked on many “reality” shows. From what she has told me, these shows are usually not scripted word for word, but they all follow a loose narrative that writers have created beforehand, the executive producer has approved, and everyone involved is acting along with. Anyone appearing on the show has been contacted several weeks before, scheduled to be on the show, signed all the paperwork and has received their instructions on how to act, so it’s not like it’s spontaneous or real. The camera crew, makeup crew, sound crew, lighting crew, gaffers, grips, electrician, art director, catering etc. are all scheduled to be there at that time to get the shots the producer needs for the storyline for that episode, and then they all go home. It would be incredibly inefficient, expensive, and risky to just have all those people on set all day every day to film actual boring reality and then have to edit for months and come up with a cohesive story after the fact based on the footage, so that’s not the way it works. When you think about it, “Reality” TV isn’t even realistically possible outside of using hidden body camera/candid camera footage because the camera crew is not invisible and that is always a factor in people’s interactions with the stars. It’s typically 90% fake/produced and maybe 10% reality/improv. It’s actors acting.