We all have seen someone doing something on television shows and thought, eh, we could have done better. However, things are more difficult and challenging than they seem on our television screens.
In a thread, people who have been on reality television shows, talk about their experiences. Needless to mention, the thread gets interesting with each answer. Let’s take a look, shall we?
1. “My neighbor went on KBC and he answered a basic question wrong and came home with 0 rupees. That was hilarious.” –mn_g
2. “I’ve been on the Bournvita Quiz Contest hosted by Derek O’Brian. I won the school round, the regional round the state round. I then got on to the national finals and my team came second. It was good fun on the sets – surprisingly efficient and the host was very friendly too.” –batatavada
3. “I was on MTV Roadies. I met a bunch of people who can be seen in the show’s behind-the-scenes footage and they were very nice guys. I met VJ José, who interviewed me, he was a nervy guy but overall nice to everyone. Then we had a GD where we met Rannvijay and he’s honestly quite the personality when you see him in person – confident, looks great and had put on some muscle. I didn’t make it through to the PI but I met Raghu anyway. He seemed nice.” –GreatnessX
4. “I went on a quiz show when I was young. It wasn’t a big one, a show on DD, we won one round and lost in the finals. We were promised prizes, but never got shit. The prizes are in my opinion usurped by the producers or the channel in this case. The makeup and all is what I remember most, as a shy boy, the makeup did wonders for my self-confidence.” –leekie_lum
5. “I went to the Indian Idol auditions once. I didn’t really have any training but I went with one of my friends for the auditions. It took place in a huge resort-type place. The line for registration was gigantic and everyone was practicing for their auditions. They made groups of 10 and sat us down in one waiting room where there was an old lady. I sang Himesh Reshammiya’s Aashiq Banaya Aapne. She told me to stop after I sang a line or two. One guy came in and informed us that unfortunately, none of the 10 had been selected for further rounds.” –Abhi_714
6. “My friend went for the India’s Got Talent reality show. He got picked and what he had to perform was completely decided by the producers. Basically, there was one more guy doing what he did. After two rounds, they wanted the other guy to move on and made my friend do something average. Obviously, he got eliminated from the show.” -Anonymous
7. “In July 1999, I went as an audience member to Picnik Antakshari (it used to air on Doordarshan in the late 90s), which was hosted by Sachin Pilgaonkar. The show was shot at the Film City in Noida. One peculiar thing that I noticed was that there was this one guy who’d prompt the audience members to applaud in certain situations. My sister’s team came in the last place.” –Not_average_lurker
8. “I was in the audience at the SaReGaMaPa semi-finals in 2005. I was psyched about getting to attend a reality show in person. It was at Mahalaxmi Studios in Mumbai and we got to meet with judges. Himesh Reshammiya chatted with us in a cool manner and he was a big star back then. Talking about the show, there was an opening song by all the participants and that was the most fake performance I had ever seen. The song was pre-recorded and they were lip-syncing to it – the director had to cut it 3 times and re-do the whole sequence all over again 3 times. I did not trust any reality show after that experience.“ –pvcalculator
9. “The thing you need to know about reality shows is that they are scripted and dramatic. Most of the performances judged by judges, as shown on TV, have the producers’ say in it and sometimes, even winners are selected based on the producer’s merit. If a TV reality show has a public voting system, it is just to attract the spectators and stick them to watch. But, you have fun out there. It is more difficult in the audition as some of the performances are not even taped.” –throwaway_reality
10. “Many years back I was on KBC, in the audience. Amitabh Bachchan is a super-disciplined man. No BS thrown around. The 1-hour episode we see on TV was shot in just 2 hours, with no tantrums or any extra makeup session or anything. There is a ‘Laughter Applause’ and ‘Clapping’ banner with lights behind them. So, when one of them glows, the audience needs to do that, either collectively applause or clap. We were also given food (proper thali) after the episode was shot.” –iphone4Suser
11. “I knew a guy who was on MTV Stuntmania and he said the entire thing was scripted. A shoot schedule was given to them a day prior to shooting. These guys were supposedly the best stunters in the country. When in reality, they were just average guys who could somewhat pull a wheelie or do a stopie – nothing great. The best part was that none of the eliminated people left. They all stayed together for the entire time and just went off-camera.” –dudes_indian
12. “I went as the audience on KBC once. It was not an extremely pleasant experience – 6 hours from entering the building to leaving it. Senior AB’s a cool guy, he has his own photographer who takes photos of him with the audience and they upload it online later.” –LazyCouchPotato
Well, the show looks more fun and real on our television sets!