I’m sure everyone has at least one or two reality TV shows they can call their ‘guilty pleasure.’ I’ve gone through quite a few myself over the years, some of which have been absolutely insane.
Most of the shows I’m going to tell you about here, I found through random niche rabbit holes of information I’ve dived into over the years. Whether that be through a small actor’s filmography, or a passing comment from an episode of a podcast that ended a decade ago.
Now, I want to be clear, I’m not necessarily recommending all of these shows. But these shows are just some of the wildest I’ve heard of that might give you something to laugh at with your friends on a fun night.
King of the Nerds
King of the Nerds is an American reality TV show where nerds, geeks, and dorks alike were brought together to compete for the title of “King of the Nerds,” as well as a $100,000 cash prize.
The challenges in question jump from random niche topic to random niche topic every episode. Some challenges call for decoding ciphers, others touch on comic book trivia: coding, math, RPGS, cosplay, engineering, and performance battles like dancing.
This one is definitely the least weird on our list by concept, but some moments of this show definitely make it worth watching. This show can be one of the most cringy experiences you’ve ever had at times. But then there were some parts where I was practically on the ground laughing (mostly at how cringy it is).
This show is one of the ones I actually do recommend watching on this list. If you find humor in cringe, check this one out.
Bridalplasty
Bridalplasty is an American reality TV show where 12 bride-to-be’s compete to win a wedding, as well as tons of plastic surgery.
Once again, another immensely cringy show, but man, does this one have shock value at times. For some background, the way this show worked is that every contestant went in with a plastic surgery ‘wish-list,’ and the winner of each week’s challenge would win one of their surgeries, with the winner of the whole competition having their entire list covered.
Some of these challenges ranged from matching/remembering their partners’ wedding vows, to designing the best bridal bouquet, to working with their future mothers-in-law on personal trivia.
Another detail worth noting is that the husband of the winner of this competition didn’t get to see the ‘new look’ until the day of their wedding!?
This show is a trip, full of catty drama and cringeworthy laughs. Once again, if you enjoy cringe, check this one out.
Game of Clones
Game of Clones is an American reality TV show that was based on a British reality TV show with the same name. The American version stars various single people picking out their celebrity crush. The show runners then picked out and made up seven ‘clones’ of that celebrity, leaving nothing but their personalities to choose from.
This show is absolutely terrible. To be fair, I’ve only seen two episodes of this one, but I will say that they were hard to get through. Though this might be a fun show to pull out with your friends to laugh at and make fun of on a party night, but other than that I wouldn’t waste your time with it.
This show is kinda gross in some ways, but it is fun to laugh at at times. But if you’re interested in finding these singles’ “one and only”s then don’t let me be the one that stops you.
Black. White.
These last two are where we cross a line. These two shows are some of the wildest concepts, come to life in a way that probably never should have.
Black. White. It is an American reality TV show from the early 2000s that only has six episodes. The show revolves around a white family from California, the Wurgels, and a black family from Georgia, the Sparkses, swapping lives. On paper, this doesn’t sound that bad, until you find out that the show goes out of its way to put the Sparkses in white makeup, and the Wurgels in black.
I have a lot to say about this show, but the gist of it is: shock value. The show presents itself as an introspective piece, teaching us insights into the lives of the opposite race while profiting on the drama that stirs between a black family and a white family arguing over racial language.
I can’t lie, some parts of this show did have me laughing, but mostly out of shock more than anything. This show made me feel all sorts of things in only six episodes, but frustration was a recurring one for sure.
If you enjoy getting angry at TV or find shock humor to be just your thing, go ahead and check this one out. Otherwise, I recommend just avoiding it altogether.
Naked Attraction
Now for what I would probably call the WEIRDEST show on this list:
Naked Attraction is a British dating reality TV show that ran for eight years, starting in 2016. The show centers around a single, clothed person who’s looking for love. Six concealed stages stand around our bachelor(ette), and as rounds of the show go on, more and more of the suitors’ naked bodies are revealed to them.
This show is an insane ride. I first discovered it at a friend’s house where we were having a small house party. A couple of drinks in, my friend decided he wanted to show the party ‘this funny gameshow he found.’ Needless to say, we were all a bit taken aback when we all got flashed partway through the first episode (how we all made it through the first part of that episode without realizing where it was going is still beyond me).
To this day, that’s the only half of an episode I’ve seen of this show; however, when writing this article, I discovered it has seven seasons?! How a show like this managed to maintain enough of an audience to go on for seven seasons is wild.
I can’t say whether or not I recommend watching this show, as I really haven’t seen it myself. If you think you’d find enjoyment in this show, then more power to you; by all means. Clearly, it has had a pretty strong British audience over the years, so it must have some charm.
Conclusion
There are a TON of wild reality TV shows out there, but these were just some that stood out to me over the years. I hope you got to add a couple to your watch-list. I also hope that you got to add some to your avoid-at-all-costs list.
If there are any crazy, wild reality TV shows that you know of that I missed, then feel free to throw them out there. I’m sure there are dozens of wild worlds of reality TV that I’ve never even heard of, so please give me some crazy recommendations!
