Reality TV has become a monstrously popular genre of television in the last few decades. The success of the style has only gotten bigger and bigger, to the point where there are limitless options for reality TV fans to choose from.
But there is one show that started it all. In 1992, MTV began airing The Real World, the series from which every other reality TV show was born. And although the popularity of The Real World has waned, many current reality offerings still take their cues from The Real World's original template.
Giving Mainstream Stars A Start
While it's still difficult to break into the mainstream entertainment industry even if someone gets a lot of exposure on a hit reality TV show, reality TV has been the starting point for quite a few legitimate celebrities.
The Real World is no different, as it often attracted roommates that wanted to break into the entertainment industry. And a fair number of them, including The Real World: Back To New York's Mike "The Miz" Mizanin and The Real World: San Diego's Jamie Chung are famous and successful in their own right.
Taking The Stars To A New Place
Whether it's a stunning tropical locale like fans would see in Survivor or it's a house that the housemates literally cannot escape like Big Brother, The Real World created the standard operating procedure of taking a cast and putting them in a completely new environment.
This can have a multitude of effects on the people being filmed as well, introducing them to a strange place can both be intimidating and liberating, which is why it's such a solid reality TV staple.
Using A Different Cast For Every Season
Although not every reality TV series followed The Real World's lead, a huge portion of shows never has the same exact cast twice. Even with shows like Survivor or The Challenge that brings back old players multiple times, it's never an identical lineup to any other season of the show.
This seems completely counterintuitive to the standard, as fictionalized TV shows almost always focus on the same cast of characters, meaning that The Real World truly did change the game.
Having It's Cast Live Together
It's one thing to collect a group of strangers and see what happens when they interact, but it's completely different when those strangers have to live together.
Much of the explosive, dramatic aspects of reality TV are driven by the fact that the cast literally cannot escape each other, so The Real World had a stroke of genius when they realized how interesting and dynamic filming seven real people figuring out how to live together could be.
Isolating The Cast From Everyone They Know
It might be morally dubious, but a big driving force behind the entertainment value that a lot of reality TV has is the fact that its stars are really stressed out.
And yet another way in which any social experiment-focused television mimicked The Real World is that it brought a variety of people together who had never met, and it prevented most of the roommates from any prolonged contact with the people they did know, really forcing relationships to develop between their subjects.
Finding Stars From All Walks Of Life
It's not just enough to find a few random people walking down the street and record them to see what happens. What made The Real World so good and a way in which many reality TV shows followed suit is that they intentionally chose roommates who were radically different from one another.
The show forced everyone to learn to live with each other's differences and made a lot of people who wouldn't naturally understand one another discover what life is like in different people's shoes.
Putting The Cast Through Life-Changing Experiences
The Real World itself evolved a lot over the course of its many seasons, but one key element of the show as a whole has been putting the roommates through experiences that they would never have before or again.
Obviously living in the house was a life-changer in itself, but they also often sent the entire cast on trips and assigned them to certain jobs in their cities to make it a more well-rounded experience.
Intentionally Casting People With Conflicting Views
The United States isn't called a melting pot for nothing. The entire country is full of people with different backgrounds, beliefs, social and political views, and lifestyles.
And one way that The Real World and many other reality TV shows tried to make their material more interesting is by casting people whose views are in direct opposition to one another. Seeing people with specific ideas or prejudices that are then challenged or changed through the experience is a cornerstone of reality TV.
Filming Cast 24/7
Obviously, real life is never as thrilling as a TV show that condenses a ton of entertainment into an hour typically is. But, since castmates on The Real World and shows of its ilk are with each other all the time, it only makes sense to film them all the time too.
The series typically documents every minute of every day both with crews and cameras set up in the house, which also means that every interesting thing that happens is always caught on tape.
Tackling Real Social Issues
What likely really put The Real World and all other reality TV on the map is that it covered serious and important issues that many people were dealing with but never saw represented on television before.
Whether it's race, sex, gender identity, political views, human rights, or any other thing that truly mattered to people, it was often showcased on The Real World. And now many reality TV shows don't just feature social issues, but some are even built around confronting social issues.