Nudity in Reality TV

Is it any surprise that there seems to be a whole lot of nudity in reality TV?

Reality TV producers would love it if the general public actually believed that everything they show on TV is real. They would (and did for a little while) have everyone believe that there are no retakes, no do-overs because the cameraman didn't catch a fight or some drama going down between housemates the first time. Just as they ask the stars of these shows to repeat arguments and other scenes, you can bet they ask them to repeat nude scenes they didn't catch the first time. After all, people in real life get naked, so why not have nudity in reality TV? An unfortunate - but nonetheless true - fact is that sex sells and reality television producers know this all too well. Not that nudity automatically equals something sexual - people get nude to take showers and get dressed - but that type of nudity certainly isn't the kind they portray in the teaser commercials.

On shows where you put men and women together like Big Brother, The Real World and Rock of Love someone's bound to get naked, especially when plied with alcohol. Viewers are left to wonder if these people forget they're on national television or if they're simply exhibitionists to the reality TV watching public's voyeurism. It is a good thing these shows aren't live or the viewing public would see a whole lot more of the guests they may not want to see. All the naughty bits of the guests on reality TV that choose to bare it all is taken care of in editing.

Reality show guests that have been portrayed as hooking up have complained (maybe a bit too much) that a certain scene "didn't go down like that." They claim that the whole scene happened completely differently and the two didn't get naked or didn't have a tryst in a hot tub with a couple of the other housemates. Stars of these shows blame the editors for making the scenes look a little bit more juicy than they really were. Well, of course they did! It's all about the ratings. It is television after all.

If you want to find the unedited versions of your favorite reality shows, there are a few places in which you can find a few links to these scenes:

• Reality Blurred
• Reality TV Scoop

Of course there is always YouTube. Everything gets posted on YouTube including nude scenes from reality television shows. Some shows also have live, unedited feeds of episodes aired on a different cable channel like Big Brother After Dark.

According to a 2002 study done by the Parental Television Council called Harsh Reality, nudity is the "second most common type of sexual content on reality TV shows" and that Big Brother and The Surreal Life were the worst offenders. Given that both these shows are ratings successes, it can be assumed that there may be a strong correlation between nudity and sexual innuendo and ratings. Here are a few other interesting findings according to the study:

• The WB and UPN have the most offensive content of all non-cable reality programs.
• Reality shows on UPN contain the most sexual content.
• Verbal sexual references increased 373% from the time the study began in 2001 to the time it was published in 2002.

There are a whole host of new reality TV programs every year. Some make it and some don't, but if the trends of increased sexual content, nudity and foul language continue as they have been you can expect to see more skin and hear more bad language in upcoming reality TV shows. Maybe taking your clothes off and swearing is really what happens when "…people stop being polite and start getting real."

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