Britney “Tiger” Morano, Tiffany “New York” Patterson, Abigail “Red Oyster” Kintanar, and Jesselynn “Wire” Desmond from ‘Flavor of Love’ | KMazur/
Considering that it ran for a full 15 years, from 2003 to 2018, reality show America’s Next Top Model was hardly without its fair share of controversies. From models being compelled to undergo cosmetic procedures to remain in the contest to fat-shaming scandals, perilous photoshoots, and even race-swapping makeovers, the show made quite a few questionable choices over its original run—so much so, in fact, that it sparked a recent three-part retrospective documentary on Netflix.
But Top Model was by no means alone in sparking controversy, as during the genre’s boom in the early 2000s, TV schedules were filled with increasingly provocative (and often downright bizarre) reality TV shows.
ARE YOU HOT?
One of the lowest-rated television shows on IMDB, as its title suggests Are You Hot? The Search for America’s Hottest People was a six-episode ABC reality show from 2003 in which hopeful contestants had their physical attractiveness judged (and often rudely critiqued) by a panel of experts, including supermodel Rachel Hunter and actor Lorenzo Lamas.
Talent and personality meant nothing, as the show was purely based on looks. Perhaps understandably, it was canceled after a single six-episode season.
ARMED & FAMOUS
A number of popular reality shows, from Dancing With the Stars to the UK iteration of Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen, have been built around famous faces training in or learning how to do various new skills or occupations.
CBS reality show Armed & Famous perhaps took that one step too far in 2007 when five celebrities—including La Toya Jackson and Jack Osbourne—trained as reserve police officers in Indiana, eventually going out on patroland officially graduating as gun-carrying officers. The show was pulled from schedules after just a handful of episodes.
BEAUTY AND THE GEEK
Female “beauties” and male “geeks” were paired up and made to take part in a string of challenges in Ashton Kutcher’s Beauty and the Geek, which originally ran on The WB from 2005 to 2008. Although cancelled in the U.S., the show has nonetheless sparked a franchise worldwide.
The Discovery Channel’s Big!was a short-lived 2004 show in which teams of experts would be gigantic, yet fully functioning, versions of everyday gadgets and objects—from treadmills and vacuum cleaners, to cuckoo clocks and electric guitars.
THE BIGGEST LOSER
Initially broadcast on NBC from 2004–2016, The Biggest Loserwas a ratings favorite at its peak, but questions were routinely raised over the controversial techniques involved (including an infamous accusation of illicit weight-loss drug taking that eventually led to an investigation by the LA County Sheriff).
CHANGING ROOMS
Discovery’s long-running Emmy-nominated home decoration show Trading Spaces was actually the U.S. version of the earlier British reality TV favorite Changing Rooms, which was first broadcast back in 1996, and ran until 2004.
Both versions followed the same straightforward premise: two sets of neighbors were given a small budget and 48 hours to entirely redecorate a room in one another’s houses. Not all the renovations quite went to plan, however, with a particularly memorable British episode in 2000 seeing a contestant’s prized £6,000 teapot collection smashed to pieces when some avant-garde suspended shelving collapsed.
FAT FAMILIES
Like a British version of The Biggest Loser, Sky’s Fat Families in 2010 saw straight-talking weight-loss guru Steve Miller spending 24 hours with an overweight family, before giving them the advice and routine needed to get them in shape. Miller’s no-nonsense, fat-shaming approach to encouraging the contestants caused controversy, however, and the show was ultimately cancelled after just two series.
FLAVOR OF LOVE
Surely one of the strangest dating shows of the 2000s, Flavor of Love, broadcast from 2006–2008, saw Public Enemy rapper Flavor Flav playing The Bachelorwith three seasons’ worth of romantic hopefuls vying to become his new girlfriend.
HOME ON THEIR OWN
Another short-lived British reality show, just two seasons of Home on Their Own were broadcast from 2002–03. The show involved children being given full control over the redecoration of their parents’ home, while their parents were temporarily moved out of the house while the work when on unsupervised.
What could possibly go wrong? Well, indoor slides, Narnia-themed bedrooms, and a voice-controled robotic toilet were among the kids’ many innovations.
I WANNA MARRY “HARRY”
The quotation marks are important in the title of this 2014 Fox reality show, which followed twelve romantically hopeful young women who were actively manipulated into believing they were competing to be Prince Harry’s next girlfriend. It was essentially a royal version of the next entry on this list.
JOE MILLIONAIRE
Three seasons of Joe Millionaire—in which a group of single women compete for the affections of an “average Joe” they are coerced into believing is a millionaire—were broadcast on Fox in 2003. Despite its controversial manipulation of its contestants, the show was revived in 2022.
MAKING THE BAND
A string of reality shows in the 2000s focused on launching new pop acts, but MTV’s Making the Band was perhaps the most controversial (not least due to the involvement of Sean “Diddy” Combs).
Chief among its issues were accusations of sexism, and increasingly bizarre and demeaning set of “challenges” that seemed to have little to do with getting into the music industry: One episode famously involved Diddy demanding the members of one prospective band go fetch him a slice of cheesecake, leading to them walking five miles to the closest store in the middle of the night.
PARENTAL CONTROL
MTV dating show Parental Control, which ran from 2006–2010, involved the contestants’ disapproving parents choosing two new potential dates for their son or daughter. If that doesn’t sound too controversial, the show’s twist was that the son or daughter were already attached, and their current partner was also involved in watching proceedings as their boyfriend or girlfriend actively dated two other people selected by their parents.
The show ended with the contestant deciding whether to remain with their current partner, or dump them and move on to one of the dates chosen by their parents.
PETE’S PA
The Pete in question here was new wave band Dead or Alive frontman, the late Pete Burns, who was best known for his global hit “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” in 1985. After taking part in a celebrity series of Big Brotherin 2006, however, Burns became something of a reality TV stalwart, leading to a short-lived 2007 reality show on Living TV in the UK, Pete’s PA.
Like a low-budged version of The Apprentice, the show involved a group of hopefuls taking part in various challenges over the course of 10 weeks, competing against one another to become Burns’s new personal assistant. Unlike The Apprentice, however, the challenges were somewhat bizarre, and included everything from contestant’s having their tidiness of their bedrooms critiqued to team-building exercises involving retrieving ping pong balls from drainpipes.
ROCK OF LOVE WITH BRET MICHAELS
Like a hard rock version of The Flavor of Love, VH1 reality dating show Rock of Love, which ran for three seasons from 2007–09, saw Poison lead singer Bret Michaels look for a new girlfriend among a group of hopeful single women. The show was a ratings hit, but perhaps understandably had its fair share ofbizarre and controversial moments.
ROOM RAIDERS
Plenty of reality dating shows put a spin on the blind date format, but Room Raiders’ was perhaps the strangest. Three contestants (originally Tulane students) vying for the attention of a fellow singleton have their dorm rooms inspected (or “raided”). He or she then makes a choice based on the contestants’ rooms which one they would like to date.
SUN, SEX AND SUSPICIOUS PARENTS
If you have memories from your first vacation without your parents that you’d really rather they knew nothing about, then this one will sound like a nightmare. The BBC’sSun, Sex and Suspicious Parents, firstbroadcastin 2011, saw teens and twentysomethings going on their first boys’ or girls’ holiday abroad with their friends, presuming that they’re far removed from the watchful eyes of their parents.
But in fact, their parents were on exactly the same vacation—and what’s more, they were privy to absolutely everything their kids were getting up to, thanks to hidden camera footage and covert recordings. Although a ratings favorite, the controversialshow was branded “obnoxious” by some critics.
THE SWAN
Makeover shows were all the rage in the 2000s, but The Swan was arguably the most extreme. Far from merely updating contestants’ hair and wardrobe, the show went all out with self-proclaimed “ugly duckling” contestants often enduring a number of cosmetic and dental procedures in quick succession to ensure they were fully transformed in time for the show’s pageant finale.
WHAT NOT TO WEAR
BBC 2000s fashion show What Not To Wear saw two style gurus and journalists, Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine, all but ambushing an unsuspecting contestant who had been nominated by their friends, and whisking them away for a makeover. (One episode even saw the duo interrupting a church service and giving a makeover to a female vicar.)
The hosts soon became known for their uncompromising, and often hands-on approach to styling the contestants, with their straight-talking commentary and advice frequently bordering on insulting.
10 YEARS YOUNGER
Another British makeover show of the 2000s, 10 Years Younger saw style journalist Nicky Hambleton-Jones updating the looks (and often, teeth) of a typically dowdy contestant, with the help of a panel of expert stylists and cosmetic surgeons.
The show’s title, however, was built around a rather humiliating conceit: at the beginning of each episode, the contestant was made to stand in public while passersby guessed their age based solely on their appearance, with the subsequent makeover intended for lower this public age by 10 years. The show is now one of many that are proving popular on social media, with TikTokers and YouTubers reacting to the show’s often hostile and controversial approach to their contestants.
