Fake, fake, fake

June 14, 2012 10:48 AM

The rest of the world is just figuring out what we already knew about House Hunters.

I love when we know stuff first.

posted by Sweetie Darling to MetaFilter-Related at 10:48 AM (133 comments total)

I thought the same thing when my guy pointed this story out to me.
posted by patheral at 10:49 AM on June 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

My mother sent me an e-mail last night completely astonished by this revelation and all I could think was, "Geez, mom, we've known about this for like, a whole day already. Get with the program."
posted by backseatpilot at 10:55 AM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

...because, of course, I swear I read something on Metafilter just the other day about the show using the family's friends' homes as the "comparison" properties on one episode and I can't find it for the life of me now.
posted by backseatpilot at 10:57 AM on June 14, 2012

That was in the blog post that started the furor (to which we all said, duh): "the ones we looked at weren't even for sale. … They were just our two friends' houses who were nice enough to madly clean for days in preparation for the cameras!"
posted by Sweetie Darling at 11:04 AM on June 14, 2012

I have broken many a fan's heart by relaying that information to them.
posted by Think_Long at 11:05 AM on June 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

This does not sound like the network ethic that HGTV general manager Kathleen Finch told Slate's June Thomas about in a February interview, during which she defended HGTV as “a network of journalistic storytelling, not dramatic storytelling,” claiming that producers are “very conscious of not allowing any kind of fake drama.”

A friend of mine was in a "reality" TV show recently, as a ringer; they set up a story for him, he acted it out as though he was just some guy off the street, and the makers of the show were basically using him as a puppet.

The "main characters" of the show, though (hypothetically: if the show in my friend's example was Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, the helpful gay men; or if the show was Antiques Roadshow, the appraisers), they didn't know my friend was a ringer. They just thought he was some dude. Nor did the network folk know this was how the production company was operating (which, according to my friend, is par for the course in "reality" TV).

So apparently at some point some network bigwig came to check out the shoot, and my friend and the producers all had to pretend like he hadn't been called specifically by one of the show's producers to play the part of an "everyday guy", given a rough script of things to say, etc.

This made me super fucking mad, incidentally, 'cause I thought the nature of the script had some fucked-up gender dynamics that the show tried to portray as "Just The Way A Regular Dude Is" instead of an actively-scripted set of gender-norms that the producers thought would play well within the context of the story.

Anyway, regarding the quote I put up there from Kathleen Finch: It may well be the case that Ms. Finch had no idea this was how the production company operates, which makes the current backpedalling even funnier.

After my friend was on the show, I was like, "WHO CAN I TELL ABOUT THIS" and he was like, "Tell anyone you want!" and then paused and said, "No, wait. You know too many people on the internet. That could come back to haunt me. You... you can't tell them." So the show and the friend and the specific details are here going unnamed.
posted by Greg Nog at 11:08 AM on June 14, 2012 [27 favorites]

Greg Nog: "So the show and the friend and the specific details are here going unnamed."

How about just the show??
posted by Grither at 11:10 AM on June 14, 2012

I love when we know stuff first.

It's not a game or a race.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:18 AM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Safe to assume Greg Nog's example applies to ALL OF THEM.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:20 AM on June 14, 2012 [10 favorites]

And did you know that The Real World is also partially staged?

The producers shrug off skeptics who say the show is staged. ''I take it as a compliment,'' says creator Murray. ''That says it's so good they can't believe it's real.'' Says Verschoor, ''If that was the case, these guys should get Emmys for their performances.''

posted by filthy light thief at 11:20 AM on June 14, 2012

I have broken many a fan's heart by relaying that information to them.

Ever since I read the original MeFi comment I have actively bitten my tongue several times to avoid spoiling the fun to my parents cause they really really like the show and like arguing about which house they'd buy and what they'd do with it. I think deep down they know it's all dramatized, but I bet it would take the fun out of it for them if I told them "the houses aren't even for sale, and the folks already own that one."
posted by nathancaswell at 11:28 AM on June 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

I went to my hometown recently and watched a few episodes with my Internet-free mother, who pointed out to me that you can almost always tell which house they will choose because it's the one with no furniture in it (since they've already bought it and the original owners have moved out). Good thinkin' there, mom.
posted by Bookhouse at 11:38 AM on June 14, 2012 [13 favorites]

It actually makes me feel better that reality TV is actively faked because I can maintain my illusion that humans are that stupid and drama-queeny.
posted by DU at 11:38 AM on June 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

aren't.
posted by DU at 11:38 AM on June 14, 2012

it really kind of works both ways.
posted by verb at 11:44 AM on June 14, 2012 [8 favorites]

I don't like non-reality being presented as reality. But ever since I read the referenced AskMe, I have to say, it has not dampened my enjoyment of House Hunters one bit.

If anything, my wife and I enjoy it a little more, especially when there is obvious over-acting. Plus, don't forget to play the "granite countertop" drinking game!
posted by The Deej at 11:45 AM on June 14, 2012 [7 favorites]

Someone I used to work for was interviewed as an 'expert' related to a breaking news story. He was picked because he buys ad time on the local affiliate. For the 'man on the street' reactions, the producer grabbed a couple of employees of my former boss and interviewed them on the street facing different directions, so as to look random. They each paraphrased some crap that would be a common reaction from an actual 'man on the street'.

This was from an award winning local television 'journalist'. So I left that job and will never trust television again (if i ever did). All TV production exists only to keep your eyes pointed at it.
posted by readery at 11:47 AM on June 14, 2012 [9 favorites]

If you're not the reality TV star, you're the product being sold.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:50 AM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Fake, fake, fake

He's not Beetlejuice y'know.
posted by arcticseal at 11:50 AM on June 14, 2012 [10 favorites]

Ever since reading this, my husband and I are like 100% correct when guessing which house they'll pick. If there are two furnished houses and one unfurnished (and there usually are) they will always pick the unfurnished house, since of course they already bought it and the old owner's crap is already moved out.
posted by that's how you get ants at 11:51 AM on June 14, 2012

Also I never knew how many people demanded fucking granite countertops until I saw House Hunters. "Well, it's in the perfect location, under our price, but I really wanted the granite countertops . . ."
posted by Think_Long at 11:52 AM on June 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

I was in line at the airport behind the son of a famous poker player who is often on the WSoP etc (same uncommon name). I struck up a conversation with him and one of the first things he said was "my dad is nothing like he's portrayed on TV". So even in that arena there's a bunch of stuff cobbled together for ratings/drama.
posted by Nabubrush at 11:54 AM on June 14, 2012

Worse than the granite counters is the inevitable walk in closet joke: "But where will your clothes go, honey?"
posted by that's how you get ants at 11:54 AM on June 14, 2012 [10 favorites]

Plus, don't forget to play the "granite countertop" drinking game!

Worse than the granite counters is the inevitable walk in closet joke: "But where will your clothes go, honey?"

My favorite House Hunters game is trying to decide which couples have divorced by the time their episode airs.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:00 PM on June 14, 2012 [23 favorites]

Wait, I'm supposed hate granite countertops now? And I never even got to try them!
posted by DU at 12:00 PM on June 14, 2012

They're great with bacon on them.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:00 PM on June 14, 2012 [6 favorites]

Also I never knew how many people demanded fucking granite countertops until I saw House Hunters. "Well, it's in the perfect location, under our price, but I really wanted the granite countertops . . ."

I suspect that the high demand for granite countertops is manufactured by the producers.

PRODUCER: Does the house you bought have granite countertops?
POTENTIAL PARTICIPANT: No.
PRODUCER: Next!

---

Upon finding someone who does have granite countertops...

PRODUCER: OK, this next house we're looking at meets literally all of your criteria, arguably more so than the house you actually bought. But there are no granite countertops, so let's use that as your reason for turning it down.
PARTICIPANT: That seems kind of stupid...
PRODUCER: Do you want your $500 and 15 minutes of fame or not?

---

I mean, it probably doesn't go down exactly like that, but the show always strikes me as a bit aspirational, even as it claims to portray normal people looking for "normal" houses, so I can see the producers playing up silly things like granite countertops and walk-in closest because, hey, those things are expensive and therefore everyone must aspire to them!
posted by asnider at 12:02 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Deej: "I don't like non-reality being presented as reality. But ever since I read the referenced AskMe, I have to say, it has not dampened my enjoyment of House Hunters one bit."

Exactly. I don't watch it for the drama, I watch it for the real estate. It doesn't even matter that much to me that the asking prices are not genuine. I'm not going to be using HHI to generate my comps when I go to buy my vacation villa in Croatia, but it is interesting to know what kind of prices a certain kind of home can command in unfamiliar parts of the country/world.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:03 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

...said they'd pay them $500 for the troubles, contingent on their episode actually airing.

Wow, that seems like a crazy bad deal for five days of filming (nevermind that they didn't even get paid). How does this get around SAG type regulations? It's labeled "Reality" so even though they're basically improvising through a storyline given to them by a director they don't get covered?
posted by ODiV at 12:07 PM on June 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

My favorite House Hunters game is trying to decide which couples have divorced by the time their episode airs.

All of the couples featured on Real Housewives of DC have since divorced.
posted by OmieWise at 12:11 PM on June 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

I think an awesome idea for a reality show would be to ambush other reality show hosts through unrelated though a similarly invasive type of program.

"Welcome, hosts from What Not to Wear. I appreciate you showing up today to give me fashion advice, but how about instead we take an in depth look at your finances? I've taken the liberty of getting your current credit card and bank account statements and... Hey, where are you going? This is really serious, you guys! I'm just trying to help!"
posted by ODiV at 12:12 PM on June 14, 2012 [18 favorites]

What Not to Invest. Nice. Can we maybe put some bankers on that one, too?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:14 PM on June 14, 2012

I bet it would take the fun out of it for them if I told them

I wouldn't worry about it. I've known since the original comment here (and I suspected long before that) and I still watch the hell out of that show. It's like crack for a perpetual apartment dwelling renter like myself.
posted by JaredSeth at 12:14 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

IIRC, the producers of "Ice Road Truckers" found trucker Dave Redmon's rambling youtube videos, and thought he would be an ideal candidate for providing some "conflict" on the show. He was. And now, he's posted new rambling youtube videos on how fake the show is (they spliced in comments that he made in unrelated situations, for example). A very fascinating character.
posted by Melismata at 12:15 PM on June 14, 2012

I appreciate you showing up today to give me fashion advice, but how about instead we take an in depth look at your finances?

Even better would be a meta-reality show. "These men and women think they are going to be producing a reality show but in fact they are the subjects!"

"I'm not here to tell people to say they aren't here to make friends! I'm here to tell people to win!"
posted by DU at 12:15 PM on June 14, 2012 [9 favorites]

The great thing behind these ideas is that you can get reality show hosts to sign the releases and contracts ahead of time.

"It states clearly in your contract that you are to perform in two 'themed' episodes a year."
posted by ODiV at 12:22 PM on June 14, 2012

ODiV: the participants aren't in SAG, so their rules don't apply, and yes, slapping "Reality" on it is exactly for that purpose. Reality as a "genre" was the result of guild strikes (SAG and WGA).
posted by Navelgazer at 12:23 PM on June 14, 2012 [4 favorites]

There was a story on The Moth podcast a few months ago (and apparently they don't archive this stuff, so I can't find a link) that was told by a reality TV producer. Her story revolved around a fashion-designing show where people would get voted off every week (Design Star or something like that), and how she was asked by her bosses to basically fabricate a love interest between two of the contestants. It was really fascinating how she explained trying to very subtly hint to the guy during the "confessional" interviews that, hey, if you don't start pretending to be interested in this girl you're going to be kicked off the show.

Anyway, if you can find the episode it's well worth listening to.
posted by backseatpilot at 12:23 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

All of the couples featured on Real Housewives of DC have since divorced.

I'd like to imagine some sort of coordinated, group effort. Like Spitfires flying in formation.
posted by griphus at 12:25 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Navelgazer: Yeah, I know they're not in SAG, I was just wondering how they're not required to be as it seems as though they're pretty much acting while taking direction (and really should probably get some writing credits too). Then again, with Hollywood accounting the way it is I'm not sure why I'd figure TV should be any different when it comes to trying to screw everyone out of their due.
posted by ODiV at 12:25 PM on June 14, 2012

One or two shows and you realize that the wood floor and gas range people are swagging the staff. I am sorry that there are people who believe that reality shows aren't scripted. Is this a failure of our schools or their parents to insist on logical analytical thinking?
posted by Cranberry at 12:29 PM on June 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

My favorite moment from watching a reality show film was the producers yelling "ok, good, now come back and trashtalk more"... three times. And that one didn't last, maybe because it was too low-drama. If they'd just write a script and pay some actors, it might be more entertaining (and realistic?).
posted by ldthomps at 12:32 PM on June 14, 2012

The weird thing about this is that they don't even have to do it - the wildly popular UK shows "homes under the hammer" and "escape to the country" are both up front about how they're staged, and they still air about 7000 times a month, each.

Homes under the Hammer only films properties after they've been bought and releases signed by the buyer. In the intro segment to each property, they talk about the auctions in the past tense - 'let's see who went for this one when it went under the hammer!'. They also end up with about 1/4 of the properties on the show as renovation or resale failures, because even buyers confident enough to sign a release on auction day -usually professional developers or tradesmen - fail a lot.

Escape to the Country so rarely ends with a sale or even an offer made on any featured property that it's kind of a running joke. The show is up front about the fact that participants may want to move, but most are only looking speculatively. It's impossible to watch more than one episode without realizing that most participants will never buy a country home.

Both shows are so popular here that they air on three separate networks. If you want, you an watch something like 6 episodes of Homes Under the Hammer per day...so lying clearly isn't the only way to get people into house-renovation shows.
posted by Wylla at 12:37 PM on June 14, 2012

I was in a hospital emergency room waiting area one night, when I overheard some redneck trailer park reject exclaim the following into his cellphone:

"Ammo beon Jerry Springer!!!"

True story.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:38 PM on June 14, 2012 [5 favorites]

I have heard an editor tell great stories about "reality" show producers and their big arguments with the "talent" over product placement.

Use this drill.
No, that drill sucks.
Use it they are paying for it.
Okay but I am not plugging it in.
(edit in sound of power drill over shot of dude holding drill)
posted by M Edward at 12:38 PM on June 14, 2012 [7 favorites]

How does this get around SAG type regulations?

I have been arguing that SAG-AFTRA and the WGA should cover reality for a long time (and pro wrestling.) they don't move fast though. SAG-AFTRA literally just signed their first contract covering all mysic videos with the major manufacturers.

I posted a while ago about my experiences on Instant Fashion Show, or whatever that show was called. There wasn't an ounce of reality in it, except that I accidentally voted for another girl, instead of my girlfriend.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 12:46 PM on June 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

Pretty soon, we'll be finding out that RuPaul has an identical twin sister. WAKE UP SHEEPLE!

Okay. I can't do this. Really, I can't. Ru's a class act. His show is cheesy and saccharine as hell, he knows it, and yet he puts 110% into each and every episode. At that, he appears to love every minute of it. All that aside, Ru is one of the only queens I've ever met to look equally fantastic as both a man and a woman, much less at 51 years of age...
posted by schmod at 12:58 PM on June 14, 2012 [9 favorites]

I think an awesome idea for a reality show would be to ambush other reality show hosts through unrelated though a similarly invasive type of program.

Battle of the Network Stars.

Just show up with cameras and start filming the producer and crew filming the contestants. If the producer or crew make trouble, all the better; film the trouble. Then put it all on Vimeo or YouTube. I'd watch that.

I watch it for the real estate.

I'll watch it for the real estate as well. Most of the real estate is fine enough, I guess, but if I've got to sit through faked drama to get my design porn, then I want spectacular. But I realize that eye-candy isn't even the point of these shows, it's to promote the sponsors as cheaply as possible.

All of the couples featured on Real Housewives of DC have since divorced.

I'm only surprised to learn that none of them devoured their mates after sex.
posted by octobersurprise at 1:11 PM on June 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

I was in line at the airport behind the son of a famous poker player who is often on the WSoP etc (same uncommon name)

Was it Phil Hellmuth? Because while some pro poker players seem to have genuinely abrasive personalities, he has always struck me as just a normal nerdy guy who pretends to be a jerk for the cameras.
posted by burnmp3s at 1:12 PM on June 14, 2012

It's Raining Florence Henderson: "My favorite House Hunters game is trying to decide which couples have divorced by the time their episode airs."

We do that, too, but even more so with House Hunters International. For some reason, that show seems to feature a lot of REALLY ill-matched couples.
posted by Chrysostom at 1:45 PM on June 14, 2012

Jay and Gloria and Manny from Modern Family would be perfect for House Hunters International.
posted by that's how you get ants at 1:59 PM on June 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

Also I never knew how many people demanded fucking granite countertops until I saw House Hunters. "Well, it's in the perfect location, under our price, but I really wanted the granite countertops . . ."

I suspect that the high demand for granite countertops is manufactured by the producers.

I have to say, learning that House Hunters was staged explained a LOT about the stupid requirements people seemed to have for housing. I could not figure out why people would go on and on about the paint colors in a spare bedroom when that's like the easiest, most superficial, cheapest thing to fix, but they never say word one about stuff like the age of the roof or electric systems or whether the master bedroom addition was properly permitted. If you've already bought a house and are comparison-shopping after the fact, it makes a lot more sense that you don't care about anything meaningful and are just judging other people's decor.

Now when I watch, I mainly play drinking games along the lines of "Who wears the pants in this relationship?" and "What gender stereotype will this couple invoke about this house?" ("You'll have fun baking in this kitchen, honey!" "Oh, sweetie, you could put a BIG TV in this man cave!")
posted by Snarl Furillo at 2:09 PM on June 14, 2012 [11 favorites]

Also, we might as well put it out there that Georgetown Cupcakes are terrible.

Mythbusters have also quietly been altering the fundamental laws of the universe for some time now, so that they can create and solve new myths. They almost got caught last year, after Jamie accidentally changed the speed of light for a few hours....
posted by schmod at 2:43 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

I can speak with authority about a certain Picking show being quite fake. Knowing about its fakeness made it even more apparent that its sister show about a pawn shop was also just as fake. Obviously, I want my money back.
posted by scarykarrey at 2:47 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

The pawn shop show had some car eating robot on it the other week, clearly just there to add colour rather than be a serious transaction for the shop.
posted by arcticseal at 2:49 PM on June 14, 2012

its sister show about a pawn shop was also just as fake. Obviously, I want my money back.

I knew from episode one that it was a fake. If you're a professional appraiser, you don't tell the pawn shop owner its value in front of the customer, who of course will want the maximum amount of cash. Watch Antiques Roadshow, people!

No, wait...in the first season, there were a couple of guys who were friends of the appraiser who staged their items. (one was a Civil War gun, I believe.) PBS immediately pulled the two segments and fired the appraiser. But, I still have the originals on VHS, bwa ha ha.

(Rambling, sorry)
posted by Melismata at 2:51 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

The story about the reality show producer pressuring two artists to have a romance is a work of fiction by Rebecca Makkai, who is great. I don't know if she would find it exhilarating or disturbing that so many people remember it as being true.
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:57 PM on June 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

The story about the reality show producer pressuring two artists to have a romance is a work of fiction

So the tell-all anecdote about a reality show producer slyly manipulating the show to be more fictional turns out to itself be fictional? MIND ASPLODE!
posted by nathancaswell at 3:09 PM on June 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Next you're going to tell me that Bath|Yard|House Crashers actually don't do all that work in two days.
posted by chazlarson at 3:10 PM on June 14, 2012

Obviously, I want my money back.

I can give you $2.
posted by curious nu at 3:12 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Antiques Roadshow scandal involved swords! Well, I was shocked.

The best bit about the original AskMe thread was the drinking game. Now, of course, HGTV has House Hunters Bingo, which isn't nearly as fun, but is much healthier.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 3:12 PM on June 14, 2012

I heard Bob Villa was actually a fictional character played by Kenny Rogers.
posted by nathancaswell at 3:12 PM on June 14, 2012 [4 favorites]

WHAT? You mean "reality" shows aren't real? Pass the smelling salts, Martha, a truly shocking revelation has entirely felled me!
posted by Decani at 3:16 PM on June 14, 2012

The story about the reality show producer pressuring two artists to have a romance is a work of fiction by Rebecca Makkai

If that is her real name.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:19 PM on June 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Pass the smelling salts, Martha, a truly shocking revelation has entirely felled me!

Great! Now, can you do it again so we can get it from another angle?
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 3:22 PM on June 14, 2012 [13 favorites]

Obviously, I want my money back.

I can give you $2.


TWO DOLLARS!
posted by scarykarrey at 3:23 PM on June 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Real Estate Intervention better be for real, nahmean?
posted by Renoroc at 3:24 PM on June 14, 2012

My favourite was always Coverage Of People Buying A House And Then Living In It.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:30 PM on June 14, 2012 [8 favorites]

Next you're going to tell me that Bath|Yard|House Crashers actually don't do all that work in two days.

Now you go too far. I'll accept that House Hunters is staged, scripted, faked or whatever, but I will not, cannot, accept that they can't completely remodel a kitchen in two 8-10 hour shifts over two days. I need this to be true, else there is no magic left in the world.

That said, and utterly off-topic, I'm completely, totally, ridiculously in love with Sarah Richardon of "Sarah's House". If I find out her show is fake, too, I will...I don't know. Do something hyperbolic and completely out of proportion to the situation. I swear I will!
posted by malthusan at 3:42 PM on June 14, 2012

Apparently America's Next Top Model is going full-cgi next season.
posted by ODiV at 3:44 PM on June 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

I have broken many a fan's heart by relaying that information to them.

Yeah, I stopped doing that after I saw how sad my friends got when I told them how Storage Wars is staged.
posted by junco at 4:04 PM on June 14, 2012

Storage Wars is not staged!

It's contained.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:09 PM on June 14, 2012 [14 favorites]

On the other hand, Mad Men is the result of an Outside Broadcast van driving into a temporal wormhole on Madison Avenue and HBO trying to make good on their loss by dressing the footage banned back up as a costume drama.
posted by ambrosen at 4:23 PM on June 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

The Three Stooges? Staged.

Hogan's Heroes? Photoshopped.

The only reality show to show things as they really were? Get Smart.
posted by jenkinsEar at 5:01 PM on June 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Now you go too far. I'll accept that House Hunters is staged, scripted, faked or whatever, but I will not, cannot, accept that they can't completely remodel a kitchen in two 8-10 hour shifts over two days. I need this to be true, else there is no magic left in the world.

I was on one of those surprise renovation shows once (as a helpful neighbour, not the homeowner). I don't even remember which one- there was an absolute plague of them during the early 2000s, because they were cheap to produce and we have a local programming quota.

They actually did the work in the time stated, but they achieved it by having five workers for every one they actually showed on screen.

A highlight was walking in on a makeup artist daubing housepaint on the star's face, to make it look like she had wiped sweat off her forehead with paint on her hands.
posted by PercyByssheShelley at 5:19 PM on June 14, 2012 [7 favorites]

For a short while recently, I was sorely tempted to go on a reality show, "Don't Tell the Bride".

The premise of the show is that the groom spends about 4 weeks in isolation from his partner, and organises every single aspect of a wedding. The producers cough up $25,000 to cover the costs.

My pitch was that we would 'elope' to India - no family, friends, buck's or hen's night, no reception etc. The guy casting around for contestants seemed to like the idea, but for me it was just a flimsy pretext to blow $25K on first class flights & a stint in the famous Lake Palace Hotel in Udaipur, with a bit of local Rajasthani colour thrown in, like a faked Hindu ceremony, complete with at least a horse or maybe even an elephant for me to ride in on.

In the end, I never followed up when the guy wanted to discuss it further. I just had too many fears that the producers would ruin my luxury holiday by manufacturing all kinds of faked controversies - like, the samosas would be veg instead of non-veg, or maybe the elephant would be fed laxatives before the ceremony to ensure problems.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:52 PM on June 14, 2012 [8 favorites]

Do you guys remember Junkyard Wars? The show where they seeded the yard with nearly-finished projects beforehand, and where the white building that you could see in the background from certain angles was the back of a big box hardware store?
posted by ceribus peribus at 6:19 PM on June 14, 2012

Kryten would never lie to us!
posted by arcticseal at 6:23 PM on June 14, 2012 [6 favorites]

I keep thinking the florist shop I work at would make a perfect reality show with no script needed. Just this week one delivery driver got arrested....while the delivery truck (with floral deliveries plus his pet Jack Russell still inside) was parked. With the engine running.




That is kinda a normal work week.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 6:42 PM on June 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

Wow, Mitchell and Webb seem to have quite a few "House Annoyers"-or-whatever-this-category-of-shows-is-called sketches. Funny stuff.
posted by DU at 7:10 PM on June 14, 2012

They actually did the work in the time stated, but they achieved it by having five workers for every one they actually showed on screen.

Phew. I can live with that. I sort of expected there would be massive behind-the-scenes support. Not sure why it makes any difference to me. I was just so disillusioned after earning that CSI wasn't actually shot in Las Vegas that I've become oddly fragile and protective of my ignorance.

Also, that's a great story. I've totally smeared paint on my face to make it look like I was working.
posted by malthusan at 7:56 PM on June 14, 2012

Even though I've known for some time that House Hunters is staged doesn't mean I've stopped watching it. I still watch it every day (almost). I have no vested interest in which house the participants will pick (and really? three houses? who looks at three houses when house hunting?). I watch it to feed the inner voyeur in me that wants to peek into other people's windows but can't because it's illegal.

I also like the pawn show but only because I like seeing interesting stuff, same reason I watch Antiques Roadshow.
posted by patheral at 7:56 PM on June 14, 2012

"I've totally smeared paint on my face to make it look like I was working"

I've totally smeared extra words in my comments to make it look like I can write. Bellicose.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 8:04 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Bellicose.

Indeed.
posted by malthusan at 8:20 PM on June 14, 2012

I like House Hunters International because I want to see houses is other countries, not because I’m concerned about those people getting the best house for their money. If you look up any of those shows you will find people talking about things being staged (I saw things about HH years ago). I don’t think it’s really a secret, people don’t really want to know.

I don’t watch any reality shows because I care about what any of the people are doing. The drama is a distraction.
posted by bongo_x at 8:30 PM on June 14, 2012

I am stunned that people do the show for $500. That’s just crazy.
posted by bongo_x at 8:51 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Dude, I just bought a house. I needed the money.
posted by box at 8:55 PM on June 14, 2012

I watch it to feed the inner voyeur in me that wants to peek into other people's windows but can't because it's illegal.

Every weekend (and some weekdays) you can do this just by picking up the real estate pages in your local paper & showing up for house inspections. It's been one of my favourite pastimes for years.

Sadly, the real estate agents in these parts have upped the ante. It used to be quite normal, to be able to walk around looking at people's family photos, music collections, or the contents of their pantries. These days, over 95% of houses on the market seem to be full of rented furniture, put in place by the agencies' stylists. Once upon a time, only the boutique agencies catering to the top end of the market used to do this; now it's almost de rigeur.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:58 PM on June 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

reality tv not actually real. film at 11.
posted by barely legal at 9:23 PM on June 14, 2012

Yeah, the point of House Hunters (and International) is not the houses, it's the HORRIBLE HUMAN BEINGS who plan to live in them. In our house we call them "First World Problems" and "First World Problems, Extra-Whiney Edition."

The woman in this article is an EXCELLENT candidate for "First World Problems," possessing as she does the necessary element of Greek tragedy, the hubris that prevents show participants from seeing their own flaws, leaving us with pretentious and irritating people who are totally clueless that every word out of their mouths drips with entitlement, pretentiousness, or pettiness, who HAPPEN to be house shopping, which is an excellent venue for highlighting status and money anxiety among the pretentious and irritating, and then somehow these people all sign releases because their cluelessness extends to thinking it's a show about house hunting when really it's a show about TERRIBLE PEOPLE that the audience gets to feel superior to.

I can't resist watching it, but it's okay, I'm better than the people on the show, so at least I'm only watching it to disdain them. That makes it okay, right?
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:27 PM on June 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

The film at 11 isn't real, either.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:30 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm shocked, shocked....

Srsly, slate, people who take real-ish teevee as a learning experience are also going to believe what the real estate agent says, what the mortgage broker says, what insurance salespeople say, and they probably believe most advertizing. Using "ethics" and "tv" together, let alone reality-ish teevee, is absurd.

Not to be all Is this something I would have to have a teevee to understand about it, but I ditched teevee recently, and it's awesome.
posted by theora55 at 10:01 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

ceribus peribus revealed:
"Do you guys remember Junkyard Wars? The show where they seeded the yard with nearly-finished projects beforehand, and where the white building that you could see in the background from certain angles was the back of a big box hardware store?"

Nooooooooooo! :c

even more glad I sold the TV after reading all this. so, so, so glad.
posted by batmonkey at 10:11 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

In related news, Robot Wars and BattleBots were also both faked, with the roles of "robots" being played by Ewoks in robot costumes. In a sad bit of irony, Ewoks are actually real.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:21 PM on June 14, 2012 [7 favorites]

Wasn't this the lesson of the first "MTV Real World" - that real people were alternately too volatile or too dull to reliably make a product of? I can't be the only one who read that article/ heard those rumors...
posted by From Bklyn at 10:33 PM on June 14, 2012

I realized recently that not only is reality television not reality, it's propaganda to make us think reality is something other than it is.
posted by dunkadunc at 10:52 PM on June 14, 2012 [5 favorites]

O'Reality???
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:09 PM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

More from Mitchell & Webb, this time on white bathrooms.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:28 AM on June 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

Is this the place where I can complain about how they paint walls on reality home shows? Holding the roller frame directly without using an extension poll? Rolling in five different directions instead of up and down? Not keeping a wet edge and not feathering back into the last stripe? Drives me crazy.
posted by octothorpe at 4:53 AM on June 15, 2012

I can speak with authority about a certain Picking show being quite fake.

Hold it, hold it. Is American Pickers fake? That would be sad, because they seem like regular nice guys and I don't want to believe they have lied to me.
posted by Glinn at 5:17 AM on June 15, 2012

I've been skeptical of this sort of thing since the early 1990s when 3 friends of mine were on Ricki Lake. They had been watching the show together when the producers put out a call for friends with secret crushes. They hatched a plan for the two women to pretend they both had a crush on the guy. They were invited on and warned not to say anything to the guy that would tip him off. They were flown to New York (part of their motivation was to get a free trip) and put up in separate hotels. Before the taping they had to sign a release stating they weren't faking their stories, which of course they did without hesitation. It was apparently difficult to not let slip that they all knew what was going on, but they pulled it off. Afterward they said it was really easy to spot the other fakers on daytime talk shows, which is apparently most of them. Interestingly, at least one of the women involved said strangers recognized her from that show for years afterward.

The show that really annoyed me was Extreme Home Makeover. They did a house in my town and the local news media got people worked up about it for months ahead of time. By the taping people were falling all over themselves to donate time and material. I found it pretty funny that they were essentially donating all this stuff to a tv network that was making money off the show. The best thing I can say about them is that they replaced mailboxes and otherwise updated the neighborhood to make it more photogenic. The end result was quite nice, but all those fancy touches (for example: a chandelier that lowers from the ceiling and turns into a writing desk) have got to be hell to maintain and repair, if you can even find someone to fix it when it inevitably breaks. The last I heard the lady they built it for (who by all accounts is a decent and generous person) was still struggling financially, in no small part because her property taxes had gone through the roof as a result of the improvement. I have read that many of the "beneficiaries" of that show get into financial problems, often as a result of taking out loans against the value of the house. The producers would have done a lot more good if they had sent the families for financial advice rather than Disney World.

So yeah, the intersection between TV and reality is infinitesimally small.
posted by TedW at 6:22 AM on June 15, 2012 [4 favorites]

I'll be sad if the ingredients on chopped aren't actually surprises to the contestants, although I confess I've considered that they might get a little 15-20 minute planning session between rounds. And I'm well aware that the Iron Chef people have time to prepare menus and order ingredients before the filming, although the act of cooking the food in an hour is still a legit challenge, imo.

But yeah house hunters was crap.

I'm also annoyed at things like restaurant impossible where they impose arbitrary deadlines and then try to convince us that there's drama about maybe it won't be finished on time and now Robert has to yell and uh... how dumb do they think we are, really?

Mostly I just watch chopped.
posted by kavasa at 6:58 AM on June 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

oh Glinn, american pickers is total horseshit, yeah

sorry
posted by kavasa at 6:59 AM on June 15, 2012

and if you like pawn stars, they hand the items to the people that want to "sell" them, 100% fabricated
posted by kavasa at 6:59 AM on June 15, 2012

The big reality show trend at the momenbt is 'scripted reality' - Real Housewives might well be like this (I can never work it out with American shows as there's so much mediation - recapping, stars talking to camera, footage edited into a crazy quilt of screaming). Shows like Made in Chelsea have 'storylines' and they just get the partcipants into situations where drama is likely to kick off.

I like to pretend The Apprentice isn't a reality show but a drama with real people in it. Maybe all reality shows are like that.
posted by mippy at 7:08 AM on June 15, 2012

I can speak with authority about a certain Picking show being quite fake. Knowing about its fakeness made it even more apparent that its sister show about a pawn shop was also just as fake. Obviously, I want my money back.

I don't have any burning desire to go to Las Vegas but that show makes it look like the shop might be worth checking out. It doesn't surprise me much that the items are handed over - pawn shops in the UK at least are where you make a quick buck and aren't generally staffed by people knowledgeable in antiques.

There's a show over here, Car Booty, where they got an antiques expert and a presenter to clear out a house for things to be sold at a car boot (the UK analogue to a yard sale - except lots of them, and in a field/school playground), and things they find would be evaluated and hopefully sold on to raise money for a holiday or a new car. If you went round my house looking for stuff to sell, you'd find some old clothes, some dishes that might not be used, a few bits and pieces that might be worth something if sold on but won't be (laptop, sewing machine etc.) In these people's houses, they had victorian writing desks, Royal Doulton figures, Steiff bears or rare early computer games that these people just forgot they had. How can you not know you have actual antiques in your house?
posted by mippy at 7:21 AM on June 15, 2012

A very good friend was on Colin and Justin's Home Heist - his is the Cool Rocker, House Shocker episode. It was a great experience, his house is gorgeous and they were wonderful. I haven't watched the episode again, and the only thing I think I remember that didn't ring true was that there was a second bedroom leading to the bathroom that didn't appear in the episode at all. I do take some comfort in knowing not everything is fake.

Another friend was on Style by Jury. Fakey fake fakety fake. His wife was on the jury. He applied to be on the show, there was quite a lot of lead time where he was told not to cut his hair or shave. They offer a lot of makeover services, and he even turned down having the tattoos on his hands removed - they would have gone that far! He did it primarily because he wanted the dental work. His teeth were really jacked up, and it was worth it to get them fixed. That was a crazy amount of dental work that took almost a year to get through thought that time was condensed for the show, and they did a great job, because he then translated that new image to a career on another show - Marriage Under Construction (which is notably called a docu-soap). They mostly mess with the timelines on that show, which you can see easily by watching for the length of the contractor's hair. There's not really a continuity person for "reality" tv.

I was on a "reality" makeover show about eight years ago, and it was a terrible experience. My husband is still quite mad about it, and will never ever do something like that again. Many of the items we were promised never happened; five hours of filming turned into ten (which was awful with a small baby) and the way it was edited was so hurtful that it's still a sore point in our marriage. It turns out an old friend of his was in the editing suite when it was being twisted, and felt horrible for us.

I, ahem, am currently on the long-list as an "antiques enthusiast" for a game show for a channel that rhymes with "sistory"- a combination of Antiques Roadshow meets Liar's Club. So, if I get it, my job will be to lie about stuff - though I don't really know how the contestant's part of it will work. Since I worked in antiques retail for so many years, I'm good at selling stuff, and in this case, I'll be selling lies. I already know that the kind of identifications they want for the items is going to make it hard, based on the items I brought in for my interview. As I explained, "Sometimes, things just are what they are. It either is a piece of, say, Inuit art, or it's something else. It might be older, or newer, or by someone notable or not -- but the nice thing about antiques is they can usually be specifically identified by someone somewhere in the world, so I can't lie about certain parts of an item. I can lie about its use. I can lie about its age, or origins. I can make up a story about where it came from, and how it came to be -- but sometimes a vase is just a vase." Also, it seems, as the screen test revealed, that one of the skills that I don't have is speaking in short sentences for easier editing. I'm supposed to be working on that.
posted by peagood at 7:37 AM on June 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

My mum wants Colin and Justin to be her gay next-door neighbours.

There's a show here called 60 Minute Makeover, where they claim to make over a whole house in, well, 60 minutes. There's a lot of MDF and staple-guns involved, but I'm still skeptical.
posted by mippy at 8:24 AM on June 15, 2012

and if you like pawn stars, they hand the items to the people that want to "sell" them, 100% fabricated

I still watch Pawn Stars (it's like if Mountain Dew made Antiques Roadshow), but it's obviously fake for two reasons: 1) No one is keeping a guy as dumb as Chumlee around and putting him in a customer-facing position if he's not a relative, and 2) these "appraisers" who run their own shops and manage museums just happen to have enough time to pop into this random pawn shop on a moment's notice? I'm told the shop is actually pretty small, and aside from some Pawn Stars merchandise, is a pretty bog-standard pawn shop.
posted by dirigibleman at 8:33 AM on June 15, 2012

peagood: Can I ask why you're lining up to be a part of a reality show after having such a horrible experience in the past? Is the money worth it as an expert vs. "contestant" or...?
posted by ODiV at 8:38 AM on June 15, 2012

I ditched teevee recently, and it's awesome

I recently started watching television with more regularity, and it's awesome. Breaking Bad, for instance, is fantastic. Also any nature show where animals are fucking.
posted by Sidhedevil at 9:43 AM on June 15, 2012 [4 favorites]

A friend of mine was on Coyote Ugly Search, where the "prize" was to be hired to open the rebuilt New Orleans location. She didn't go on to the finals - but they told her privately it was solely because she wasn't generating enough drama for the camera, and if she wanted a job they would hire her in a heartbeat.

Another friend was on Rock Star: Supernova and the less said about that, the better. Although she managed to come across as a grownup the whole time, which I was surprised and pleased by.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 9:47 AM on June 15, 2012

This thread is like crack.
posted by stoneweaver at 9:52 AM on June 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

2) these "appraisers" who run their own shops and manage museums just happen to have enough time to pop into this random pawn shop on a moment's notice? I'm told the shop is actually pretty small, and aside from some Pawn Stars merchandise, is a pretty bog-standard pawn shop.

Mr. Sonika read the guy's book and they mention that since the show took off that the main "characters" don't actually work in the shop anymore except for days that they film. IIRC, an interesting item comes in, someone talks to the seller and they arrange a time to talk to one of the guys and get it on tape. Which is also why the shop looks so empty on TV - in reality, there are lines around the block to go see the "Pawn Stars" store, which, yes, is just a standard pawn shop. So, they have plenty of time to talk to the experts since the initial interview is itself staged in the first place.

(That doesn't make the weird stuff any less weird or cool though.)
posted by sonika at 9:53 AM on June 15, 2012

I've had friends visit the actual shop that Pawn Stars is filmed at, and apparently it is TINY! And they don't have cool stuff on display (the things that the head dude exclaims that he "needs for his shop").

As for the picking show, History does all of the coordination for scheduling picks, Danielle is just a placeholder (although she's a lovely girl, very nice!), and Mike and Frank jetset everywhere and leave the driving of the AA van to production lackeys.
posted by scarykarrey at 10:03 AM on June 15, 2012

Danielle is just a placeholder... and Mike and Frank jetset everywhere

Ok, that's all fine and not so shocking. But when they show up at a place, is the stuff pre-selected too? Do they do any digging? I mean, when they find a bunch of "great" stuff for William Shatner's house, was that stuff all picked out ahead of time? Did Jack White pre-order a (mostly) authentic elephant head? Ah well, I don't watch it much anymore. (Thank you scarykarrey, very interesting! Also, I am terribly naive but working on it.)
posted by Glinn at 10:43 AM on June 15, 2012

Moving Up is another hilariously fake "reality" show. They follow new homeowners as they buy one another's home, renovate it, then the previous owners come back to critique the changes. It never fails, there's almost always the scene where the mom or dad is standing in their kid's very kiddy decorated bedroom saying, in a very rehearsed, monotonous tone, "I will be very upset to see this room changed". It cracks me up. Of course the young single bachelor moving into your home is going to change that room!!
posted by daydreamer at 10:48 AM on June 15, 2012

"Another friend was on Style by Jury. Fakey fake fakety fake."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That was airing late-night on a tiny local channel when I had a newborn, so I was always watching it while nursing and I'd always cry. Like every episode. Canada, why you gotta go faking me out?
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 11:01 AM on June 15, 2012

I heard the foods on Bizarre Foods aren't actually considered "bizarre."
posted by griphus at 11:03 AM on June 15, 2012

Hell yes I saw that! One of the reasons I love Metafilter is it so often gives me a reason to feel smug about something that has literally nothing to do with anything.

"Oh yeah, I read about that on Metafilter a while ago." *basks in warm glow of smug*

Mind you, it's a show I have never watched, which airs on a cable channel I do not have, in a genre I have no interest in. BUT STILL.
posted by ErikaB at 11:15 AM on June 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

Also any nature show where animals are fucking.

Do they still do it like they did on the Discovery Channel?
posted by octobersurprise at 11:26 AM on June 15, 2012 [3 favorites]

Those female animals are totally faking it.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:50 AM on June 15, 2012

Next you're going to tell me that Bath|Yard|House Crashers actually don't do all that work in two days.

No, they do it in the time allotted, even if they have to cut corners to do it. (I have heard, anecdotally, that Extreme Makeover: Home Edition built a fancy shower and simply hooked it up to a water tank behind the wall in order to make the water flow on TV...it wasn't actually hooked up to the plumbing because they hit their production deadline before they could do it properly; once the water tank ran dry, the family had to call in a plumber.)
posted by asnider at 1:34 PM on June 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ben Starr (from last year's MasterChef) has a blog where he discusses his experience on the show.

To wit: he enjoyed the people, but hated the way it was edited together (for the drama). Hates reality tv. Says that a lot of the participants (even the winners) are still struggling financially.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 2:08 PM on June 15, 2012

ODiV, in the first instance, I thought it would be fun. As a new mom with no income, getting my husband a spa day, including some fancy facial, new suit and shoes and then a dinner out at Bymark for a Father's Day present, I thought it would make a great treat for only a little work. Instead, as the day progressed, they turned it into a "makeover" and then edited it that I was sick of my husband's "look" and wanted to make him over. It was supposed to be fun and lighthearted, but it became twisted. What was supposed to be a spa day for him and then me meeting him for dinner in his new suit and shoes turned out to be a grueling 12 hour shoot, with me leaking breast milk and crying; my in-laws exhausted from watching our daughter for hours more than they'd signed on for; he could only keep the shoes (not everything we were promised) and it turned out they couldn't pay for our dinner and we had to pretend we'd eaten. (So the restaurant felt sorry for us and sent us home with doggie bags filled with $35 hamburgers and wine in go-cups.) My husband didn't want to be mocked for his looks, and we were clear about that - and so "My husband hasn't changed his look in ten years, and it's why I love him - but the new baby means I'm so tired too, and I don't want to change all of it, and just freshen him up because we don't get dressed up to go out any more" became something like "My husband hasn't changed his look in ten years. I'm so tired of it, and we don't go out any more."

This time, I was approached after a friend who's been consulting on it for a while mentioned me as a candidate (they'd scouted the antique stores and markets for dealers and appraisers, but found they didn't necessarily have much personality on camera.) He works in film and tv quite a bit, and found the production company reliable enough and easy to deal with. I'd be working in a certain capacity, and I can be grateful for the job, but not desperate enough that I'll go for anything they'll give me. I'm a different person now than I was then, and know better how it all works.
posted by peagood at 2:44 PM on June 15, 2012

scarykarrey: "I've had friends visit the actual shop that Pawn Stars is filmed at, and apparently it is TINY!"

That explains the constant "it'll take up room in my shop" refrain during the negotiation, which has led to a running joke in our house about excuses for lowering the value of something, e.g., "I have to buy a frame for it," "It was exposed to daylight," "Has boogers on it,""Outlawed in 48 states," "Contaminated by zombies,""Not sworn to carry your burdens," etc.
posted by Dr. Zira at 2:57 PM on June 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

No, they do it in the time allotted, even if they have to cut corners to do it.

That's the part that drives me crazy about all these shows. "We have to finish by tomorrow!" Well, no, you don't. I'm sure if you asked the homeowners, they'd choose the "not as fast as possible" option. They're going to gut the kitchen and replace it in two days and pull permits and get it inspected and and and? Really? What's the rush? Why not take three days and let the concrete set properly?

OK, really I know the an$wer.
posted by chazlarson at 3:30 PM on June 15, 2012

Wait, does that mean Bridezillas is fake too? 'Cause if it ain't, those women are crazy...
posted by patheral at 5:33 PM on June 15, 2012

Wait, does that mean Bridezillas is fake too? 'Cause if it ain't, those women are crazy...

Honestly: I hope so. I don't know why anyone would agree to be on that show. They're going to edit it to make you look as crazy as possible. It's in the fucking title!
posted by asnider at 6:38 PM on June 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

Not to mention the obvious question: who the fuck would agree to marry someone who would agree to star in an episode of Bridezillas? It would be like marrying a groom who was paying for the honeymoon by signing you both up to appear on I'm Totally Screwing Your Bridesmaids!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:44 PM on June 15, 2012 [4 favorites]

Perusing the local Craigslist video/audio classifieds I found a lot of stuff like "IS THERE SOMEONE YOU HATE? DO YOU WANT TO SETTLE THINGS WITH YOUR FISTS? WE WILL PAY YOU FIFTY BUCKS IF YOU LET US TELEVISE IT!"

or

"DO YOU HAVE IN-LAWS FROM HELL? DO YOU WANT TO GIVE THEM ONE LAST CHANCE? HAVE THEM APPEAR ON "INLAWS FROM HELL" AND WE'LL HAVE YOU TALK THINGS OUT AND SMOOTH THINGS OVER! WE'LL PAY YOU ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS!".

As if, after inviting your estranged inlaws to appear on Inlaws From Hell, they would like you any better? As if any real estranged inlaws would ever appear on such a show? I suspect most of the people appearing on these shows are just really broke and are playing roles to get their thousand dollars.
posted by dunkadunc at 10:20 PM on June 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

I realized recently that not only is reality television not reality, it's propaganda to make us think reality is something other than it is.

Yeah. I mean, look at the people around you. You like them! Then look at the people on "reality" television? They make you hate humanity. You'd love to do things that are nice for the former and if it screws over the latter...well, that's just icing!

There are few things more divisive than reality TV.
posted by DU at 6:36 PM on June 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Moar House Hunters insidery info:

"then we met with the realtor, whom we never met or worked with before...."
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 11:32 PM on June 23, 2012