From death-defying stunts and island starvation, to table-flipping and bitch-slapping, reality TV has delivered a treasure trove of unforgettably golden moments. That’s why Team TVLine put our heads together to spotlight a collection of the genre’s craziest, most infamous happenings for your review. Review our selections, then hit the Comments section and tell us your favorite haywire reality scenes.
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Image Credit: Fox screenshot American Idol: William Hung Bangs! He Bangs! (Season 3)
Sure, some great singers achieved stardom through the Fox reality singing competition, but if we’re being completely honest, Idol‘s OG audition episodes were really the series’ must-see TV. Case in point: William Hung’s rendition of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs!” While it’s entirely heartbreaking to see the look on his face once the feedback starts rolling in, you have to give the guy credit: He was a good sport with a great attitude. In fact, Hung got the last laugh. He went on to release three (count ’em!) albums, plus returned to the Idol stage in Season 15 for an encore performance. He even performed on The Tonight Show!
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Image Credit: UPN screenshot America’s Next Top Model: Tyra Freaks Out on Tiffany (Cycle 4)
What began as a pep talk for aspiring model Tiffany turned into a tirade after the younger woman joked about her elimination moments after it happened. After taking Tiffany to task for her stank attitude, the two women got into a shouting match that ended with Tyra’s now-infamous decree: “I have never in my life yelled at a girl like this! When my mother yells like this, it’s because she loves me! I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you! How dare you? Learn something from this!”
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Image Credit: ABC screenshot The Bachelor: Jason Dumps Melissa for Molly (Season 13)
Chris Harrison says it all the time, but this truly was the most dramatic Bachelor moment of all time. Jason Mesnick gave Melissa his final rose and proposed to her in the finale… but then changed his mind on the After the Final Rose reunion special, breaking it off with her and getting back together with runner-up Molly. Jason and Molly eventually got married — and we got an all-time reality TV shocker.
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craziest-reality-moments-bad-girls-club-tanisha-pots-pans
Image Credit: Oxygen screenshot Bad Girls Club: Tanisha’s Kitchen Item Blow-Up (Season 2)
Narrowing down BGC‘s many fights is a near-impossible task, but we’re partial to Tanisha Thomas’ iconic blow-up in Season 2. Pushed to her breaking point by perpetually messy roommates (even the phone had syrup on it!), Tanisha decided to wake up everyone by banging pots and pans in every room. “I didn’t get no f—kin’ sleep ’cause of y’all, y’all not gonna get no sleep ’cause of me!” Tanisha sang, instantly turning her anger into a certified bop.
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Image Credit: CBS screenshot Big Brother: Dan’s Funeral Flips the House (Season 14)
When all seemed to be lost for the BB10 winner, Dan Gheesling staged his own funeral, feigning the death of his game and calling out his No. 1 ally, Danielle Murphree. (“In this game, you’ll never earn my trust back. You know what you did. And in this game, you’re dead to me.”) Danielle was crushed, but little did she know, it was all a sham. Dan’s Hail Mary play not only helped him survive the week, but also secured his seat in the final two.
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Image Credit: Channel 5 screenshot Celebrity Big Brother UK: ‘David Is Dead!’ (Season 17)
If there’s one thing the U.S. rendition of Celebrity Big Brother was missing, it was Tiffany “New York” Pollard. On Day 7 of CBBUK, Angie Bowie found out that her ex-husband, David Bowie, had sadly passed away. When Tiffany asked Angie what was wrong, Angie responded by telling her, “David is dead,” which Tiff mistook as: Fellow houseguest David Gest died in the house! Bowie’s death was devastating news for the entire world, but this miscommunication of epic proportions is a YouTube treat that delivers with every. single. watch.
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craziest-reality-moments-the-challenge-ct-fights-adam-2
Image Credit: MTV screenshot The Challenge: CT Unleashes on Adam (Season 17)
The Challenge is no stranger to the occasional fist fight, but unfortunately for Adam King, he was on the receiving end of CT Tamburello’s fists on The Duel 2. The cause of the clash? CT mistakenly thought his former Real World Paris roomie told Diem, his ex, about his latest hook-up. What spawned from there was one of the show’s gnarliest, bloodiest, craziest fights ever. It took five guys just to prevent CT from pulverizing Adam, and when they finally let him go, he chased down his prey once again. Needless to say, both were disqualified from the show and sent home.
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craziest-reality-moments-dancing-with-the-stars-ryan-lochte
Image Credit: ABC screenshot Dancing With the Stars: Ryan Lochte Gets Bum-Rushed (Season 23)
Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte joined the Season 23 roster on the heels of controversy in Rio de Janeiro: After claiming that he and three other swimmers had been robbed at gunpoint in a Brazil gas station, Lochte admitted to embellishing his story (the swimmers had actually vandalized the gas station in question), and DWTS was part of his redemption tour. But on the season premiere, two audience members were less than thrilled with Lochte’s casting, and they rushed the stage during Lochte’s first-ever critiques from the judges. “I would like to personally thank our security team for staying in shape,” then-host Tom Bergeron joked afterward, bringing some levity to one of the ballroom’s most bizarre moments.
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Image Credit: VH1 screenshot Flavor of Love: Somethin’ Poops on the Stairs (Season 2)
Flavor Flav’s mansion has plenty of bathrooms… but contestant Tykeisha Thomas (aka Somethin’) couldn’t get to any of them in time during the premiere’s elimination ceremony. Instead, Somethin’ chose to answer a persistent call of nature by defecating on the mansion floor, then quickly skedaddling to the restroom after the cocktail party was over. Fortunately, we were spared the visual of Somethin’s housewarming gift, but her description of the incident — “It just, like… pushed itself out” — is burned in our brains forever. (Watch the clip here, if you must!)
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Image Credit: MTV screenshot Jersey Shore: Snooki Gets Punched in the Face (Season 1)
To be clear, Snooki getting knocked out by a random Jersey bro during a bar fight was a horrifying assault that should not be glorified in any way. But the incident, which happened early in Season 1, did help the cast of guidos and guidettes bond as a family unit and bring the show to prominence, making it an unlikely breakout hit and Snooki a household name. So thanks, random Jersey bro… we guess?
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craziest-reality-moments-real-housewives-of-new-jersey-teresa-flips-table
Image Credit: Bravo screenshot The Real Housewives of New Jersey: Teresa Flips the Table (Season 1)
The Real Housewives franchise has seen plenty of awkward dinner parties and explosive confrontations, but this Season 1 gem — with Teresa unleashing her volcanic temper on Danielle, calling her a “prostitution whore” while lifting a rather large table off the floor for emphasis — takes the cake… and then promptly spills it on the floor. For emphasis.
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Image Credit: Bravo screenshot The Real Housewives of New York City: Aviva Throws Her Prosthetic Leg (Season 6)
Aviva Drescher’s time as a RHONY cast member was short-lived, but she sure made it memorable: During a fight where some of the other ladies called her fake, Aviva removed her prosthetic leg, declaring it the only artificial thing about her, and hurled it across the room at her accusers. Top that!
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Image Credit: MTV screenshot The Real World Seattle: Stephen Slaps Irene (Season 7)
After a season full of growing tension and resentment, Irene McGee finally decided to move out of the Pier 70 compound, but not before taking a dig at fellow housemate Stephen Williams. “Stephen, I left everybody a gift, and I want to leave you one, too. You were right. A marriage between you and I would never work out. You know that… because you’re a homosexual, Stephen.” At the time, Stephen wasn’t out yet, so he reacted in a pretty extreme way — by slapping a woman in the face on national television. Real talk, it wasn’t a good look for either party, but the drama shocked audiences and became one of the series’ most infamous moments.
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Image Credit: MTV screenshot Road Rules: Kalle Goes Wing-walking (Season 4)
MTV’s casts have endured some pretty outrageous stunts, but nothing compares to what Road Rules Islands‘ Kalle Dedolph faced when she strapped herself to the top of a plane — thousands of feet in the air! — for a very special flight. How many people can say they stood on top of an airplane while it looped, twirled and soared through the skies? It was a truly WTF?! moment, and by far one of the craziest missions completed by any reality-TV cast member. (Check it out here around the 17-minute mark.)
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Image Credit: VH1 screenshots (2) RuPaul’s Drag Race: Asia O’Hara’s Finale Flop (Season 10)
Asia O’Hara’s Season 10 finale lip sync left us gagging, all right, but not in a good way. When she released from her costume butterflies that she hoped would flutter over the crowd, they instead… fell to the stage, dazed and dying. “I don’t even have words for what I just witnessed,” said TVLine’s own Andy Swift at the time. We still don’t.
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Image Credit: CBS screenshot Survivor: The Snakes and Rats Speech (Season 1)
Over 51 million viewers watched the finale of Survivor: Borneo, which made Sue Hawk insta-famous after she absolutely skewered the Final 2 contestants, Richard Hatch and Kelly Wiglesworth. After calling Hatch an “arrogant, pompous, human being,” and Wiglesworth “two-faced and manipulative,” Hawk declared: “My vote will go to Richard. And I hope that is the one vote that makes [Kelly] lose the money. If it’s not, so be it. I’ll shake your hand and I’ll go on from here. But if I were to ever pass you along in life again and you were laying there dying of thirst, I would not give you a drink of water. I would let the vultures take you and do whatever they want with you, with no ill regrets.
“I plead to the jury tonight to think a little bit about the island that we have been on. This island is pretty much full of only two things: snakes and rats. And in the end of Mother Nature, we have Richard the snake, who knowingly went after prey, and Kelly, who turned into the rat that ran around like the rats do on this island, trying to run from the snake. I feel we owe it to the island’s spirits that we have learned to come to know to let it be in the end the way that Mother Nature intended it to be. For the snake to eat the rat.” (Revisit this savagery here.)
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Image Credit: Bravo screenshot Vanderpump Rules: Stassi Slaps Kristen (Season 2)
It was the slap heard ’round the world… or at least ’round the Bravoverse. Stassi’s vicious backhand of Kristen after suspecting her former BFF had slept with Stassi’s ex Jax (Kristen denied it, but later confessed) cemented #PumpRules as a must-see guilty pleasure — and as a juicier, more addictive watch than its Real Housewives inspiration.
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Image Credit: NBC screenshot The Voice: Adam Plays Favorites (Season 15)
NBC’s Voice coaches might say they love all their contestants equally, but that wasn’t exactly true for Adam Levine in Season 15. When Levine’s two remaining team members — DeAndre Nico and teenager Reagan Strange — were both in the Bottom 3, Levine threw his full support behind only Strange, who was under the weather and couldn’t sing for the Instant Save during the results show. “There is an unbelievably talented little girl right now who is not able to fight for her position on this show,” he said (while Nico was still on stage). “The thought of breaking her heart by not urging everyone to give this girl a shot to go and redeem herself next week would be too far beneath me.” Strange was indeed saved by viewers after her coach’s plea, but Nico was left to twist in the wind.
