Reality TV has come a long way in the past three decades.
When The Real World first debuted on MTV 30 years ago last month, the seven not-yet-famous roommates wondered if anyone would even watch. Well, we did, and eight years after that, Survivor set off a seismic explosion of reality shows, with singing competitions, dating shows and celebreality trainwrecks soon rushing in to dominate the airwaves. Naysayers declared it was the end of culture as we know it, but like it or not, reality TV has evolved over the years to create its own culture: sometimes cheesy, sometimes messy but never less than fascinating.
These days, reality shows truly offer something for everyone, from high-minded inspirational fare to guilty-pleasure mudslinging and everything in between. It’s a lot to sift through, but we here at TVLine are helping out by rolling up our sleeves and selecting the 30 greatest reality shows of the past 30 years, in honor of The Real World‘s big anniversary. We ranked them based on quality and watchability first and foremost, but we also weighed a show’s legacy, longevity and cultural impact as well. The result: a highly opinionated guide to the very best reality TV has to offer.
Read on to see which shows made the cut and what earned our top spot — and, of course, you’ll have thoughts, too, so join us in the comments to tell us what we should’ve ranked higher or lower and mention any favorites we may have missed.
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HONORABLE MENTIONS
Image Credit: Courtesy of NBC, MTV, Netflix 30 slots can only begin to capture the full spectrum of reality TV, so we want to take a minute first and celebrate the trailblazers (An American Family), the long-running competitions (The Voice, Dancing With the Stars), the dating shows (Love Island UK, Beauty and the Geek), the stunt-comedy hybrids (Jackass, Punk’d), the new favorites (Nailed It!, Selling Sunset) and the fondly remembered one-hit wonders (Bands on the Run, Gallery Girls) that either didn’t qualify or fell just short of making our list. We love them, one and all.
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Flavor of Love (VH1, 2006-08)
Image Credit: Kobal/Shutterstock OK, so this VH1 dating show wasn’t exactly high art. (It featured an adult woman defecating on the floor, in fact.) But the romantic escapades of hip-hop legend Flavor Flav did offer a wild counterpoint to The Bachelor‘s sterile courtships, and it also introduced us to the majesty of one Tiffany “New York” Pollard. Flavor of Love knew it was trash, but it happily reveled in the trash heap along with us. No, Flav didn’t find true love in three seasons, but we all kind of knew that going in… and we watched anyway.
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Undercover Boss (CBS, 2010-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of CBS This one was a ratings beast right out of the gate, debuting to a post-Super Bowl XLIV audience of nearly 40 million viewers and emerging as that TV season’s top new series of any genre. But besides being a solid performer, it is a show that to this day, 11 seasons in, sheds light on the Average Joes who toil for well-paid CEOs and isn’t afraid to expose execs’ obliviousness to workplace realities. And we’ll be damned if each hour’s closing reveal/”rewards” session (well, save for the Season 6 boob job) doesn’t reliably bring tears to our eyes, shamelessly calculated as the CEOs’ largesse may sometimes be.
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Hell's Kitchen (Fox, 2005-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Fox We like Gordon Ramsay when he’s nice (see: the adorable MasterChef Junior)… but we love him when he’s angry. The hotheaded British chef became a household name berating aspiring cooks on this Fox hit, which has run for 20 seasons (!) now. The pressure is intense — and riveting — as the cooks hustle to serve guests at a faux restaurant and try their best to avoid Ramsay’s legendary wrath. His obscenity-laced rants are the stuff memes are made of, and the hotter it gets in that kitchen, the hungrier we get for more.
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The Osbournes (MTV, 2002-05)
Image Credit: Courtesy of MTV This candid portrait of rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his family became an unlikely cultural sensation in 2002, effectively giving birth to the “celebreality” subgenre. And it’s easy to see why it was such a hit: Ozzy and his brood were like a real-life Addams Family, lurking in their Gothic L.A. mansion and getting into lots of wacky hi-jinks. As weird as they were, though, they were somehow still relatable. (Who hasn’t thrown a baked ham over their fence at a neighbor during a dispute?) The show burned bright and faded quickly after just three years, but it left an indelible mark on reality TV as we know it.
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Chopped (Food Network, 2009-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Food Network The setup for this Food Network staple is simple yet endlessly complex: Chefs are given a basket of four mystery ingredients and tasked with making a delicious dish that incorporates all four. The ingredient combos can border on sadistic — chicken in a can and gummy worms?!? — but the challenge can result in some great cooking… and some great drama. Chopped‘s formula has proven to be exceptionally sturdy, with more than 600 episodes and a wide array of spinoffs since its 2009 debut. With one ingenious format, Food Network launched a culinary TV empire that still tastes fresh a decade later.
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Making the Band (ABC/MTV, 2000-09)
Image Credit: Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic Many reality shows tried to show us the nuts and bolts of the music industry (R.I.P., Popstars and Platinum Hit), but this one managed to not only bring us inside the recording studio but to actually launch top-selling acts like Danity Kane. (Take that, The Voice!) The first few seasons were a boy-band fever dream, with (ick) Lou Perlman assembling the pre-fab crooners O-Town to moderate success. The show really cemented its legend, though, when P. Diddy took over as mastermind, crafting future superstars with a heavy helping of tough love. It’s both a ridiculous slice of early-aughts pop excess and a sobering look at what it really takes to get to the top of the charts.
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The Bachelor/ette (ABC, 2002-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC One of the most successful reality franchises of all time, ABC’s long-running dating show sells us on an old-fashioned fairy tale — a man or woman dates a couple dozen potential mates to find and marry the partner of their dreams — that, let’s face it, ends with a big old breakup the vast majority of the time. Why do we keep coming back, then? Despite its formulaic tendencies and problematic history with race, The Bachelor still offers moments of genuine, if glossed-up, human drama, with singles putting their hearts on the line and hoping for an elusive happy ending. Sure, the catfights are fun, and we’re not always watching for “the right reasons,” but it’s the (slim) chance of witnessing the spark of true love that gets us every time.
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The Surreal Life (The WB/VH1, 2003-06)
Image Credit: Everett Collection Putting washed-up celebs like MC Hammer and Erik Estrada in a house together and letting the cameras roll? Yep, that’s a reality TV goldmine right there. This Big Brother-meets-Hollywood Squares monstrosity was like a zoo that let us gawk at household names way past their primes. (Look, kids, it’s Vanilla Ice and Gary Coleman!) It also scores bonus points for pairing up the truly unlikely couple of Flavor Flav and Brigitte Nielsen, inadvertently kicking off a flurry of spinoffs that we’re quite sure the producers never dreamt of.
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The Mole (ABC, 2001-08)
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC Hosted by Anderson Cooper, The Mole followed a group of players trying to bank money through various missions while simultaneously trying to suss out which of them was a saboteur. We couldn’t get enough of the mystery and duplicity involved, alongside heaps of brain-stumping puzzles and death-defying stunts. As the mole claimed a new victim each week, the series rapidly became one of the early aughts’ most compelling reality spectacles. Its two celebrity editions brought levity to the game, but the first two seasons remain peak Mole. It’s just a shame the 2008 revival couldn’t have kept this unique, spy-themed series afloat.
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I Love New York (VH1, 2007-08)
Image Credit: Courtesy of VH1 Yes, this is a spinoff of Flavor of Love, but we’re firm in our belief that it’s the superior show, thanks in large part to the incandescent screen presence of Tiffany “New York” Pollard. Always ready with a sharp quip or a meme-able reaction shot, she was born to be on reality TV, and this proudly sleazy dating competition obliged, giving her a bevy of men to choose from, flirt with, reject and scream at, sometimes all in the same episode. VH1 carved out a very distinct brand of reality TV trash in the mid-’00s, and this show may be the very pinnacle of it. Do we still have love for New York? Damn right we do.
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Project Greenlight (HBO/Bravo, 2001-05, 2015)
Image Credit: Courtesy of HBO At its best, reality TV shows us a world we’ve never seen before, and Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s docuseries did just that by pulling back the Hollywood curtain and revealing that making movies is… actually really hard! The two stars helped aspiring filmmakers shepherd their first movie from page to screen, with every excruciating step in between documented for all to see. No, the movies they made weren’t all that great, but the drama they produced along the way was truly award-worthy. (We also want to give a shout-out to the 2014 Starz series The Chair, which followed dueling young directors as they helmed their first features.)
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Jersey Shore (MTV, 2009-12)
Image Credit: Courtesy of MTV OK, you might involuntarily cringe when you hear the name “Snooki,” but let’s face it: Few TV shows this century have had the influence and impact, for good or for ill, that these Garden State meatballs have had since they first spray-tanned their way into our hearts. MTV introduced us to a very specific (and very amusing) slice of hard-partying life along the Noo Joisey boardwalk, and the casting was undeniably a triumph, with a perfectly calibrated blend of outsized personalities. Even when the banter got a little gross (the less said about “the smush room,” the better), the housemates formed an authentically warm bond that felt like famiglia.
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The Circle (Netflix, 2020-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix This is one of the newer entries on our list, but Netflix’s social media-savvy competition instantly hooked us with its wickedly inspired concept: Strangers housed in separate rooms are only allowed to communicate through texts and group chats and have to rank each other without ever meeting face-to-face. To make it even more complicated, some players compete under fake profiles, trying to “catfish” the others. It’s a revealing look at how we connect with each other in the era of Facebook likes and Instagram DMs, and like Survivor, the format is so strong that you could throw almost any combination of people into it and the results would be fascinating. We’re only four seasons in, but we’d happily sign up for 40 more. Wink emoji, heart emoji, send.
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The Real Housewives franchise (Bravo, 2006-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Bravo It may be a cheat to roll all of Bravo’s reality behemoth — with a dozen different series to date — into a single entry, but we want to raise a glass of wine to these ladies who launched an empire (and propped up an entire cable network) with their wildly immature, wildly entertaining antics. As any Housewives fan can tell you, there are genuine moments of heartbreaking poignancy to be found here amongst all the wine-tossing, and the franchise does paint a scathing portrait of American excess, if you look hard enough. But really, we’re in it for the LOLs, and thanks to unforgettable personalities like Bethenny, NeNe, Teresa and Vicki (no last names needed), Real Housewives shows often end up being funnier than most TV sitcoms. (Let’s also give kudos to Andy Cohen for hosting the most bombastic — and the most revealing — reunions in reality TV history.)
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The Challenge (MTV, 1998-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of MTV What once began with Real World/Road Rules alumni competing in silly beach games quickly morphed into a battle royale between international franchises. The stunts are extreme, the injuries are real and the drama never stops, especially considering the money on the line ($1 million!). Having cast members we’ve followed for decades creates layered storytelling not seen elsewhere, pulling us deep inside their ongoing friendships, hook-ups, break-ups and beefs. And with the franchise churning out All Stars editions, a CBS series and country-specific variations à la Drag Race, The Challenge‘s reach seemingly never quits… and we all know how TJ Lavin feels about quitters.
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Project Runway (Bravo/Lifetime, 2004-present)
Image Credit: Everett Collection One day you’re in, the next you’re out. That’s true in fashion and reality television, yet Project Runway has managed to defy the odds in both industries, designing an enduring legacy that continues to make it work. The designers are top-tier, the challenges are intense and every runway presentation is a moment. Besides making the fashion world accessible for the masses and inspiring multiple generations of aspiring designers, the show has produced a number of major success stories, including that of go-to celebrity designer Christian Siriano. And if nothing else, Project Runway introduced the world to Tim Gunn, one of the greatest reality TV mentors of all time. (But we’ll save that for another list.)
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Vanderpump Rules (Bravo, 2013-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Bravo Originally a spinoff of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, this alcohol-soaked look at a combative clique of self-involved L.A. bartenders rose above the franchise that spawned it… by going even lower than it, ironically. The staffers at Lisa Vanderpump’s “sexy unique” restaurant SUR fight and drink and hook up and cheat on each other and drink some more and fight some more — and their despicable behavior has turned into reality TV gold. It helps that the staff is stacked with captivating and combustible personalities, from ruthless queen bee Stassi to Neanderthal playboy Jax. Lisa tries her best to keep the peace, but let’s be real: We don’t want peace, we want drama… and #PumpRules is all too happy to serve it up.
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Big Brother (CBS, 2000-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of CBS The ultimate summertime guilty pleasure! While this series’ best days may be behind it (it desperately needs a reboot), BB remains addictive thanks to its live feeds and real-time gameplay. From showmances and silly costumes to twists galore (as host Julie Chen always says, “Expect the unexpected!”), Big Brother has something for everyone, from casual viewers to hardcore strategists and everyone in between. We just wish modern-day seasons would cast more Vanessa Roussos and Dan Gheeslings than Instagram influencer wannabes.
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Queer Eye/for the Straight Guy (Bravo/Netflix, 2003-07, 2018-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Bravo; Courtesy of Netflix When Queer Eye‘s original incarnation debuted on Bravo in 2003, it was nothing short of a revolution. The format was a simple makeover show, with five gay men using their expertise to “zhuzh up” a hapless straight guy, but the mere presence of out-and-proud gay men being funny and approachable on TV was quietly groundbreaking and helped change hearts and minds across America. (Plus, the original Fab Five had fantastic chemistry. Team Carson Kressley for life.) After a decade-long hiatus, Netflix rebooted Queer Eye with an all-new Fab Five, and they struck gold again with a fabulous cast while serving up emotional life transformations that proved these makeovers aren’t just skin-deep.
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American Ninja Warrior (G4/NBC, 2009-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of NBC With a decade-plus under its belt, this riveting display of athletic prowess now almost rivals football and baseball as one of this country’s major sports. Based on a long-running Japanese show, ANW puts athletes to the ultimate test: a course filled with ridiculously challenging obstacles that can trip up even the most toned physique. It’s a thrill to watch the competitors leap, swing and climb their way towards the finish line — with most falling well short — but it’s the human drama, with people training for years for their shot at glory, that keeps us coming back. (It’s also the perfect snack-sized entertainment. Got three minutes? Oh, that’s plenty of time for at least one run.)
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The Hills (MTV, 2006-10)
Image Credit: Everett Collection If MTV’s Laguna Beach was reality TV’s answer to The O.C., then its adult spinoff — which perfected the docu-soap format laid out by its predecessor — was like a real-life Melrose Place, an addictive look at the personal and professional struggles of hot twentysomethings living in Hollywood. Lauren Conrad, Audrina Patridge and a heavenly host of other spray-tanned icons defined celebrity culture in the mid-to-late 2000s, inspiring us to feel the rain on our skin. (After all, no one else was going to feel it for us.) We can also thank this show for introducing us to reality TV succubi Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag (aka “Speidi”), the physical manifestations of humanity’s most vapid impulses. And we’ll never forget that mindf–k of a series finale, which ended by suggesting that the supposed reality show had really been a scripted drama all along.
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So You Think You Can Dance (Fox, 2005-present)
Image Credit: Everett Collection The mega-success of American Idol launched a dozen short-lived singing competition rip-offs, but this Fox summer staple thrived by highlighting the art of dance instead, and it remains the gold standard of TV dance competitions. (It has a lot more artistry and emotion to it than Dancing With the Stars ever did.) SYTYCD won us over by taking dance seriously, putting its young contestants through an absolute gauntlet of dance styles, from elegant ballroom to down-and-dirty hip-hop. The choreography is often daring and thrilling, and the show has introduced us to some incredible talent, including more than a dozen future DWTS pros. Plus, the effervescent Cat Deeley remains one of the best reality TV hosts in the business.
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Shark Tank (ABC, 2009-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC Who says business is boring? ABC has taken an unlikely subject — pitching a new business to wealthy investors — and spun it into 13 seasons and counting of richly compelling television. It takes us inside the boardroom to see how companies are built (and lost), with the products pitched varying from goofy gag gifts to high-end tech innovations. The “Shark” investors are all great TV characters in their own right, highlighted by the shamelessly money-grubbing Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary, and the show actually teaches us a lot about business. In fact, it’s been on so long that it’s inspired a whole generation of entrepreneurs, serving as a testament to the enduring power of the American dream.
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The Great British Baking Show (PBS/Netflix, 2014-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix This show is like a great big hug from your British granny: a cozy and comforting embrace that encourages us to stop and smell the cookies. (Sorry, “biscuits.”) It’s a no-frills baking competition, but one that’s become a matter of national pride in the UK — and we’ve fallen under the spell of its slow-food charms, too. There’s no cutthroat competition here: The bakers all cheer each other on, and the comedic hosts (we are die-hard Noel Fielding fans in this house) add silly banter to keep the mood light. It’s reassuring to know the worst thing that can happen on this show is someone’s soufflé not rising… and even that can be fixed! It’s an oasis of kindness in an unkind world, and as such, we are clinging to it for dear life.
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The Amazing Race (CBS, 2001-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of CBS There’s a reason why this CBS staple has 85 Emmy nominations and 15 wins: With its beautiful cinematography and impressive globe-trotting production, the series’ built-in premise keeps things fresh by serving us new cultures weekly through our TV screens. The Race also gives us a peek inside pre-existing relationships in a way that few reality shows do, challenging the players’ patience with language barriers, foreign city streets and even each other. The lows are low, the highs are high and we can’t help but find the casts’ wanderlust and excitement to be contagious.
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Top Chef (Bravo, 2006-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Bravo Cooking competitions can be found up and down the TV dial, but Bravo’s sleek, sturdy cook-off is truly the class of the genre: a high-end luxury meal amid an array of fast food. The best chefs in the country battle it out in a series of grueling challenges — and many alums have gone on to great culinary fame — but the focus is on the food, not the drama. The meals served up here are simply extraordinary, and judges Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio’s thoughtful critiques have educated us on the finer points of fine dining. (The show is also remarkably consistent, with hardly a clunker among its 19 seasons.) Food is the great connector across all walks of life, and Top Chef celebrates that in style.
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American Idol (Fox/ABC, 2002-16, 2018-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Fox Kelly Clarkson. Jennifer Hudson. Carrie Underwood. Kelly Clarkson… again, just for emphasis. These talk show-hosting, Oscar-winning, Billboard-charting phenoms wouldn’t be household names were it not for Idol, a ratings juggernaut and proven star maker for most of the 2000s. This nation-gripping karaoke contest also gave rise to people like Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell, whose combined impact on the reality TV landscape is nothing to sneeze at. Sure, Idol lost sight of its original objective towards the end of its 15-season run on Fox (Ellen DeGeneres as the “nice” judge? Weekly shade-offs between Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj?!), but its value remains undeniable, hence ABC snatching it up just two years later.
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RuPaul's Drag Race (Logo/VH1, 2009-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of VH1 What began as a low-budget, over-filtered experiment in 2009 has ballooned into an international phenomenon with more than two dozen Emmys under its belt. Even if you were to strip away Drag Race‘s cultural impact — which includes helping the queer community carve a place for itself at the forefront of popular culture — you’re still left with a damn good time. From self-designed and self-modeled runway looks to campy musical numbers and a heavy serving of drama, it’s like every other reality show you love, all tucked into one. Among its myriad other achievements, Drag Race has spawned a Las Vegas residency, a handful of popular spinoffs and more than a dozen international adaptations — and its global domination has only just begun.
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The Real World (MTV/Facebook Watch, 1992-2019)
Image Credit: Everett Collection It all began with a deceptively simple concept — pick seven strangers to live in a house together and find out what happens when they stop being polite — but MTV’s trailblazing reality TV pioneer did nothing less than kick-start a small-screen revolution, practically inventing its own genre and paving the way for decades of unscripted content to come. The first few seasons gave us a raw, unpolished look at youth culture in the early ’90s, and while later seasons got wilder (and trashier), they never lost that giddy, voyeuristic spark. Running for a solid quarter-century, The Real World now serves as a document for an entire generation and all the issues that faced it, from racism to AIDS to drug abuse and much, much more — and the huge cultural splash it made 30 years ago is still sending out ripples to this day.
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Survivor (CBS, 2000-present)
Image Credit: Courtesy of CBS The summer of 2000 changed reality TV forever when 16 Americans traveled to Borneo for a competition unlike anything we’d seen before. 22 years later, the series is still alive and thriving, thanks to a combo of twists, new advantages, advanced strategy and the series’ own adaptability. Host-turned-executive producer Jeff Probst isn’t afraid to take big swings with the creative, which continuously produces jaw-dropping moments and “Survivor firsts.” The show has become the ultimate social experiment, proving that all a game of human chess needs is a diverse cast of hungry superfans ready to go hard. It’s outwitted, outplayed and outlasted all of its reality TV competitors, and that’s why it takes the top spot in our countdown.
