All Your Burning Questions About Going On Reality TV, Answered

Reality TV, by nature, is unpredictable. You can’t control what the cameras see or how your castmates react. You can’t control how footage gets stitched together into a narrative. And you certainly can’t control what the audience thinks of you when it all airs. But that doesn’t mean you have to head into the experience totally blind. For Bustle’s special-issue handbook to becoming a reality TV star, we’re asking industry veterans and top reality stars all your pressing questions about the practicalities of casting, filming, and life afterward. Consider it a guide to everything you didn’t know you needed to know — and we’ll be updating it all week with fresh intel.

How do I read my contract?

Would you sign your life away for a shot at reality stardom? In short, that’s what a talent contract will ask you to do, according to Los Angeles-based entertainment lawyer Paul Menes. Menes’ career spans decades, and he’s represented talent on all manner of reality programs, from competitions to docu-soaps. So when he says reality TV contracts are essentially crafted to take advantage of talent, at the cost of their reputation and even their lives, he knows what he’s talking about.

“You absolve the production company and everybody connected to it from anything that happens to you, whether they kill you or you kill yourself. They’re not responsible for death, dismemberment, spontaneous combustion, or anything else.” Menes says. “You become a total captive of the show and its tentacle, so to speak.”

More often than not, Meses says, agreements to join the cast of a reality TV show are “unconscionable contracts” — the parties don’t have equal bargaining power, and the less-powerful party is staring down an unfair, even unenforceable deal. However, if you want a chance at fame, the only option is to accept the terms and conditions presented to you, as unsavory as they may seem. That can mean consenting to a nasty villain edit, on-camera sex, or even giving the production company a cut of your hard-earned TikTok Shop affiliate revenue post-show. Your only true out is to not join the show.

That said, with a few years of fame, and a good lawyer on your side, you might be able to negotiate a sweeter deal for later television endeavors. Just don’t try to go in without representation. “To me, it’s like if you need a knee replacement and don’t go to a doctor. You go on the Mayo Clinic website and ask Chat how to cut your leg open and replace the joint and expect you’ll be fine,” Meses says. “If they’re that ignorant, that afraid, or that reticent to hire a lawyer and spend the money, God bless them.” —Megan LaCreta

What’s in a mental health evaluation?

The best reality TV shows are packed with a colorful cast of characters. There’s the drama queen, the villain, the underdog, the dark horse — and they all have to live together. To create the ideal mix for viewers at home, a casting team will sift through applications to find each personality type. It’s a lot like playing a game of Tetris, says psychologist Loni Fagel, MA, MEd, LPCC, who worked in casting in the mid-2000s. “They’re not necessarily looking for the healthiest people,” she says. “They’re looking for people who are emotionally expressive, dramatic, messy, engaging, or unpredictable.”

But what happens when the drama queen gets rejected on a national dating show or the underdog spends 60 days on an island without a call home to family? Because reality TV is a pressure cooker of stress and scrutiny, production teams rely heavily on mental health evaluations before filming partly to protect the contestants, but also the cast and crew — plus the show’s reputation. According to Fagel, the goal is to walk a very fine line between finding the eccentric gems and accidentally casting someone who crumbles the moment the cameras roll. “Without some level of screening, these environments can go sideways pretty quickly,” she says. According to Enter the Villa, Anne Peele’s behind-the-scenes look at Love Island, 40% of the contestants producers eye for the show get cut during the evaluation stage.

While each show’s process is different, Fagel says you may meet with a team of evaluators who ask how you handle conflict, stress, surprise, and jealousy. “Think of it like scenarios they might ask on a job interview — only this job is to be on a reality TV show with millions of people watching,” she says. Some teams might use the Adult Attachment Interview to analyze your approach to relationships or the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory to better understand your behavioral patterns. They may ask about trauma, substance abuse history, and other topics in that vein. It’s possible they’ll also reach out to your friends or family to corroborate what you say. Meanwhile, they’re also keeping an eye on your body language: Does this person seem honest? Are there topics they have a hard time with?

That said, the mental health evaluation isn’t about weeding out everyone who’s ever experienced anxiety, trauma, ADHD, or depression. And it can even be a good thing if you have a prescription. “The diagnosis should not matter as much as: Has this person had treatment for it? Are they on medication? Do they have support?” Fagel says. As long as you tick those boxes, you might be good to go. After all, reality TV wants drama — just not a crisis. —Carolyn Steber

When should I get work done?

If cameras are about to be on you 24/7 — and you intend on being, say, the most earth-shaking Bombshell to ever enter the Villa — you may find yourself pondering cosmetic enhancements. You wouldn’t be alone in that: The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Taylor Frankie Paul talked about going under the knife prior to filming her (since-canceled) season of The Bachelorette. But depending on how much time you have before filming, some procedures make more sense than others. Leave a few weeks for Botox and filler to settle. If you have about two months, liposuction around the face and neck or a breast augmentation could be the move, according to Dr. Sean Doherty, M.D., a board-certified plastic surgeon in Boston. A little longer, and you could get a blepharoplasty or body liposuction, which takes around three months to fully recover from. Six months, and you could go for a tummy tuck, rhinoplasty, or abdominal contouring, according to Dr. Rian Maercks, M.D., a Miami-based board-certified plastic surgeon.

There are a few things to keep in mind before you set a surgery date. First, if you’re on a GLP-1, you’ll have to take a break for at least two weeks leading up to the operation, as the medication can pose an aspiration risk while under anesthesia. Doherty recommends that his patients stay off the weight loss drugs for two weeks following the procedure as well, to encourage a balanced diet (including adequate hydration) to assist with the healing process. Another aspect of the reality TV lifestyle that might get in the way of recovery: high stress scenarios.

“I always say be happy because happy heals,” Maercks says. “If people are worried or upset, they retain swelling. They tend to have more healing complications.” It’s certainly something to consider before diving into a televised psychological experiment. —Megan LaCreta