We’ve got to stop putting reality stars through impossible-to-pass purity tests because, truth be told, we’re on the brink of ruining everything we love about this beloved genre.
Reality TV has never been a place for perfection. It was built on the backs of imperfect people, and it would be nothing without its messiest soldiers. But as new faces enter the arena, expectations have gotten a little too high. Case in point — The Real Housewives of Rhode Island.
After a blockbuster debut season filled with seaside scandals, cheating rumors, and villainous behavior, social media sleuths went digging into the cast’s political affiliations. Suddenly there were calls to pull the plug on the show altogether.
While we’re certainly not condoning problematic behavior, there’s a slippery slope. If audiences keep demanding spotless histories from their reality stars, we’re going to end up killing off everything that has made reality TV great in the first place.
Reality TV has always depended on flawed personalities
Problematic people and reality TV kind of go hand in hand. Whether it was Puck Rainey terrorizing his roommates on The Real World, or Simon Cowell just being outright cruel to the contestants on American Idol, reality TV has always been its most compelling when the people involved have clear character flaws.
Put these people on TV, and we will tune in. We’ll cringe, and we’ll leave with the slight hope that maybe they’ll change. Some of them do. Some of them don’t, but the beauty comes when we go along for the ride. Look at Real Housewives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams, for example.
When we first met Porsha, she was presenting herself as a conservative Christian woman, both on and off screen. She went so far as to preach an anti-gay message from a church pulpit. You know you’ve seen that video. She’s up there screaming about salvation, lumping gay people in with drug dealers and sex workers. By today’s standards, that video alone would have ended her Bravo career.
Fast forward to Season 17 of RHOA, and that same Housewife is proudly dating a woman. But if we held Porsha to the same standards we’re applying to newer reality stars, she would have been sidelined years before ever having this lesbian evolution.
The Real Housewives of Rhode Island backlash exposes an impossible standard
Earlier this summer, the RHORI cast went from beloved to problematic seemingly overnight when Bravo fans took a deep dive into their off-screen lives. They uncovered that a majority of the cast appear to be registered Republicans and alleged supporters of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.
Among all of the cast members, Jo-Ellen Tiberi might have taken the biggest hit. One Bravo fan shared multiple Instagram screenshots from before she became a Housewife. They showed that she appeared to have liked a slew of offensive, right-wing posts.
Some appeared to show her mocking the LGBTQ+ community. Another seemed to show her interacting with a meme about George Floyd. This all came on the heels of her co-star, Rosie DiMare, posting a photo alongside right-wing provocateur Dave Portnoy.
If you were still on a high from that Season 1, these developments felt like a lot to take in. And like clockwork, some fans declared they were done with RHORI entirely.
Let’s pause on that for a second. We just watched these same women rip each other to shreds for 14 episodes straight, but suddenly we’re expecting decency? Did anyone really think that the woman who showed up to her first reunion hellbent on proving her co-star’s husband was cheating was going to have a spotless social media history? Are you genuinely surprised that the lady who called another woman a “slam pig” is happily posing with the Trump-supporting founder of Barstool Sports?
We’ve reached a point where the discourse about a reality show becomes less about what happened on camera and more about what people can uncover off camera. The goalposts move, and suddenly we expect the villains from TV to be saints in their real lives.
Accountability shouldn’t mean eliminating every controversial reality TV character
Nobody is arguing that reality stars deserve a free pass to be problematic. Lines exist, and genuinely harmful behavior should be called out. But there is a meaningful difference between holding someone accountable and dismantling their entire reality TV career.
If we keep stifling our villains and expecting purity, we’re going to end up with shows populated by people so hyperaware of the fact that they’re on TV that they’re incapable of being real in front of a camera. Look at The Real Housewives of New York as a cautionary tale.
Ramona Singer, arguably the most problematic star in the show’s history, played a significant role in getting the original cast replaced. The reboot that followed is already being rebooted again because the new cast simply can’t connect with fans. They’re too media aware. They’re too clocked into the fact that one wrong move could end their reality TV career.
Meanwhile, Ramona is coming back to reality TV with The Golden Life on E!, and execs were so excited about the early footage they ordered more episodes before a single one has aired. We find our way back to the messy ones because reality TV has always been about watching imperfect people.
Reality TV stars worth remembering come with a little bit of baggage, and a whole lot of flaws. And if they have a paper trail of unhinged social media posts, let it add to the lore. Don’t let it detract from the plot. If we push out every villain we disagree with, we’ll end up forfeiting all of the things that make reality TV so captivating.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK THE REALITY TV VILLAINS ARE TOO HARSHLY JUDGED? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE FANS DIGGING UP INFORMATION ON CAST MEMBERS?
