In 1973, the illusion of a perfect family (as portrayed by TV programs such as The Brady Bunch) was shattered by the introduction of a 12-hour documentary series on PBS called An American Family. This was acknowledged as the first reality TV series and named as one of TV Guide’s “50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.”

An American Family had viewers on the edge of their seats as the day-to-day lives of the Loud family were chronicled and their dirty laundry aired for all to see. At the time, the documentary-style series itself was enough to make people go “WTF!” However, An American Family paved the way for more complex and less “perfect” depictions of families in the shows that followed, including Roseanne and The Simpsons.

These days, reality TV is anything from baking to coupling up to being stranded on a deserted island and having to partake in grueling challenges. There are many such programs on various media outlets. Some shows are mundane, while others are extremely strange.

On this list are just some of the WTF moments that form part of everyday reality TV.

10 Appallingly Real Moments In ‘Reality TV’ Programming

10 Levitating Onstage

If Simon Cowell pulls a disdainful face or rolls his eyes, nothing good is in store for the person about to perform on the America’s Got Talent stage. Sometimes, the face and eye roll are premature as was evident with Susan Boyle’s audition. Other times, it is spot-on.

On the day that a contestant named Special Head took to the AGT stage in 2013, Simon Cowell was not one of the judges. Howard Stern was on the panel with Howie Mandell, Heidi Klum, and Mel B. None of them was prepared for what Special Head was about to do.

The 28-year-old man produced a deep, throaty hum and wasn’t even thrown when Stern slapped his buzzer. Special Head hummed louder as he pressed down on a walking stick with one hand while the crowd booed him.

The audience was shocked, however, when Special Head suddenly lifted off the ground and levitated in the air with the same hand still holding onto the walking stick. Then his legs fell to the ground and a puff of smoke arose to the sound of the now-cheering crowd. He received four “yesses” from the judges.

Afterward, some sites “exposed” Special Head’s trick. They said he held a cane that was somehow attached to a small seat beneath his robe, which made it look like he was levitating (when he wasn’t). It still made for quite the WTF moment, though.^[1]

9 Stop The Violence

Jersey Shore is not everyone’s idea of a good reality TV program. In fact, there have been Facebook pages, Reddit threads, and Internet forums dedicated to people ranting about their hatred for the show and everyone on it. Jersey Shore ran for six seasons from 2009 to 2012 and introduced the world to The Situation and Snooki alongside six other people who shared a vacation home.

Despite the hate, the show was a pop culture phenomenon and returned for a reunion series in 2018. During the show’s original run, there were a lot of “audible gasp” moments, including The Situation ramming his head into a wall (on purpose) and Snooki getting punched in the face by a man.

One of the weirdest moments, however, came when housemates Snooki and Angelina had a physical fight. It is truly a fight to remember . . . or not.^[2]

8 The Wrong David

Big Brother follows the lives of “Houseguests” who live together in a specially constructed house while isolated from friends, family, and the public. The Houseguests wear microphones, and their activities are monitored by several cameras. The last person “evicted” from the house wins a cash prize.

The original Big Brother reality TV series first aired in 2000. Several spin-offs and adaptations have seen the light since. A South African version aired its first season in 2001, and that winner, Ferdinand Rabie, is remembered mostly for taking a dump in the garden on live TV.

As a whole, the show has seen multiple meltdowns, tantrums, shocking moments, and more. Some of the most WTF moments in Big Brother history happened during the celebrity version. A few examples include Megan McKenna completely losing it over mashed potato, Kim Woodburn being escorted from the house by security, and Charlotte Crosby wetting her bed.

David Bowie’s ex-wife, Angie, was a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother in 2016 when she was told the news of Bowie’s death in the “diary room” of the Big Brother house. She spoke to a fellow housemate about the devastating news and exclaimed, “David is dead.” Her housemate, Tiffany, misunderstood and thought another housemate named David Gest had died.^[3]

Cue the chaos.

7 ‘The Tribe Has Spoken’

Those words have followed some of the most shocking and controversial “tribal council” moments in Survivor history. The program started out with a group of Americans on the shores of Borneo who faced judgment every three days at Tribal Council.

After every “courtroom” meeting, one person would be voted off the island and have their torch extinguished. The show has had a 40-season run with the 41st season having been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Many jaw-dropping scenes have aired throughout the show’s history, such as one contestant suffering third-degree burns on his hands after passing out in a fire. Other such scenes include naked contestants, medical evacuations, unexpected kisses, and the illegal removal of coral from the Great Barrier Reef.

In Season 13, the word “tribe” suddenly took on a whole different meaning and audiences worldwide were not happy (to put it mildly). The showrunners decided it would be a good idea to divide the tribes by race. These tribes were African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American, and European-American.

After sponsors Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble dropped out, Survivor rethought this idea and rearranged the tribes.^[4]

6 An Enemy Of My Sister

It is almost as though the Osbourne family was born to have their own reality TV show. Between Sharon’s no-holds-barred swearing, Kelly’s unique sense of humor, and, well, Ozzy, there was never any doubt that their program would be worth watching.

Throughout the show, there have been several memorable scenes, such as Sharon throwing ham at her neighbors, the family hiring a dog therapist, Ozzy swearing at the ocean, and Ozzy and Jack throwing firecrackers at pelicans.

During Season 2, Kelly became violently angry after learning that Jack had danced with her sworn enemy, Christina Aguilera, at a party. Shouting at her brother wasn’t enough, so Kelly started punching and kicking him. Sharon had to step in and break up the fight.^[5]

The final episode of The Osbournes aired in March 2005, but the wacky family made a comeback on the Travel Channel on August 2, 2020, with their new show, The Osbournes Want To Believe.

Top 10 Murders Caused By TV Shows

5 Have Some Water

American Idol is synonymous with Ryan Seacrest, Simon Cowell, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, and, of course, controversy. This reality show enjoyed unmatched rankings during its first eight years on the air. It went on hiatus for almost two years after its 15th season and was eventually revived in 2018.

Audiences worldwide have been known to shout at their TV screens (or computer screens) after voting results are revealed on the program. This was especially true after the controversial elimination of Chris Daughtry in Season 5 and Adam Lambert’s loss to Kris Allen in Season 8.

However, it seems that people mostly watched during the beginning to experience Simon Cowell’s acerbic comments. He once called a contestant a “bush baby” because he had big eyes. Cowell also said to a female contestant, “You’re ugly when you perform.” Finally, he insulted another one with “you sounded like Dolly Parton on helium.”

Not everyone took the criticism lying down, though. During Season 3, 18-year-old Jonathan Rey stumbled his way through Shakira’s “The One.” Afterward, Simon said, “I think we’re going to have to cancel this competition . . . that was terrible.” Rey slowly walked up to the judges’ table, picked up a cup of water, and flung it at Cowell.^[6]

4 Be Anyone But Yourself

Tyra Banks’s America’s Next Top Model is well known for the cringey poses of the models and the catfights inside the house in which they live during the show. In 2020, Banks has also received a lot of criticism for goings-on during the program’s several seasons. Creative director Jay Manuel admitted that many moments made him “uncomfortable.”

Many of these incidents involved Banks herself. In one episode, she discouraged contestant Kim Stolz from being too open about her sexuality. After Stolz revealed that she was gay and really proud of it, Banks responded, “I think there’s a certain thing of being proud. Like, I’m black and proud, you know what I mean? But I’m not walking down the red carpet: ‘I’m black. I’m black.’ ”

Danielle Evans, one of the winners on the program, refused to have a gap in her teeth closed. Banks remarked that the gap wasn’t a “marketable” feature and asked Evans whether she really thought she could win a CoverGirl contract with a gapped-tooth smile.

In addition, many photo shoots depicted white models in blackface. In a truly terrible segment from Cycle 15, a contestant named Kayla was pressured into kissing a guy even after she revealed that she had been sexually assaulted as a child. After she was guilted into going through with the kiss, she was told well done “for pushing aside your painful memories.”^[7]

In May 2020, Tyra Banks apologized via Twitter. She agreed with those who were shocked about the “insensitivity” of some episodes. She also said, “Looking back, those were some really off choices.”

3 Evil Mom

On Say Yes to the Dress, Randy Fenoli regularly urges brides who come into Kleinfeld Bridal in Manhattan to choose a wedding dress that they love and feel beautiful in. He doesn’t want them to settle on a gown merely to please their entourage.

Some take the advice to heart and go with their gut when it comes to choosing a dress. Others are completely lost in the background while one of their family members or friends takes over the appointment and forces their opinion on the bride.

In the episode “I’m The Evil Mom Here,” even softhearted, soft-spoken Randy couldn’t contain his irritation with bride Samantha’s mother. She made comments like “I don’t like that dress. It’s ugly.”

When the “evil mom” was reminded that she had liked that dress when it was still on a mannequin, the mother said, “Yeah, not on Samantha. On her, it’s ugly.” Then the mother laughed.

Samantha had lost over 50 kilograms (110 lb) after learning that she was borderline diabetic. Now she just wanted to find a dress that made her feel beautiful. (She had already visited at least 100 bridal stores prior to her appointment at Kleinfeld.) Instead, her mom ridiculed her relentlessly and even called one of her favorite dresses a “curtain.”

Randy had to excuse himself during the appointment. He said, “I’ve never seen anything like this. I don’t want to be a part of this anymore.”^[8]

2 Love Is Hard

It feels like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette have been on TV forever. There have been various spin-offs of these shows, and different versions have popped up in several other countries.

This reality series has had quite a few wild moments, including a contestant sleeping with a producer and a “Bachelor” choosing neither of the two final contestants. Another “Bachelor” channeled Ross Geller and said the wrong name at the rose ceremony.

Yet another one broke up with the contestant to whom he proposed so that he could be with the runner-up. Oh, and let’s not forget Bachelor J.J., who still lived with his parents at that point, trying to pick up Amy Schumer during Season 11.

The Bachelor seems to want to keep the WTF moments going, and Season 20 was just one of many examples. One contestant, Lace, thought it would be a good idea to kiss bachelor Ben Higgins right after she exited the limo on the first night of the season.

At one point, Ben told contestant Sam that she smelled “sour.” Then, in the spirit of empathy, contestant Olivia decided to complain about her “cankles” right after Ben revealed that two of his close family friends had died in a plane crash.^[9]

1 Keeping Up With . . . A Lot

A list like this really wouldn’t be complete without an entry dedicated to the crazy world that is Keeping Up With The Kardashians. The Kardashian family announced in September 2020 that the reality show would be ending after 20 seasons, and it seems that fans aren’t taking the news well.

Over the years, the Kardashians have arguably created more WTF moments than all the other reality shows combined. They have offended several sectors, accused one another of cheating, and shocked their audience with unexpected pregnancies and secret births that led to several conspiracy theories. There have also been arrests, sibling fights, a “shocking” decision to pose for Playboy, meltdowns, and breast milk issues.

Some of the family’s most controversial moments included an extended feud with Taylor Swift, Kendall Jenner appearing in a widely criticized Pepsi advert, Kim being accused of using blackface to promote her KKW beauty line, and Kim apparently “promoting” appetite-suppressant lollipops.^[10]

Top 10 Over-Exploited Reality Show Genres

Christopher Columbus still has his own holiday. Today, most people are at least dimly aware that Columbus wasn’t exactly a great guy, but somehow, he’s still managed to hold on to a little dignity and respect. It was a different time, some might say; or, perhaps, he was no worse than the rest.

SEE ALSO: 10 Rarely Told Tales Of Columbus, History’s Greatest Explorer

But Christopher Columbus wasn’t just your standard careless colonialist. The things he did were so twisted that even the people of his own time thought of him as a monster. Most of it is so brutal it gets cut out of history books in the name of good taste, but the real Columbus was far, far worse than you ever could have imagined.

We’re going to tell you the real story of Christopher Columbus. So get ready—because this is going to get pretty messed up.

10 He Cut The Hands Off Of Natives Who Didn’t Bring Him Enough Gold

Columbus, upon reaching the New World, had written back to the Spanish lord promising “as much gold as they need . . . and as many slaves as they ask.” Now, though, he had to prove he could do it—even if it took a massacre.

He started rounding up natives and locking them in pens. Some were sent to Spain as slaves—though nearly half died during the voyage—and the rest were put to work gathering gold. Every member of the Arawak people who was 14 or older was sent into a part of Haiti were Columbus believed huge gold fields were hiding.

Any native who came back with enough gold to satisfy Columbus was given a copper token to hang around his neck, which meant he was allowed to live. Any native spotted without the token was to have his hands chopped off on the spot. This wasn’t just amputation; the wounds were left untreated, and the victims were allowed to bleed out until they died.^[1]

There was next to no gold in Haiti, which meant it was almost impossible to bring Columbus what he demanded. Most, realizing it was impossible, tried to flee, so the Spaniards hunted them down with dogs and killed every person they could find.

9 Columbus’s Men Tested Their Blades By Killing People

“My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write.”

This was the report that Bartolome de las Casas, a priest who had joined Columbus’s men in New World, sent back home to Europe. He’d witnessed how the Spaniards treated the natives, and what he described was worse than any horror story.

Columbus’s men, Bartolome said, would round up natives and slice off parts of their bodies to test the sharpness of their blades. Just to pass the time, he wrote, the Spaniards “made bets as to who would slit a man in two, or cut off his head in one blow.”

They didn’t stop their massacres at adult men, though. As sport, Columbus’s crew would tear babies out of their mothers’ arms and dash their heads against rocks—or worse. According to Bartolome: “They spitted the bodies of other babes, together with their mothers and all who were before them, on their swords.”^[2]

People were massacred, sometimes just as a way to pass the time. “A stream of blood was running,” Bartolome said, through the native villages after Columbus arrived, “as if a great number of cows had perished.”

8 Columbus Also Mutilated His Own Spaniards

Columbus didn’t stop at torturing the natives; he tortured his own men, too. As he stayed on in the New World and food became scarce, he started to starve his men out. He’d fill his ships with an abundance of food, but he wouldn’t share it with his settlers, even when they began dying of starvation.

Instead, Columbus set up a strict set of rules, promising to hang anyone who so much as stole bread. Often, though, his actual punishments were even more depraved. When a cabin boy stole a fish out of another man’s trap, Columbus had the boy’s hand nailed to the spot where he’d stolen the fish. And when another young boy was caught stealing corn, Columbus had his ears and nose cut off and then had him whipped, shackled, and finally sold into slavery.

He even tortured people for simply buying food with their own money. A group of a dozen Spanish men was tied together by their necks and feet and publicly whipped for buying pork and bread. Their crime, Columbus declared, was that they had “bartered and gave gold without the Admiral’s permission.”^[3]

By the time Columbus left, 50 of his men had died of starvation. He, though, stayed fairly plump—by strict command. In fact, when one of his men failed to get enough food for his pantry, Columbus had him stripped naked and whipped with 100 lashes.

7 Women Were Regularly Paraded Naked Through The Streets

When a Spanish woman upset Columbus, he took a bit of different route. He didn’t stop at whipping her or hanging her; he made sure she was humiliated. Specifically, he’d strip her naked, put her on a mule, and parade her through town.

Columbus’s group did this at least three times. The first was a sentence given out by Christopher Columbus himself, who accused a woman of “falsely claiming to be pregnant” and, as punishment, had her stripped naked and paraded through town.

His brother Bartolome followed his example a little later when a woman accused them of being the sons of a common journeyman.^[4] Again, he stripped her naked and had her shown off to the town on a mule—and then, for good measure, he had her tongue cut out. Christopher was thrilled and publicly congratulated Bartolome for defending the family’s good name.

Then another official did it to a woman named Teresa de Vaeca because her friend had an affair. Teresa herself hadn’t done anything—it was her friend who had the affair—but they still felt she deserved “the punishment for pimping,” which was to be stripped naked, given 100 lashes, and have her tongue cut out.

6 He Started A Child Sex Slave Ring

When Columbus realized that there was more money to be made in prostitution than there was in cultivating land, he started a ring of sex slaves. This, he believed, was just good business. “A hundred castellanos are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm,” he wrote in a letter home, so how, he felt, could he be faulted for dragging away women and selling them to be brutally raped?

The women weren’t willing participants—nor were they, for that matter, always women. Little girls, Columbus said, were the most profitable. He wrote that “those from nine to ten are now in demand.”^[5]

The stories that came out of it are horrifying. One man, named Michele de Cuneo, wrote that Columbus gifted him a young girl to use as a sex slave. “Since I wanted to have my way with her and she was not willing, she worked me over so badly with her nails that I wished I had never begun,” Cuneo wrote in a letter. “I got a rope and tied her up so tightly that she made unheard of cries which you wouldn’t have believed. At the end, we got along so well that, let me tell you, it seemed she had studied at a school for whores.”

5 He Lied About Being The First Person To Spot Land

It wasn’t all murders and massacres, though. Sometimes, Columbus was just petty. Even before he’d set foot in the New World, he was ruining people’s lives.

Before Columbus sailed west, the king and queen of Spain promised a lifetime pension to whoever first spotted land. Columbus’s men, hoping never to have to work another day in their lives, kept an eye out at every moment—until one night, two hours after midnight, Rodrigo de Triaga caught the first glimpse of land over the horizon.

When they reported back to Spain, though, Columbus interjected that he had noticed a light “which appeared like a candle” the day before, and though he hadn’t told his men he’d spotted land, he still felt it was only right that he get the money and Rodrigo de Triaga get nothing.^[6]

As the leader of the expedition, Columbus probably didn’t need the money. According to his contemporaries, he just wanted to be able to say he was the first to spot land. So, for the sake of his pride, he stole a lifetime pension and a place in the history books from one of his own men.

4 He Paraded Dismembered Bodies Through Town

After they’d been mutilated, run down with dogs, and sold into sexual slavery, some of the Arawak natives decided to fight back. They put up the best resistance they could, revolting against Columbus and his men and trying to chase them away—but they didn’t have much of a chance.

The Spaniards had armor, muskets, swords, and horses, so the rebellion was crushed pretty quickly. Columbus and his men hung some of their prisoners, enslaved others, and even burned some of them alive.

Then, to make a point, they dismembered the bodies of the dead and marched through the native towns, parading the mutilated corpses to send a message.^[7] Anyone who tried to fight Columbus, they were warning them, would meet the same fate.

3 He Pretended To Be God To Keep The Natives Working For Him

When they realized they couldn’t kill Columbus, the Arawaks tried another approach: starving him out. Columbus hadn’t really figured out how to survive on his own in the New World; he relied on the food the natives gave him. So, the people in Jamaica decided to just stop feeding him, hoping he’d give up and go away.

Columbus, though, managed to trick them into giving up their food by pretending to have magic powers. He used an astronomical table to figure out when the next lunar eclipse would hit. Then, moments before the eclipse began, he told them that his god was angry with them and that the Moon would now appear inflamed with wrath.

“They came running from every direction to the ships, laden with provisions,” Columbus’s son Ferdinand gleefully wrote, describing it, “praying the Admiral to intercede by all means with God on their behalf; that he might not visit his wrath upon them.”^[8]

It’s a fairly well-known story—but what’s usually left out is the context. Columbus’s triumph came after he’d massacred their people, and the natives were just doing what they could to spare their own lives.

2 The Arawaks Committed Mass Suicide Rather Than Live With Columbus

With no way to escape from Columbus, the Arawaks of Haiti just gave up. Death, they believed, was inevitable. The only hope they had was to spare themselves from the pain and torture they’d experience at Columbus’s hands.

They started committing suicide en masse. Whole communities would gather together to kill themselves, sometimes doing so in groups of 100 at a time. Mothers would feed their children cassava poison to let them die peaceful deaths, and the young women swore not to bring another child into the world.

One of the Spaniards there, Perdro de Corboda, wrote home: “Many, when pregnant, have taken something to abort and have aborted. Others after delivery have killed their children with their own hands, so as not to leave them in such oppressive slavery.”^[9] At the peak of mass suicides, 250,000 native Haitians died in just two short years.

1 He Brought Syphilis To Europe

Columbus killed millions of natives, but in what might well be divine retribution, he killed millions more back home. When he and his men came back from the New World, they didn’t just bring back slaves—they brought back syphilis.

The first syphilis outbreak in Europe happened in 1495, shortly after Columbus and his sailors returned. Before Columbus, there hadn’t been any known cases of syphilis in Europe. There are a few researchers who insist they’ve found one, but none have been conclusively proven, and all signs point to the idea the Columbus and his men brought it over with their ring of child sex slaves.^[10]

Some of Columbus’s crewmen ended up serving in a war against Italy, whoring their way across Europe on the way, and soon spread syphilis all across the continent. It was devastating. The first outbreak alone killed more than five million Europeans.

That death toll might even include Christopher Columbus, who died in 1506, after years of fighting through a long and painful illness he’d contracted on his last voyage to the New World. At the time, they called it gout, and today, most think it was Reiter’s syndrome, but some believe that he was taken out by his own disease: syphilis.