10 reality shows from the 2000s we still can't believe existed

Reality rewind collage of John Cena; the cast of Chains of Love; Mr.Personality; Kid Nation — Credit:
Everett Collection; CBS; Getty Images; Adobe Stock - Design: Alex Sandoval

Today reality TV is so ubiquitous, it's easy to forget how much people — and by "people," I mean "critics" — hated the genre, which exploded in popularity after the premiere of Survivor in 2000.

To be fair to those critics, however, many of the shows TV networks threw on the air in hopes of capitalizing on the reality trend were mind-bogglingly dumb. The first decade of the 2000s was such a bonanza for bad reality TV ideas, it was hard to narrow this list down to just 10. Nevertheless, we persisted.

Critics excoriated the programs highlighted below as "amateurish and moronic," "grotesque and creepy," and "too panderingly stupid to get seriously upset about." Readers, they weren't wrong. Please enjoy this nostalgic look back at some of reality TV's lowest moments.

01 of 10

The Moment of Truth (Fox, 2008)

Host Mark L. Walberg and participant Lauren on 'The Moment of Truth'.
Patrick Wymore/FOX

Honestly, this entire list could all be Fox shows if we wanted. And we could have gone 20 deep… easy. Perhaps the most diabolical game show of all-time, The Moment of Truth asked its competitors a series of insanely personal questions while strapped to a polygraph, and then made them answer those questions in front of a live studio audience — often including their spouses, ex-lovers, family members, and coworkers. As long as they told the truth — damn the consequences for what they were about to admit to their loved ones and millions of viewers — they would keep winning money, up to $500,000. The show’s three-season run included one infamous episode which featured an opening disclaimer by host Mark L. Walberg in which he voiced “quite honestly, if I had my vote, it would not air.” That was because 26-year-old salon manger Lauren Cleri admitted in front of her police officer husband sitting a few feet away that she had cheated on him, took her wedding ring off in public, faked being asleep to avoid having sex, and wished she had married her ex-boyfriend instead. Cleri was finally eliminated, however, after being caught lying on the question of whether she felt she was a good person. She answered yes. —Dalton Ross

02 of 10

Chains of Love (UPN, 2001)

Ad for UPN's reality dating show 'Chains of Love'.
Courtesy Everett

A full decade before “cuffing season” entered our national lexicon, UPN offered viewers a literal version with this asinine dating show. In each episode, one single man or woman — dubbed the “Picker” — was shackled to four eligible contestants of the opposite sex. Over the course of a four-day period, the group spent every waking (and sleeping) hour together — going out to dinner, grocery shopping, bowling, etc. — all while chained together. One by one, the Picker dumped contestants they weren't clicking with... with help from the Locksmith, one of the dumbest, most delightful reality-TV sidekicks of all time. Eventually, only one lucky (depending on how you want to define that word) single was left standing — and if the Picker was smitten, the two shared a cash prize. As one UPN exec told Entertainment Weekly at the time, “The chains are metaphors for the bonds of human affection.... People are going to be surprised by how revealing it is." Oh, did he say “revealing”? We’re pretty sure he meant “ridonkulous.” —Kristen Baldwin

03 of 10

Man vs. Beast (Fox, 2003-2004)

Jacob the Chimpanzee, Kap Teo-Tafiti on 'Man vs. Beast'.
Everett Collection

If you wanted to watch a world class sprinter race against a giraffe in the early 2000s, then the Fox network was definitely the place to be. And if that sprinter happened to beat the giraffe, you better be damn sure he was going up against a zebra next. These interspecies shenanigans were all part of the channel’s two Man vs. Beast specials, which also pitted Takeru Kobayashi in a hot dog eating contest against a Kodiak bear, had 44 little people face-off against an elephant in a race to pull a DC-10 airplane, and made an all-American gymnast take on an orangutan named Bam Bam in a dead hang competition that featured such edge-of-your-seat play-by-play commentary as, “I think the important thing to notice right now is Bam Bam does have a little bit of difficulty. And that he’s losing his shorts.” Regardless of the individual outcome of each competition, I think it is fair to say that the overall loser in this entire reality TV experiment was both Man and mankind in general. —D.R.

04 of 10

Kid Nation (CBS, 2007)

Alex, Guylan, Brett and Markelle pull the supply wagon on 'Kid Nation'.
Monty Brinton/ CBS by Getty

Reality TV, much like the Internet, is where nuance goes to die. Producers of this controversial series — which placed 40 kids, ages 8 to 15, on an isolated ranch in New Mexico and tasked them with building a functional society — insisted their goal was to deliver an authentic social experiment. As creator Tom Forman told The Los Angeles Times, the hope was “for kids to succeed where adults have failed.” But all it took was a four-minute teaser — featuring kids weeping, arguing, and struggling with daily chores — for critics to label the show the worst example of child exploitation since the textile mills in Dickensian London. The truth was somewhere in the middle: No, Kid Nation was never officially charged with violating child labor laws, but one kid did accidentally drink bleach — and another sustained a minor burn while cooking. Yes, the promos promised “NO adults,” but no, the kids weren't alone. As former contestant Taylor DuPriest told Entertainment Weekly in 2008, "I was surprised that everybody ended up making so much controversy that we were by ourselves, because that’s not true! There were more camera crew and producers than there were kids.” At least one truth cannot be disputed: This reality show should have never made it past the pitch meeting. —K.B.

05 of 10

Manhunt (UPN, 2001)

John Cena as 'Big Tim' on 'Manhunt'.
CBS via Getty

The cheesy premise of this 2001 UPN entry allegedly filmed in Hawaii was that a group of — and I am quoting here — “soft-bellied suburbanites” had to cross an island in six days while being stalked by paintball gun-toting fake bounty hunters who clearly set their weapons to humiliate. One of those bounty hunters was none other than John Cena (going here by the name “Big Tim” for some reason), who would celebrate a “kill” by shaving his victim’s head while spewing some very amateur-level smack talk. On one hand, there was nothing so egregiously terrible about Manhunt to set it apart from scores of similar failed early era reality competition shows. Well, that’s not necessarily true. It was pretty damn bad. But making things even worse was when it was uncovered that certain scenes were shot later back in Los Angeles. A producer on the show, Bob Jaffe, accused the studio of reshooting interviews and altering other scenes, and said he was fired after refusing to manipulate results. For their part, the studio and network issued a joint statement admitting to some reshoots but insisting that “UPN and Paramount have not supported and would not support persons or practices designed to manipulate the outcome of the show.” The statement did not, however, explain why they aired the damn thing in the first place. —D.R.

06 of 10

Are You Hot? (ABC, 2003)

A contestant poses for the judges on 'Are You Hot?'.
CAROL KAELSON/ABC

The worst part about Are You Hot? The Search for America’s Sexiest People wasn’t its egregiously shallow concept, which executive producer Mike Fleiss explained thusly: “You just see good-looking people either validated as gorgeous or cut to shreds as posers.” It wasn’t judge Lorenzo Lamas and his laser pointer — which he’d use to point out contestants’ physical “flaws” — or the sleazy comments he made to female Hot hopefuls. (“I got a burrito cooking down south, and it’s almost ready.”) It wasn’t the way host J.D. Roberto would send eliminated contestants home by announcing, “I’m very sorry — you are not hot enough to continue.” No, the worst part about Are You Hot? is that this objectively stupid idea wasn’t even original: The series was a rip-off of a regular Howard Stern segment called The Evaluators. (Stern later settled a lawsuit against ABC and producers.) Though the premiere drew more than 10 million viewers, ABC ultimately killed Are You Hot? after one season, admitting that the show was “in bad taste.” —K.B.

07 of 10

Boy Meets Boy (Bravo, 2003)

James, the Leading Man, with contestants on 'Boy Meets Boy'.
Glenn Cambell/BRAVO

On its surface, Boy Meets Boy seemed like a simple Bachelor-type dating show for gay men, as one James Getzlaff eliminated eligible suitors along the way to finding his true love. But halfway through Bravo’s thoroughly regrettable 2003 series, producers clued Getzlaff into their super-problematic twist — half the men were actually straight and merely posing as gay in the hopes of winning a cash prize. If Getzlaff’s gaydar was strong enough and the man he ultimately chose was homosexual, they would win a romantic vacation together and share in a cash prize. But if he picked a heterosexual, the man merely posing as gay would take home the entire loot. Perhaps even more inexplicable than this show even making it to air is the fact that another network then essentially did a variation on the same thing! Yes, one year later, the Fox network (who else?) aired Playing it Straight, in which a woman tried to find her true love among a group of half-straight and half-gay men — eliminating the ones she thought were gay along the way. Thankfully, Playing it Straight was pulled from the schedule after only three episodes, but not before it spawned multiple international editions… because of course it did. —D.R.

08 of 10

Mr. Personality (Fox, 2003)

Hayley Arp, Monica Lewinsky and masked contestants on 'Mr. Personality'.
Courtesy Everett

After The Bachelor premiered in 2002 and became an instant hit for ABC, other networks raced to create their own addictive dating show. Under the bold/twisted guidance of chief reality exec Mike Darnell, Fox debuted Mr. Personality, a.k.a., The Bachelorette, But All the Guys Have to Wear Creepy Masks. For 26-year-old stockbroker Hayley Arp, “love is blind” meant dating 20 eligible men without ever being able to see their faces — until she sent them home. Adding to the absurdity was the network’s choice of host, Monica Lewinsky, whose mere existence was still considered scandalous back in 2003. Fox’s other entries into the dating genre — including More to Love (a.k.a. plus-size Bachelor) and The Littlest Groom (a.k.a. little person Bachelor) — were bonkers in their own way, but you really haven’t seen weird until you’ve watched a bikini-clad woman share a hot tub with five guys in full latex head-coverings. (And no, those masks were not comfortable. According to Entertainment Weekly’s interview with a contestant in 2003, some of the men wore maxi pads under their masks to absorb the sweat.) —K.B.

09 of 10

Who’s Your Daddy? (Fox, 2005)

The pilot episode of Who's Your Daddy starring T.J. Myers — The pilot episode of 'Who's Your Daddy' starring T.J. Myers.
FOX

“There’s no greater bond than that between parent and child.” Those were the first words uttered on this Fox 2005 series that then proceeded to immediately exploit those bonds in what could arguably be described as the network’s true moral nadir. The show featured eight men each trying to convince adopted T.J. Myers that they were her true biological father — naturally, with cash on the line. After interviewing each of the potential daddies, if Myers correctly identified the man who gave her up, she won $100,000. If she was wrong, the phony baloney dad received the prize instead. While we will award points for the on-point reunion line at the end of “Sweetheart, I’m home,” we will deduct points for pretty much everything else. Who’s Your Daddy? was canceled after a single episode, with the remaining five installments being burned off on the Fox Reality Chanel during — you guessed it — Father’s Day. —D.R.

10 of 10

Extreme Makeover (ABC, 2002)

Before and After images for two contestants on 'Extreme Makeover'.
ABC TV/Courtesy Everett

Today, this franchise is largely remembered as a staple of feel-good home renovation TV. But Extreme Makeover started as a feel-gross makeover series featuring everyday folks desperate to change their looks through plastic surgery, wardrobe upgrades, diet plans, and other superficial “improvements.” In season 1, 10 million viewers watched each week as contestants met with a phalanx of doctors, underwent plastic surgery and suffered through painful recoveries, and ultimately revealed the results to friends and family as a living “After” photo. (ABC launched the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition spinoff in 2004.) Hoping to capitalize on Extreme’s success, Fox launched their own cosmetic surgery-themed series called The Swan, which upped the ugly-duckling ante by adding a beauty-pageant element to the proceedings. By the time E! unleashed Bridalplasty (12 brides-to-be compete for a medical makeover and a dream wedding) in 2010, America’s madness for makeovers had faded, and the show was canceled after one season. —K.B.