Ah, reality television. A stellar way to ignore the state of the world and focus on what's important: other people's drama. The genre has been around since the '70s, but it didn't get popular until the '90s, when MTV gifted us the powerhouse that was and forever will be The Real World. After that, we saw a boom of reality TV content. From regular people going on national television to look for love, to belting your heart out for a golden ticket to Hollywood, networks (and audiences) couldn't get enough of the stuff.
And while the genre is great and all, there's also a lot of it. So, as certified reality TV obsessives, we've done the work for you and narrowed things down to the 25 most iconic unscripted series ever made. From The Real Housewives to Survivor, we've got a wide variety of shows on this list sure to suit pretty much anybody out there, whether you're looking for a competition show, a workplace drama, or just a bunch of rich people throwing drinks at one another.
Without further ado, these are the best reality shows of all time. Buckle in, because you're about to be entertained for hours on end.
The Best Reality Competition Series
'America’s Next Top Model' (2003–2018)
The most legendary of reality shows premiered in 2003. In each of its 24 “cycles,” supermodel Tyra Banks hosted a competition for aspiring models to compete for the title of “America’s Next Top Model” and the opportunity to kickstart a career in the fashion industry. It has since been followed down the catwalk by more than 50 international versions of the series.
'American Idol' (2002– )
In case you’ve been living under a rock since the turn of the millennium, this long-running talent show sees aspiring singers auditioning for a panel of celebrity judges and competing to see who will be—you guessed it—the next American Idol. It’s responsible for introducing the world to the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson, and so many other incredible vocalists.
'The Great British Baking Show' (2010– )
This show is known as The Great British Bake Off in the U.K. and The Great British Baking Show stateside, but whatever you call it, it’s the most charming show on television. This devastatingly British competition series follows amateur bakers as they (very kindly) compete against each other in a series of rounds with different themes, hoping to impress a group of judges with their baking skills.
'Project Runway' (2004– )
Across its 20-plus seasons, mostly hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum, aspiring designers compete in various weekly design challenges for a chance to break into the fashion industry. Perhaps the show's most iconic star is Christian Siriano, who won season 4 and went on to launch a highly successful fashion career—and who later paid it forward by returning to the show as a mentor.
'Queer Eye' (2003–2007; 2018–2026)
This heartwarming makeover series, originally titled Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (they dropped the second half of the name for the revival, which is all-inclusive), focuses on the Fab 5, a group of queer and gay men who offer up their individual skill sets—including fashion, food, personal grooming, interior design, and culture—to perform a makeover on a person in need.
'RuPaul's Drag Race' (2009– )
Hosted by the always-iconic RuPaul since it began in 2009, this competition stars drag queens going head-to-head to see who’s best—whether that’s in lip-syncing for their lives or in who "sashays away" the most creatively. If you can get past the “Vaseline filter” of season 1, definitely start from the beginning, as the series becomes more self-referential as it goes on.
'Shark Tank' (2009– )
If you’ve ever absentmindedly channel-surfed in a hotel room to kill time, you’ve definitely seen Shark Tank. For the uninitiated, however, the show stars aspiring entrepreneurs pitching deep-pocketed investors for the opportunity to invest in their companies. Over the years, guests joining Mark Cuban and the rest of the always-savvy, often-sassy sharks have included Bethenny Frankel, Gwyneth Paltrow, and so many more.
'Survivor' (2000– )
At its most basic, Survivor is about contestants competing on an island with limited resources to survive, with the winner receiving a cash prize. Over its more than 700 (and counting) episodes, however, it has become a much more complicated game of strategy and stakes-raising twists.
The Best Reality Dating Shows
'90 Day Fiancé' (2014– )
The central show in the franchise follows couples made up of American citizens and their foreign fiancés, who have 90 days to decide if they’re going to get married before their K-1 visas expire. If they don’t, the non-American in the couple will have to leave the country. The hit series has since been followed by several spinoffs, including those subtitled Happily Ever After?, Before the 90 Days, and The Other Way, the last of which features Americans seeking to move abroad.
'The Bachelor' (2002– )
The Bachelor began airing in 2002 on ABC, followed quickly by The Bachelorette in 2003, each featuring a single suitor narrowing down a pool of romantic interests in search of their future spouse. As the two flagship shows have seen their seasons number into the dozens, the franchise has spawned several spinoffs, including Bachelor Pad, Bachelor in Paradise, The Bachelor Winter Games, and, most recently, The Golden Bachelor.
'Flavor of Love' (2006–2008)
After falling in love with Brigitte Nielsen on The Surreal Life, Flavor Flav seemingly decided that since reality TV had found him love once, it was worth another try, and thus Flavor of Love was born. Meanwhile, after coming in second place twice on Flavor of Love, Tiffany “New York” Pollard was gifted her own spinoff, I Love New York, which is also very much worth a watch. Sadly, as entertaining as they are, neither series was ultimately successful in their respective stars’s goals of finding love.
'Love & Hip-Hop' (2012– )
This soapy reality TV franchise kicked off with Love & Hip Hop: New York, and installments based in Atlanta, Hollywood, and Miami soon followed, all documenting the lives of a sprawling cast of hip-hop and R&B musicians, performers, managers, and producers living in those hotspots. Perhaps most importantly, you can thank this show for giving us the one and only Cardi B.
'Love Is Blind' (2020– )
In this instant-classic Netflix series, couples go through several rounds of dating without ever knowing what the other person looks like, culminating in a totally blind proposal. Once they finally meet each other in real life, they have only a couple of weeks to decide whether they want to follow through with a walk down the aisle. Several seasons—and international spinoffs—in, I’m not sure hosts Vanessa and Nick Lachey have proven yet that love is truly blind…but that won't stop me from tuning in for every second of the drama.
'Love Island' (2015– )
The U.K.-based phenomenon kicked off a decade ago and quickly inspired nearly two dozen spinoffs, including in the U.S., which has recently started giving the U.K. edition a run for its money as the most entertaining of the bunch. Each version is basically about a bunch of hot people living in a villa together under constant surveillance, trying to “couple up” and be the winning pair (chosen by the public) to win a big cash prize.
The Best Lifestyle Reality Shows
'Dance Moms' (2011–2019)
The name of the show only tells half the story. Sure, the titular mothers of the young dance students at Abby Lee Dance Company stir up plenty of drama with each other and, more often, with dance teacher Abby Lee Miller. But the show is also filled with pretty spectacular performances from the students themselves, including Gen Z stars like Maddie Ziegler and JoJo Siwa, as they battle to be at the top of Miller’s weekly pyramids.
'The Hills' (2006–2010)
While the show uses the term “reality” loosely, The Hills follows the lives of Lauren Conrad, Audrina Patridge, Whitney Port, Heidi Montag, and more young adults in L.A. Once you’re hooked, you’ll want to go back, back to the beginning and revisit their equally messy high school years in Laguna Beach, another iconic MTV reality show.
'Jersey Shore' (2009–2012)
Known as one of MTV's most-watched television shows, the first seasons of Jersey Shore followed eight roommates who spent their summer working and living together in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. Following seasons and spinoffs of the show included new locations like Miami, Florida, and Florence, Italy. The show gave us new lingo (GTL, anyone?) and probably helped self-tanner sales.
'Keeping Up With the Kardashians' (2007–2021)
Across 20 seasons and countless spinoffs, the Kardashian family kept the world entertained—and built a multimedia empire—via this series, where we watched the Calabasas family start (and end) businesses, fights, romances, and prank wars, all while remaining a remarkably tight-knit family unit. And, if these nearly 300 episodes aren’t enough, you can follow the fam over to Hulu for The Kardashians, which picked up where KUWTK left off in 2022.
'My Super Sweet 16' (2005–2017)
One of MTV’s better reality shows, it documented the lives of wealthy—and often outrageously bratty—teenagers planning over-the-top birthday extravaganzas. While most of the episodes focused on the big 1-6, other episodes included lavish quinceañeras, one titled "My Super Swag 18," and a "Super Sweet 21."
'The Real Housewives' (2006– )
The simplest way to sum up this far-reaching franchise, which kicked off two decades ago with The Real Housewives of Orange County, is “wealthy women doing things.” It’s better than it sounds—just wait until you’ve visited Scary Island with the women of New York or seen New Jersey’s own Teresa Giudice flip a table, among other iconic moments from across the Housewives-verse, which now spans a long list of international editions and spinoff shows, on top of the 11 U.S. cities featured to date.
'The Real World' (1992–2019)
The reality show that started it all! The opening credits, which remained mostly consistent across all 33 seasons, describe the premise better than we could: “This is the true story of seven strangers picked to live in a house, work together, and have their lives taped to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.” And, oh, it gets so real.
'The Simple Life' (2003–2007)
The Simple Life is the show that blessed us with Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton, and we have never been the same since. The show followed the two socialites as they were taken from the comfort of their lives in Beverly Hills and put into rural environments and given manual jobs, all to comedic effect.
The Best Reality Workplace Series
'Below Deck' (2013– )
Below Deck and its many offshoots follow young yacht crews of multimillion-dollar charter boats as they juggle their jobs serving guests and, of course, plenty of interpersonal communication issues. Imagine being young, hot, and trapped at sea—the drama!
'Selling Sunset' (2019– )
This Netflix franchise puts the real (estate) into reality—get it?!—and has since expanded beyond the Sunset Strip to Tampa, Orange County, and N.Y.C. Each series follows a group of glamorous real estate agents as they juggle selling multimillion-dollar mansions with managing their seemingly never-ending personal dramas.
'Vanderpump Rules' (2013– )
Technically a spinoff of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills—but, truly, a reality TV staple in its own right—VPR follows the trials, tribulations, and tequila-drinking of the employees of Lisa Vanderpump’s empire of West Hollywood bars and restaurants. If it’s your first time watching, you may be tempted to skip straight ahead to the “Scandoval” of it all, but you really must begin with season 1, episode 1 to get the full effect—and thank me later.
