Unscripted reality television has come a long way since 1973’s An American Family, and people have MTV’s The Real World to thank for that. In fact, it was this show that inspired The Real World’s producers to conceptualize the show. While The Real World’s ratings declined in the 2010s as people shifted toward more niche subgenres of reality television, the early seasons set a precedent for what reality television could be.
The Real World popularized docu-style reality television
In 1992, The Real World introduced a brand new way of storytelling. The documentary-style series paved the way for a network to put a group of diverse individuals in an artificial setting with cameras, unscripted, long before Survivor and Big Brother existed.
In the first season, they were placed into an apartment in New York City to document the challenges and conflicts that would emerge from living together for months on end. The early seasons produced some of the best reality television moments ever.
In Season 7, the Seattle season, a fight broke out between castmates Stephen and Irene. This moment led to the infamous slap heard around the world. In the Chicago season, which aired in 2002, the cast watched the September 11th terrorist attack on television.
Even outside of the absurdity of some of the episodes, watching people sort out mundane tasks like laundry and dishes would break out into full-on power struggles. The greatest part about a show like The Real World was that because they didn’t have the largest budget, they relied on real people, not actors or “influencers” like nowadays, creating an even more authentic viewing experience.
The Pioneers of the confessional
The Real World was also the first show to introduce the confessional interview. People speak directly to the camera about their interpersonal conflicts to add context to situations and advance plots. Jersey Shore, Vanderpump Rules, and The Real Housewives franchise have some of the most iconic, quotable confessionals fans recite to this day. Survivor was the first to create the concept of a voting-style confessional.
MTV was ahead of its time
There’s no denying MTV’s heyday was the 1980s and 1990s music video era. However, the late ‘90s and early-2000s bred innovation at the network that people were oblivious to or didn’t care about.
The Real World sparked real conversations about racism, LGBTQ+ rights, and raised consciousness about the AIDS crisis. It was more than any of the kids would’ve learned at school, anyway. MTV also sparked innovation in dating shows by creating the predecessor to Tinder. It even bled into their forgotten projects like Downtown, a historically accurate depiction of late-‘90s NYC.
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