Is reality TV washed?

After a decadeslong boom, reality TV is hitting a low like when Snooki was arrested for public intoxication at the beach.

The industry is downsizing harder than a star on Extreme Weight Loss: The number of new unscripted shows in the US took a nosedive last year, falling 15%. That means it’s a third below its 2022 level, according to data from research firm Luminate reported by the New York Times.

Coming to terms: “Unscripted” is a broad category that encompasses all TV shows without a traditional script. But unscripted doesn’t mean unstructured: Cooking shows, home improvement shows, and even game shows all travel under the unscripted umbrella. Reality TV is a subset of unscripted that focuses on relationships and their baggage. It has a reputation for being heavily edited and even manipulated to maximize viewers’ emotional investment in it.

Both cable and streaming are slimming down their unscripted and reality offerings:

• Unscripted powerhouse networks like HGTV released episodes of only 35 shows in 2025, compared to 78 in 2019. Meanwhile, the Food Network produced just half as many shows as it did in 2019.
• Streaming platforms and linear TV combined ordered 31% fewer reality series in 2025 than the previous year.

Meanwhile, the shows that are being greenlit are produced on smaller budgets, leaving fewer jobs—not only for people who don’t mind having a drunken fight on camera, but also for production professionals.

Economic reality

Times have changed from when networks fell in love with reality shows for their ability to get everyone rooting for Kim to get her diamond ring back on a modest budget. While unscripted shows got a boost from a 2007 writers strike, which made reality TV’s (often) nonunionized casts and crews look more attractive to studios, the Hollywood strike of 2023 delivered no such windfall.

Industry consolidation left fewer studios as buyers of reality TV content. And the streaming wars of the late 2010s and early 2020s, during which platforms like Netflix and Hulu cranked up content production to win subscribers, have wound down in recent years. The ratings of once-iconic brands like The Bachelor and The Real Housewives are on the decline, even as their budgets have swelled.

But…audiences aren’t voting reality TV off the island entirely. Love Island USA was the most-watched original streaming show last year, with 18 billion minutes streamed on Peacock, according to Luminate.—SK