In Reality Television
Hidden cameras are also sometimes used in reality television to catch participants in unusual or absurd situations. Participants will either know they will be filmed, but not always exactly when or where, or do not know they have been filmed until later, at which point they may sign a release or give consent to the footage being produced for a show. This latter sub-genre of unwitting participants began in the 1940s with Allen Funt's Candid Microphone theatrical short films . In 1996 the genre was given an overhaul by Travis Draft who introduced the glasses cam with his show Buzzkill. The show took hidden camera to a whole new level where the performer (Draft Himself and Cronies) were the focal point.
| Show Name | Channel | Years of Production | Number of Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Videomatch | Telefé (Argentina) | 1991 - 2004 | |
| $25 Million Dollar Hoax | NBC | 2004 | 3 |
| Animal Kidding | Animal Planet | 2003 | 16 |
| Balls of Steel | Channel 4 | 2005 | |
| Boiling Points | MTV | 2003-2005 | |
| Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty | Oxygen | 2006 | 14 |
| Burned | MTV | 2003 | 30 |
| Buzzkill | MTV | 1995 | |
| Candid Camera | ABC/NBC/CBS/PAX | 1948-1954, 1960-1967, 1987-1988, 1996-2004 | 1,000+ |
| Celebrity Undercover | MTV | 20 | |
| Cheaters | |||
| Crossballs: The Debate Show | Comedy Central | ||
| Da Ali G Show | Channel 4 | ||
| Damage Control | MTV | 2005 | 16 |
| Dirty Sexy Funny: Olivia Lee | Comedy Central UK | 8 | |
| Faking the Video | MTV | 2004 | 7 |
| Fire Me...Please | CBS | 2005 | 4 |
| Funny Business | |||
| Girls Behaving Badly | Oxygen | 2002-2007 | 72 |
| Guys Behaving Badly | Oxygen | 2005 | 5 |
| Hi-Jinks | NIK | 2005 | |
| Hidden Howie: The Private Life of a Public Nuisance | BRAVO | 2005 | 6 |
| Impractical Jokers | truTV | 2011 | 16 (produced) |
| Infarto | Azteca América | ||
| Instant Recall | GSN | 2010 | 8 |
| Invasion of the Hidden Cameras (When Hidden Cameras Attack) | FOX | 12 | |
| Jamie Kennedy Experiment | WB | 2003 | |
| Just For Laughs | |||
| Just Kidding | |||
| Kids Behaving Badly | Oxygen | 2005 | 10 |
| Laugh Out Loud | M-Net | ||
| Meet the Marks | FOX | 2002 | 7 |
| MotorMouth | VH1 | ||
| My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss | |||
| My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé | |||
| Naked Camera | RTÉ Two | 2005-2007 | 18 |
| Oblivious | |||
| People Traps | Animal Planet | 2002 | 1 |
| Peter Jacobsen Plugged In | |||
| Punk'd | MTV | 2003-2007, 2012 | 67 |
| Que Locura | Venevisión | 2001 | |
| ROOM 401 | MTV | ||
| The Real Wedding Crashers | NBC | 2007 | 6 |
| Really Naked Truth | Playboy | 22 | |
| Red Handed | UPN | 1999 | |
| Scare Tactics | Syfy | ||
| Show Me the Funny | FOX | 1998 | 155 |
| Skunked TV | NBC | 2004 | 13 |
| Sledgehammer | VH1 | 2001 | 5 |
| Spy TV | NBC | 2001 | 27 |
| Taxicab Confessions | HBO | ||
| That's Funny | 2004 | 80 | |
| Totally Hidden Extreme Magic | NBC | 2 | |
| Totally Busted | PlayboyTV | ||
| Totally Hidden Video | FOX | ||
| Tourist Traps | 2001 | 6 | |
| Trapped in TV Guide | TVG | 2006 | |
| Trigger Happy TV | UK 2000 / US 2003 | 13 | |
| TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes | |||
| Ultimate Revenge | TNN/SPIKE | 2001 | 26 |
| What Would You Do? | ABC | since 2009 | |
| World Shut Your Mouth | BBC | 2005 | 7 |
| You're On! | Nickelodeon | 1998 | |
| You've Got a Friend (My New Best Friend) | MTV | 2004 | 8 |
Read more about this topic: Hidden Camera
Famous quotes containing the words reality and/or television:
“It is in the nature of allegory, as opposed to symbolism, to beg the question of absolute reality. The allegorist avails himself of a formal correspondence between “ideas” and “things,” both of which he assumes as given; he need not inquire whether either sphere is “real” or whether, in the final analysis, reality consists in their interaction.”
—Charles, Jr. Feidelson, U.S. educator, critic. Symbolism and American Literature, ch. 1, University of Chicago Press (1953)
“So by all means let’s have a television show quick and long, even if the commercial has to be delivered by a man in a white coat with a stethoscope hanging around his neck, selling ergot pills. After all the public is entitled to what it wants, isn’t it? The Romans knew that and even they lasted four hundred years after they started to putrefy.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)