I've worked as an editor of reality TV shows for about eight years — I've worked for 30 to 35 different reality series, and probably edited 300 to 400 individual episodes. Most people understand by this point that reality shows are entertainment, but there's a trust element there — when it's called reality, viewers want to believe. As editors we walk the line, though, and in some shows we kind of jump over it.

The caliber of producers and executives in reality TV is terrible because reality shows are so cheap — you can make a whole season of a reality show for the cost of one episode of CSI, so the network just promotes a bunch of knuckleheads to be the producers. So you have to manipulate more than you should — nothing happened on the show because the producers didn't do anything.

One show that really walked the line was a design competition show — as the show went on, the network became aware of what characters viewers were responding to, and the actual competition got lost and it was just like, "who do we want to kick off this week? How can we manipulate things so one person leaves or one person stays?" One season the winner was supposed to win their own show, and the network continuously kept this cast member who was far less qualified and far less intelligent than the others but who was cute and bubbly and filled a demographic niche they were looking to fill for a host on their network. By the end the network got their way, and she won. But it turned out she had just gotten pregnant, but they were like, "oh, we don't want a pregnant lady." They worked it out somehow with her — she never got a show. It was kind of shitty, although it was also poetic justice that the network pushed this lesser product and it backfired.

One technique producers use to make a good show is to cut the contestants off from outside world — no cell phones, no internet, no TV, no leaving. People get bored. Sometimes production will specifically draw things out, so people have to hurry up and then wait around forever. It's basically like putting animals in a cage.

Then in interviews the producers will say things like, "so-and-so was looking at you funny, what do you think of that?" They try to turn people against each other, and they've been sitting in a cage, so people start cracking. That's when the gold happens. You want that big act-out. Producers call them "teasable moments" — moments you can use in the preview to tease the show.