Jun 30 2005 03:02 PM ET

Reality TV: More proof that it ain't so real

Categories: Television

152222__swan_lFrankly, I’m shocked — shocked! — to learn that reality TV shows aren’t exactly unscripted. Rebecca Hertz, a writer for The Swan, admitted to Entertainment Weekly (for an article in the upcoming issue) that the show’s staff created dialogue and situations via editing-room cutting and splicing, a process they call ”Frankenbiting.”  For the show’s first season (pictured is contestant Gina D.), Hertz says she helped make it appear that winner Rachel Love-Fraser was unhappily married:  ”In a pre-interview, I led her husband to say Rachel looks average, but he thought she looked beautiful. I cut it down to him saying she looks average, so he sounded like a mean, horrible a–hole. He was furious when he saw the show.” (Swan executive producer Nely Galán declined to comment to EW.)

Is such editing unfair and distorting, or should reality stars be more mindful that anything unflattering they may say or do on camera could be broadcast to millions?

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