I haven't had cable for the better part of 10 years, and the last time I remember watching any tv regularly was around 2007. (I watched a lot of those spike tv "Ninja Warrior" marathons while working a certain job... for some reason.) But I can tell you that 1.) "Reality" TV is mostly obviously staged with the odd interesting but unscripted moment from the reams of footage thrown in. 2.) They make it because it's (relatively) dirt cheap. Who cares if the "stars" are shitty actors? It just adds to the "realism" and the audience thinking the events are real means you don't have to spend a lot of time and money on writing/plots. Sure reality shows still cost a lot of money to make but consider that some "stars" on crappy sitcoms can command a million dollars or more per episode, and that's on top of paying all the other actors, writers, crew, constructing the sets etc. Where with reality tv all you have to do is hold a talent show, or rent a mansion and hire some attractive but somehow noticeably flawed people for the audience to feel superior to.