How scripted is the Jersey Shore?

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that reality TV. is only mildly “real.” But how far does the scripting go? I can speak off experience, as a former employee of a has-been reality TV production team, and I can also share shed some light on just how far, one of the favorite MTV shows actually goes.

For a very brief part of my post-undergrad life, I reviewed footage for the then-popular show, Wife Swap. In my naivety, I very quickly learned that as I matched camera angles to the footage shown at any given time, a week of footage was chopped up and presented as the same day.

For an example, on a Monday, perhaps Wife 1 and Husband 2 got in a fight, footage from the following Friday where Husband 2 is sitting peacefully in his office for extended hours is then presented as the same day. Husband 2 is distraught from the fight and then spends hours in his office sulking, in the same day – according to the show. Really, the fight was minor on Monday and on Friday, Husband 2 was working – neither scene are relevant to one another but the audience is to believe that a fight that occurred on Monday was deeply impacted Husband 2 then he needed to enter solitude to handle his emotions.

While, in “reality,” there are a number of problems with basically lying by presenting unrelated footage in order to mislead an audience – though I don’t think laws exist for things like this.

Another example of non-reality of reality TV can be seen on this season’s Jersey Shore. In the episode, “Cabs are here,” Sammi and Deena go to a bar, and after Ronnie walks by with what Sammi assumes is another girl, she flags down two men walking by. Of all the people walking the Seaside, NJ boardwalk, how did they choose these two particular men to be the ones waved into the bar?

Simple, casting. Knowing one of these two men who was waved into the bar, and seeing his facebook page the following day, it became quite clear to me. This same “random by passer,” chosen by Sammi to join her for drinks was on another MTV show in 2008, “From G’s to Gents.”

Though I won’t lie and say he admitted to being cast on the Jersey Shore, it was confirmed that it was in fact him in the episode. So, how, I wonder, did such a coincidence happen otherwise? A former contestant on an MTV show from three years ago happened to be walking on the Seaside boardwalk at the same time MTV’s The Jersey Shore was filming – this same former MTV’er had the impeccable timing to be walking in the right place at the right time to appease Sammi’s wishes.

Right. Let’s be honest – how coincidental is it for J WoW to run into a former flame at a bar, though not be accessible to any random guy? Or, how Pauly’s stalker can bump into him at the bar? The people the cast members interact with are casted by MTV, period.

Sure, I am willing to agree that whatever happens inside the house is natural to the cast members, I mean who would script three episodes about a toilet (though as mentioned I am sure it is the same as the Wife Swap thing, probably all from the same day)? Outside interactions, the story line is not only influenced by MTV but also casted by them.