The 35 best reality TV shows to watch after turning off your brain in quarantine
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Our colleague Kelly Lawler from the USA TODAY Entertainment team is here to share some very watchable reality TV shows.
Sometimes you just don't have the mental capacity for "Breaking Bad."
Amid the coronavirus pandemic and the unrest after the death of George Floyd, we're all using our mental and emotional energy just to get through the day. So it might not be the best time to watch a multifaceted, edgy, dark and complex TV drama, even if it is wildly acclaimed.
Sometimes you're just in the mood for something easy, mindless and maybe a little trashy (or a lot trashy, depending on your mood). The TV gods invented the reality show genre just for days like these. Over the past two decades, as reality has become a programming staple, it's also become a more nuanced and expansive subset of TV, encompassing everything from "Jersey Shore" to "Mythbusters" to "The Great British Baking Show."
Whether you like your series competitive and catty, competitive and sweet, sexy and trashy or just plain weird, there is a reality show that will help you relax and wind down after a long, difficult day. Here are our favorites, in alphabetical order.
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1. “90 Day Fiance” (Hulu)
The TLC series follows couples in which one partner is foreign-born and arrives in the U.S. on a 90-day visa that will force them to return home if they don't marry by the time it expires. The deadline, and the big commitment it represents, create some of the most addictive reality TV around. The show has spawned multiple spinoffs.
2. “The Amazing Race” (Hulu, Amazon)
A scavenger hunt writ large with teams racing around the globe for a cash prize, this stalwart competition series' tried and true formula has sustained it for 31 seasons and garnered 15 Emmys. New season due this fall on CBS.
3. “America’s Next Top Model” (Amazon)
A few shows have tried to recreate the melodrama of “ANTM,” to no avail. A combination of Tyra Banks’ outsized personality, the outsized demands of the fashion industry and the outsized conflict that comes from sticking young wannabe models together for weeks combined to create magic in this 2003-18 series, which aired on UPN, CW and VH1.
4. “The Bachelor”/“The Bachelorette” (HBO Max, ABC)
If the bachelors and bachelorettes of ABC's long-running reality dating franchise can find love in a hopeless place (in front of millions of TV viewers), then there's hope for the rest of us, too.
5. “Big Brother” (CBS All Access)
The drama in “Brother” comes from putting a group of people in a house together, cut off from the outside world, who are constantly monitored and competing to stay in the house to win a cash prize. The long-running series is not without controversy (especially in recent seasons), but when it works, it's a guilty pleasure worth binge-watching.
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6. “The Big Family Cooking Showdown” (Netflix)
The positivity and focus on good, old-fashioned home cooking makes this show, in which British families compete to be named the best, stand out among its hyper-competitive peers.
7. “Cutthroat Kitchen” (Hulu)
Hosted by a devious Alton Brown, Food Network's “Cutthroat” is a strategic version of a fast-paced cooking show like “Chopped.” Competing chefs get $25,000 at the start of the episode they can use to buy sabotages to set back their opponents. The catch? If they win, all they’re left with is the money they didn’t spend.
8. “Fixer Upper” (Hulu)
Chip and Joanna Gaines, their sweet kiddos, many adorable pets and can-do attitude may just give you the confidence you need to get through a tough time in this HGTV favorite.
9. “The Great British Baking Show” (Netflix)
Warm, friendly and with a focus on decent people doing their best (and doing their best to help each other), this British import on PBS and Netflix is one of the happiest TV series ever made.
10. “Good Bones” (Hulu)
"Bones" has just the right amount of sweetness to uplift without getting too saccharine. HGTV's combo of a client renovation and house flipping series chronicles the Indianapolis mother-daughter duo of Karen Laine and Mina Starsiak and their construction adventures.
11. “House Hunters” (Hulu)
If you prefer reality TV that's less sappy and more voyeuristic, HGTV's real-estate series lets you judge the choices of home buyers across the country.
12. “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation” (MTV)
It’s been a decade since “Jersey Shore” premiered, and our favorite guidos and guidettes are now facing more adult responsibilities and problems (including weddings, divorces, babies, rehab and prison). But the hard-partying, endlessly quotable crew still manages to have a good time whenever and wherever they’re together, as they venture beyond Seaside Heights, New Jersey, in the MTV spinoff.
13. “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” (Hulu)
The Kardashian/Jenner brood elicit strong emotions one way or another in viewers and fans, but if you like reality TV that documents the lifestyles of the rich and famous, this E! series outdoes them all.
14. “Kids Baking Championship” (Hulu)
Food Network’s Baking Championship franchise can be a little repetitive, because the “Holiday,” “Spring” and “Halloween” versions are so married to their theme. Not so with the adorable kiddie version, in which pint-sized bakers make everything from eclairs to tiered cakes.
15. “Laguna Beach” (MTV Hits on Amazon)/“The Hills” (Hulu)
There was a time when the most popular reality shows depicted the extravagant and occasionally wild lives of conventionally attractive teens in wealthy zip codes. MTV's “Beach,” about teens at Laguna Beach High School, dominated this genre. If you get attached to star Lauren Conrad, “Hills” follows her move to Los Angeles after graduation.
16. “Love is Blind” (Netflix)
Who would have thought another Netflix foray into dating would turn into a prescient look at love during quarantine? Meet "Love is Blind," where contestants "date" each other and get engaged before meeting their betrothed face-to-face – and whether they make it to the altar is only the cherry on top of the lead-up drama.
17. “Love Island (UK)” (Hulu)
Here’s the formula for the British reality sensation: Drop a group of sexy singles on an island, get them to pair up based on attraction and throw twists, mandated splits and other curveballs at them until the drama peaks. Ignore CBS's American remake; the Brits are the ones who know how to make the raunchy drama work.
18. “Made” (MTV Hits on Amazon)
Rather than delighting in the failures and drama of others, this mid-2000s MTV cult series delighted in making dreams come true. Never boring or easy, the series “made” its subjects into what they wanted to be, whether that was a basketball player, cheerleader or professional artist.
The closest thing the USA has to "Baking Show," this NBC series manages to find sweetness in its crafting, plus a lot of overalls for Amy Poehler to wear.
20. “MasterChef Junior” (Hulu)
Almost any competition series is improved by swapping out boring adults for adorable (and talented) children, and this pint-sized version of Fox's amateur chef competition is far sweeter than the original.
21. “Million Dollar Listing” (Bravo)
Like “House Hunters” on steroids, Bravo's “Listing” is the kind of show to watch if you enjoy viewing (and judging) the ostentatious lives of the uber-wealthy.
22. “Mythbusters” (Hulu)
If you veer toward the “watching competent people do cool stuff” end of the reality-TV spectrum, there is no better choice than Discovery’s classic scientific adventure.
23. “Nailed It!” (Netflix)
Baking is hugely popular right now, but not every cake is Instagram perfect. Don't worry, there's a food series for that. Netflix's empathetic and riotously funny competition celebrates the fails from amateur cooks, and might just make you feel better about whatever you just pulled out of the oven.
24. “Project Runway” (Hulu)
The first four seasons of Bravo's original fashion reality show are a perfect mix of artistry and drama, although later ones, with help from mentor Christian Siriano, are almost as wonderful.
25. “Queer Eye” (Netflix)
Inspiration, triumph, overcoming obstacles: All those heartwarming attributes are here when the Fab Five swoop into someone's life to offer as much help as they can in a week on this Netflix series.
26. “Real Housewives” franchise (Hulu, Bravo)
Wealthy women in great clothes drinking wine 24/7 and arguing about their problems (in a cities including New York, Beverly Hills and Atlanta) is quality viewing to help you forget about your own real life issues. Come for the yelling matches and the upper echelon vacations on the Bravo show, stay for the shady confessionals and rare moments of authenticity.
27. “The Real World” (MTV Hits on Amazon)
Many recent reality series have bells and whistles to make them seem interesting (“Too Hot to Handle”), but like “Big Brother,” this MTV classic just needs strangers living together in a house to make magic happen.
28. “RuPaul’s Drag Race” (Hulu, Amazon)
A combination of “Top Model” and “Runway” in drag, VH1's “Drag Race” is a TV institution that has taken drag culture mainstream. It’s the rare high-hype show for which all the fuss is worth it.
29. “Say Yes to the Dress” (Hulu)
Weddings have been hard hit by the pandemic, so if you are missing puffy white dresses and some low-stakes drama, TLC’s bridal classic is a decent substitute.
30. “Shark Tank” (Hulu)
A perfect blend of larger-than-life personalities (the sharks), inspiration (the best inventors) and some silliness (the worst), the ABC series has lasted 11 seasons for a reason.
31. “So You Think You Can Dance” (cable on demand)
There’s a reason there are fewer dancing competition series than singing contests – it’s hard to get them right. “SYTYCD” is the gold standard, with steps and leaps you have to see to believe.
32. “Survivor” (CBS All Access, Hulu, Amazon)
It's hard to travel or escape from the news while social distancing, but CBS's survival series offers plenty of far-off landscapes and peeks into the human psyche.
33. “Tidying up with Marie Kondo” (Netflix)
If spending more time at home has made you question how much stuff you have (and how it is stored), this series from organizational guru Marie Kondo might inspire you to clean up. If there was ever a time to tackle a home project, it's now.
34. “Top Chef” (Hulu)
There are dozens of food shows and chef competitions,but this Bravo staple remains the best, pitting a group of chefs in a series of grueling competitions.
Coached by amiable celebrities and filled with talented singers and playful humor, the NBC series is just entertaining enough.
Contributing: David Oliver, Anika Reed and Patrick Ryan
This article originally appeared on Reviewed.com: Quarantine TV: The 35 best escapist reality TV shows
