What’s your idea of the perfect reality TV show? Posh, young, beautiful people being unbelievably bitchy as their raunchy love triangles unfold?
Or are you gripped by the allure of ‘property porn’ and luxury living? Maybe the dating game, with its drama and intrigue, is your thing.
Or perhaps jaw-dropping extreme physical contests grab your attention. Whatever your preference, the choices have never been wider or more outlandish. Here our critics pick their top 20 shows you can stream now.
Selling Sunset
Meet the elite Los Angeles real estate brokers at The Oppenheim Group
Year: 2019-
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Netflix
The perfect reality show mash up; it has ‘property porn’, luxury living and a cast of beautiful women who fall out on a regular basis. Selling Sunset unfolds in the world of The Oppenheim Group, a luxury Los Angeles estate agency which sells only the most exclusive of properties. Many of the estate agents are former models; they are all beautiful and have an incredible ability to wear heels even on building sites. But the real drama happens when they party together, fall out, make up and retort wonderfully catty remarks.
In series six, we see Chrishell navigating the office implications of a new love and the arrival of a new agent, Bre – who seems destined to create waves in the office. ‘I’m a hate it or love it kind of gal. I’m definitely bringing my full personality,’ the model-turned-Oppenheim employee declared, and drama followed. In the latest seventh series, the agents go on a trip to Mexico, and it doesn’t go well – in fact, it results in a huge fight, which is very much par for the course… (Seven series)
Made In Chelsea
Follow the antics of posh twenty-somethings in the exclusive London borough
Year: 2011-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Channel 4
This outrageously addictive scripted reality series lets us peek into the privileged lives of the SW3 set. The posh cast are young, beautiful and – of course – bitchy, and over 27 series we’ve watched their soap opera-style dramas and love triangles play out across Chelsea hotspots, country piles (the MIC set love a shooting weekend) and other plush locations like the south of France and New York, which feature in spin-off episodes.
Lots of the show’s personalities have gone on to bigger things, including influencer Millie Mackintosh (who famously threw a cocktail over her now-husband Hugo Taylor), I’m A Celebrity winner Sam Thompson and Chelsea’s original rogue, Spencer Matthews. (27 series)
Love Island
Sexy dating show that has become a cultural phenomenon
Year: 2015-
Love Island started life as a celebrity dating show, which ran for two series between 2005 and 2006, but it was the 2015 relaunch that really brought the show to the public’s attention. The series sees hot and horny singletons living together in a luxury villa in Mallorca, where passions are ignited under the sun. Although the contestants claim they are looking for love, most are purely interested in boosting their Instagram followers and securing themselves lucrative careers once they leave the villa.
The first five series were presented by Caroline Flack, until she stepped down just before her tragic death. Laura Whitmore took over for three series, then Maya Jama took on the role. One of the highlights of the show is the narration provided by Scottish comedian Iain Stirling, which also hits the mark. All series, plus the various spin-offs and international versions are available on ITVX. But be warned, they can get pretty raunchy at times. (Ten series)
The Kardashians
Glitzy, feud-filled follow-up to Keeping Up With The Kardashians
Year: 2022-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
What is there to say about the return of the Kardashians other than get ready for more glitz, glamour and family feuding? Their fourth series since they moved from E! to Hulu in the US (Disney+ in the UK), it seems likely that this ten-part run could cover the somewhat surprising coupling of Kylie Jenner with movie star Timothée Chalamet, the acting exploits of Kim on American Horror Story, and the news that Kourtney and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker are expecting a child together.
And what about the continued fallout from Kim’s divorce from Kanye West, which was finalised towards the end of 2022?
It all seems distinctly possible but one thing is for certain – this latest series will continue to display the considerably bigger-budget approach that’s been the hallmark of the shift from E! since the start. That hugely impressive opening drone shot that took us around the Kardashians’ empire, way back in the opening episode of series one, set the standard for what’s followed since. (Four series, with series five launching on Thursday)
Below Deck Down Under
Sunny real-life spin-off series following yacht crews behaving badly
Year: 2022-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Hayu
Filmed onboard a large luxury yacht off the coast of , this addition to the Below Deck reality franchise follows the same successful formula, mixing the crew’s on-duty efforts to satisfy the whims of demanding charter customers with their usually raunchy and frequently raucous off-duty activities.
Well, if you throw a bunch of attractive single twentysomethings together in a confined space you have to expect some drama, and the odd love triangle or two. Or three. Picture Love Island crossed with Downton Abbey on a very snazzy boat and you’re getting close to the feel of this strangely addictive show. (Two series)
Love Is Blind
Netflix’s bold dating show returns for a fourth series
Year: 2020-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
Like many reality shows, Netflix’s bold dating series started out more like a social experiment based around a question: Is love blind? Its romantic hopefuls are tired of searching for love through apps where they are judged first on appearance, and long for something more meaningful. On the show, they talk in private pods without being able to see each other, and slowly fall in love through a series of increasingly intimate conversations. If they find the one they want to spend the rest of their lives with, they get engaged – and only then do these couples meet in person. And the experiment doesn’t end there.
Also like many reality shows, it’s become more of a circus as it’s gone on – the contenders from series two onwards all know what they’re in for – but it’s still a fascinating idea. A UK version is due in 2024. (Six series)
The Real Housewives Of New Jersey
Feisty spin-off series of the US reality show
Year: 2009-
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Hayu
This branch of the Real Housewives franchise has its own brand of Sopranos-esque charm. Not in the sense that they keep killing each other, but in the salty language the women, such as Brooklyn-born Nicole Mauriello and her twin sister Teresa Aprea, have used on the show down the years. Honestly, if you thought things could get feisty on the New York series, that’s nothing compared to the venom with which words get thrown about here.
And it’s not out of the question that they might try to kill each other one day, either. The 13th series adds a couple of additional housewives into the mix: Danielle Cabral, who ‘loves to be extra’, and mum-of-three Rachel Fuda. (13 series)
Queer Eye
The fab five deliver emotional makeovers
Year: 2018-
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Netflix
The first six series have seen Jonathan, Tan, Antoni, Karamo and Bobby crisscross the US, with stints in Georgia, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Texas, among other states (as well as international excursions to Japan and the town of Yass in New South Wales, ).
For the latest seventh and eighth series, they’re bringing their makeover magic to the most flamboyant spot of all: the city of New Orleans. It won’t all be Mardi Gras though – the team will face the familiar tough task of not only convincing their new friends to change their wardrobe/home/cooking/hair/lifestyle, but that also they actually deserve to be the better people that the boys uncover. Expect tears. (Eight series)
Vanderpump Rules
Sassy reality show about the Vanderpump bar and restaurant empire
Year: 2013-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Hayu
Watch now on Netflix
Now it’s onto its 11th series, it’s easy to forget that this reality TV veteran was itself once just a humble spin-off from The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills. Taking English actress turned restaurateur Lisa Vanderpump and shaping a show around her and the staff at her various LA bars and eateries was a masterstroke.
It’s a guilty-pleasure festival of glitz, glamour, relationships, infidelities and spectacular meltdowns, all played out by ridiculously hot people at full-volume in front of the cameras. Making The Only Way Is Essex look like Songs Of Praise, it’s the undoubted apex predator of trashy reality TV – that’s especially true in series ten, which is home to the notorious ‘Scandoval’ furore. No spoilers as to what that’s all about here… (11 series)
Squid Game: The Challenge
The deadly fictional competition is transformed into a real-life contest
Year: 2023
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Netflix
Do you think you could survive the murderous challenges from Squid Game, the hit South Korean series? The 456 contestants in this contest fancy their chances – motivated by a grand prize of nearly £4 million that awaits the last person standing.
Thankfully, the original show’s body count has been removed – imagine the insurance issues – with paintballs replacing bullets and crash mats waiting at the bottom of murderous drops, but otherwise this is eerily like the original, from the symbol-masked red-clothed guards to the painstakingly accurate replica sets. It all adds up to a properly exciting reality contest. Let the games commence… (Ten episodes)
The Underdog: Josh Must Win
Fake reality contest in which celebrity reality stars strive to make the underdog come out on top
Year: 2024
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Channel 4
Can celebrity reality show veterans Towie’s Pete Wicks, Geordie Shore’s Vicky Pattinson and Love Island’s Amber Gill plus Nick Grimshaw (who also acts as a decoy host) manipulate the results of a fake reality show and help the underdog in a Big Brother-style house win?
The contestants think they are taking part in a show called The Favourite, a bold-faced popularity contest, in which Josh stands out like a sore thumb because he isn’t buffed and tanned and faked to the max like the other players. Pete, Vicky, Amber and Nick have to try and manipulate events in the house so that Josh wins. And if he does, everyone’s a winner, sharing a huge £100,000 pay out.
If you’re a fan of reality contests then you’ll get a kick out of this and how it shakes up the usual clichés. (Six episodes)
Big Brother
The reality show that everyone was watching
Year: 2000-
Certificate: 12A
Arguably the grand dame of all reality TV shows, this threw a bunch of strangers together in a house to face non-stop public scrutiny and viewer votes to decide who stays and who goes. Whether or not you were committed to watching the 24-hour live feeds, the show generated plenty of publicity. From twists and tricks to Nasty Nick to Alison Hammond’s TV debut (in which she broke a table), Big Brother was never far from the conversation.
The original Big Brother first aired in the Netherlands in 1999, before being syndicated around the world. The show is still going strong, with more than 500 series running across over 63 countries. The British series launched in 2000 on Channel 4 and was an instant hit, switching to Channel 5 in 2011 before a relaunch on ITV in 2023 after a five-year hiatus. (Series 20 is on ITVX)
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK
The race is on – ten Queens get dragged up for the ultimate cabaret
Year: 2019-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
RuPaul, arguably the world’s most famous drag artiste, first brought this contest from the States to the UK in 2019, and it’s grown from late-night niche to mainstream phenomenon, with winners and participants often gracing primetime shows from Celebrity MasterChef (Cheryl Hole) to Emmerdale (series one winner The Vivienne) and Ackley Bridge (Baga Chipz).
For the uninitiated, each series follows a tried and tested formula, as ten fabulous Queens pull out all the stops (eyelashes, heels, outrageous wigs and costumes) to compete in a series of challenges, including the cultishly good lip sync battle (like an episode of Stars In Their Eyes on steroids).
Mama Ru presides over it all with flawless poise, with eternal BFF Michelle Visage heading a judging panel that also features Alan Carr and Graham Norton on rotation – plus a new celebrity guest each week. These Queens aren’t shy and demand to be looked at! (Five series)
The Only Way Is Essex
Follow the lives, loves and scandals of a group of real-life Essex guys and girls
Year: 2010-
Certificate: 12
Whereas shows like Big Brother were unvarnished and warts-and-all, the approach this took was to turn real life into a soap opera. It isn’t scripted, but it is heavily produced, which takes the chaos and unpredictability out of real life, ensuring that we only ever get the juiciest and most entertaining bits.
Set in Brentwood in Essex, this is a community where people love to preen and pose, and there’s never a dull moment in this neatly polished and moneyed enclave in London’s commuter belt.
Launching in 2010, there are more than 30 series and many of Brentwood’s residents are, if not household names, then gossip column regulars. A few former TOWIE stars have settled into regular TV and radio gigs, among them Gemma Collins, Olivia Attwood, Ferne McCann and Mark Wright. (33 series)
The Family Stallone
Lively reality series following Sylvester Stallone’s family life
Year: 2023
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Paramount+
Just what kind of a dad is Sylvester Stallone? It’s time to find out as this reality series goes behind the scenes at the Stallone household, following him, his wife Jennifer Flavin and their three twentysomething daughters (Sophia, Sistine and Scarlet) as they go about their everyday Hollywood lives.
It’s enjoyable Kardashian-lite stuff that spends as much time with the younger members of the family as it does with the Rocky star, though we do get glimpses behind the scenes of Stallone’s gangster show Tulsa King and spot him hanging out with actor mates like Al Pacino. The name misses a trick though: surely this was crying out to be called Sly And The Family Stallone?
The second series follows them to Rome where they meet the Pope, and also tracks life for Sly and Jennifer as empty nesters. (Two series)
Paris In Love
Follow Paris Hilton as she gets married and becomes a mother
Year: 2021-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Hayu
Back in 2003 on The Simple Life, Paris Hilton became part of the first wave of celebrity reality stars when she and Nicole Richie were pitched from their comfortable lives into the harsh reality of working jobs in farming, cleaning, food service and the like.
Nearly two decades later, Paris is on the verge of marrying the venture capitalist Carter Reum. ‘I’m always expecting the worst to happen, because it has in the past,’ she worries in the series that documents her journey to becoming a wife and then a mother, and occasionally plays like an open therapy session.
The fascination of the show is similar to that which triggered the making of The Simple Life – the idea that the uber-wealthy can afford to examine every choice of their life in minute detail as they board a private jet or choose which Cartier watch best suits them today.
Also, there’s the tease that there may be hidden depths beneath Paris’s pristine surface. When pondering Marilyn Monroe, she offers the following: ‘I also think that she was just like me. Not a dumb blonde, but very good at pretending to be one.’ (Two series)
Physical: 100
This extreme contest from South Korea feels like a real-life Squid Game
Year: 2023
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Netflix
There’s more than a touch of Squid Game to this real-life extreme physical contest from South Korea. It may not be as lethal as its fictional counterpart but all the other elements are here. Numbered players being gradually whittled down as they fail challenges? Mysterious, game-filled high-tech arenas? Booming disembodied voice calling the shots? Tick, tick and tick.
The idea here is to see just who among a group of 100 contestants has the best and most adaptable physique by putting them through a range of knockout tests, from wrestling matches and full-contact ball games to an arm-wrenching challenge where they see who can hang the longest from a metal frame suspended above a swimming pool. Fail a single task and they’re out… (Two series)
Twin Love
Reality show dating ‘experiment’ involving multiple sets of twins
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
Are identical twins really identical in every way? This reality dating show tests their romantic inclinations. How do they set about doing that? By taking multiple sets of twins, splitting them up and having the two ‘identical’ sets of participants live together in separate houses.
Will the same twins fall for matching partners? Or will being apart from their siblings – some for the first time – allow them to chart more individual paths towards love? It’s fun finding out in a glitzy US social ‘experiment’ hosted by former WWE tag team wrestlers and twins themselves, Brie and Nikki Garcia. (Nine episodes)
Dubai Bling
Millionaires living the high life in one of the richest cities in the world
Year: 2022-
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Netflix
We seem to have an insatiable appetite for reality shows in which wealthy, entitled people behave like idiots. In fact, Dubai Bling is banking on it. ‘Step off the private jet and into a high-flying social circle in Dubai, where lavish parties, stunning skyline and jaw-dropping fashion are the norm,’ gushes the promotional blurb. Lavish parties and jaw-dropping fashion probably aren’t the norm for the bloke who has to collect the bins but whatever.
It features the contrived dramas of ten supposed friends, Arab millionaires from the worlds of real estate, media, ‘vlogging’, ‘influencing’ and er…being a socialite. They work hard but also – yes, you’ve guessed it – play hard! Awful but also awfully addictive! (One series)
Hollywood Houselift With Jeff Lewis
Inside the celebrity home renovations of a top interior designer
Year: 2022-
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Prime Video
‘I’ve pretty much always worked with celebrity clients, but you never hear about it because I sign non-disclosures and I got known in the business for not talking.’ That all changes with interior designer Jeff Lewis’s series for Amazon, in which his celebrity home renovations are laid bare for the world to see. It’s also quite a lot about him, too – Jeff has a daughter, and there’s some insight into his family life – but the balance of focus lies with the celebrities, and plain-speaking Lewis is direct with his advice to them about their home needs.
And the clients? Series one features the actors Mira Sorvino and That 70s Show’s Wilmer Valderrama, who is in Chuck Norris’s old pad, and Melissa Rivers, daughter of Joan – while in series two the star quotient ticks up a bit. The second run takes us inside the homes of Kate Bosworth (SS:GB), Josh Duhamel (Transformers), Christina Ricci (Yellowjackets) and Gina Rodriguez (Jane The Virgin) to name but four. The insight you get into their lives, and the way they choose to spend their considerable budgets, is what rounds this series out from a curiosity into a fascination. (Two series)