Some of the reality TV shows were just too good to be true or had a lot of drama for them to be true. Sometimes, fans wonder if the shows are even real or if they’re all scripted for them to be this good.
One of the top shows on CBS is Undercover Boss, and it also left viewers with questions and doubts about whether the show 2010 show was authentic or totally fake.
The premise of the show is simple: in each episode, we see a boss of a major company going undercover as an entry-level employee in one of their own headquarters or stores.
In this way, they see and learn how important their worker’s jobs are and also see the drawbacks and flaws inside the working of the company. Each episode can get heartwarming, complete chaos, or outright shocker.
Undercover Boss is based on a British show of the same name, and up to a certain stretch, it is an authentic show there is. Some business owners go to various locations by disguising themselves in order to see the true nature of the place by interacting with people on the field.
Is Undercover Boss real?
The rewards for some of the employees are true, be it vacations and promotions. In season two, Sheldon Yellen, BELFOR CEO, went to repair homes with his employees to make sure they were treated well and everything went in order.
An owner of an MNC that provides restoration services, Yellen discovers that one employee was very passionate and hardworking but was not getting paid enough despite getting a promotion the previous year.
Yellen found it hard to hold his emotions, and he finally revealed his true self. He even offered the employee a bonus and a paid vacation, and she even got the raise she deserved.
But not every episode ends on a happy note. In some cases, when a CEO learns about an employee’s out-of-the-line unprofessional behavior, they just fire them.
Some of the employees just need demotions, but they’re fired for outrageous reasons. Employees receive promised promotions and bonuses, but those who got fired did not get anything and also lost everything.
For the most part, Undercover Boss is real most of the time, but not everything that is telecasted on reality TV is true. Bosses look like saints, and employees look like villains because of their unprofessional behavior, so it is difficult to believe that everything is true.
Some scenes are added for more drama
Certain scenes are certainly manipulated for better drama in reality shows. Like most reality TV shows, some portions of the episodes are edited so they can be watched well on TV.
Every episode goes through heavy editing to make it presentable on TV by representing the thoughts clearly. Producers decide who will get the screen time on the show; they mostly pick people with interesting backgrounds and a sob story.
In season 4, we saw Megan Pustaver say that the show is very real and doesn’t have any scripts. She shared that producers asked her to talk about a life-changing event on the show.
As per International Business Times, the interactions of employees and executives are totally real. The backstory of employees is also real, and the producers handpick certain employees with a backstory as it will be watched well on TV.
Looking at the popularity of the reality show, the majority of the employees were already aware that they were on Undercover Boss and knew that it was their boss who was interacting with them.
Another Reddit user who claimed to have experienced the show said that everyone already knew that they were on the show before any official revelation from the executives.
So, at the end of it, all of what we see on the show is not completely real. Scenes and episodes are heavily supervised by the showmakers, and they pull all the strings.
