10 Best Reality Shows of the 2000s, Ranked

The Real Housewives franchise owes everything to its origin. Whether you find a different Housewives better, The Real Housewives of Orange County is where it all began, and it was just as entertaining as its successors. This show is different than the others because of how real it is. The show is in the exclusive gated community of Coto de Caza in Orange County, California. Viewers see lavish lifestyles and personalities that bask in them. While there is drama, there are also intimate moments, showing some real-life crises the wives experience. Jo De La Rosa grapples with being a 23-year-old woman with an older fiancé who insists on her being a housewife, along with more personable moments that make it an emotional, moving watch.

What would the 2000s be without the Kardashians? Iconic quotes such as “Kim, would you stop taking pictures of yourself? Your sister’s going to jail!” and “You’re doing amazing, sweetie” are examples of the sayings engrained in our pop culture collective memory. Keeping Up With the Kardashians started as another show highlighting another wealthy family in Los Angeles. And whether you like them or not, the fact that the family still has a reality series today proves that they make good television. Kim, Kourtney, and Khloé Kardashian, plus Kylie Jenner and Kendall Jenner, have unique posh personalities as they navigate their love lives, marriages, and more. Not to mention, mom-ager Kris Jenner is an iconic mastermind in the family’s empire. It’s a reality show that’s so unrelateable, it feels like fiction, making for a great watch.

The modeling industry shows its toxicities and advantages in America’s Next Top Model. Host Tyra Banks, the 1997 “Supermodel of the Year” and the first Black woman to cover the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue and GQ, judges aspiring models through a series of challenges as they compete for the winning title of “America’s Next Top Model.” Things get messy when models must make sacrifices to keep their place in the competition. In each episode, Banks and three other judges (and public voting in later seasons) decide which models remain in the competition. Over the 24 seasons, there have been some iconic judges, but the series — with its toxic body-shaming habits and other negative feedback for the girls — is also a time capsule showcasing the hardships of the beauty standards of the day. Its lighter moments have had staying power in our pop culture reference. Miss J. Alexander’s hilarious facial expressions speak for themselves throughout the competition. Whether you like high fashion or modeling, the gossip and sometimes fist-fights will keep you entertained.

Fried pickles, hair gel, fist-pumping, leopard print, and excessive spray tans all speak to a cultural phenomenon known as Jersey Shore. Seaside Heights, in general, is a place that feels like another planet. But the eight loud, strong personalities renting a vacation home here bring the New Jersey beach town to another dimension. The show is successful for its messy lifestyle. Partying, club music, acting crudely, and fighting for no reason make it the addictive train wreck it is. Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Jenni “JWoww” Farley’s genuine friendship is enjoyable to watch, especially when the two search for “juice heads” on the beach. And who could forget Paul “DJ Pauly D” Delvecchio and Vinny Guadagnino’s unmatched bromance?

“Nicole’s wearing like this bright yellow Free City sweatshirt, and I’m wearing a leopard Gwen Stefani top with camouflage shoes…” rambles millionaire heiress to Hilton Hotels and pop culture icon Paris Hilton to a 911 operator after getting lost on a hike with designer, actress, and best friend Nicole Richie. Hilton and Richie, two wealthy socialites, have been tasked to do regular-everyday jobs in this unforgettable series. The Simple Life shows them serving meals to prisoners, attempting to build a pool, becoming camp counselors, and more. The two stay their witty, hilarious selves but also make it clear they won’t let themselves get mocked by men for their inexperience in some of these jobs, producing some juicy and dramatic scenes. Everything about the show screams the 2000s. Hilton and Richie, and their Y2K fashion, are staples of the era. That’s hot.

Gordon Ramsay can seem over the top with his unhinged, angry bursts at staff over sometimes minor mistakes in Kitchen Nightmares, but the chef used his angry-man persona to his advantage for the best of the restaurant and restaurant-goers. On this show, Ramsay travels to struggling restaurants and helps them transform their business. An average episode will usually depict an unclean kitchen, expired food, and irresponsible and irritable owners ready to bite the hand willing to help them. The chef refuses to give up and will criticize and sometimes even yell at owners to clean up their act. While you may be overwhelmed by disgust, it’s satisfying to watch the total transformation of a restaurant topped with Ramsay’s rants.

The Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne, his wife, television star and music manager Sharon Osbourne, and their children Jack and Kelly made an entertaining dynamic for television. Watching The Osbournes is a great way to get back that 2000s feel because of how it was filmed by MTV, presenting the viewer with nostalgia for a time when reality TV felt real. Showing the family of a rock icon live a regular, day-to-day life was groundbreaking. It shrugs off the glitz and glamour one would expect to watch, instead showing Kelly and Jack tattling on one another, Sharon dealing with noisy neighbors by throwing bagels and ham into their yard, and Ozzy being his most Ozzy self, cursing when he gets the television stuck on The Weather Channel.

Once you hear the iconic line, “Hi, I’m Johnny Knoxville, welcome to Jackass,” you know you’re about to watch a dangerous stunt that will have you cringing in pain. There’s nothing deep about this reality television stunt show. It’s just a group of guys, led by the charming Knoxville, coming together to film themselves performing painful and gross stunts. There are pranks, stunts, and dares, and it’s hilariously itself. Whether it’s the outrageous Steve-O lodging a fish hook into his cheek and casting himself as bait for hammerhead sharks or the golf course airhorn segment where the guys hide in trees and scare unsuspecting golfers, their antics will either have you doubled over in laughter or contemplating why people do stupid things.

Embrace your survival instincts with the enthusiastic Jeff Probst and the many contestants of the longest-lasting wilderness-themed competition show. Survivor is still going strong because of its easily digestible premise fused with the many aspects of reality television. With so many reality competition series to digest, it’s easy to forget that Survivor was the blueprint for this genre; nothing like it existed before Probst first said, “The tribe has spoken.” For fans of the cartoon show Total Drama Island, this show is the real-life version. Contestants come together in the isolated wilderness to engage in strenuous challenges to compete for $1 million. Contestants get split into groups of three, where every three days, the two groups vote to send someone home from that night’s losing team. Challenges over the series range from jumping off tall cliffs into treacherous waters to standing on a block with one hand on a totem pole for the longest they can for a prize. It’s nerve-wracking, suspenseful, and filled with drama, making it addictive.

Big Brother changed reality television. The groundbreaking show that is still running today first aired on July 5, 2000 (Survivor began just two months before on May 31). The show’s premise brings regular people together to live in a house full of strangers, where their every moment is filmed. It sounds bizarre, but that’s what makes it so entertaining. There was nothing like this on television at the time. In a world now where almost everyone’s every move is documented on social media platforms, watching every aspect of a person’s everyday life was unheard of in the 2000s. What makes it more entertaining is contestants vote each week to remove someone from the house, and the last person standing wins a large cash prize. While it is a competition, what would it be without drama and romance? Big Brother is as reality TV as reality TV gets.