Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Communications – Theories, Models, Terms and Definitions, grade: A, Lindenwood University, language: English, abstract: They have become a prominent part of today’s television culture: reality TV shows. Since the 1990s, these shows have taken over the media landscape and turned into a fascination. Driven by humans’ voyeuristic personalities, television producers saw the money-making possibilities in this cheap and easy-to-produce genre. But over the last two centuries, reality television has tremendously changed and pushed its limits to the extreme. This paper will analyze the changes of the genre between 1990 and 2012 and look at popular shows during these years.