Reality TV often gets a bad rap, but it has come a long way since The Real World (1992) spearheaded the genre as we know it today. Sure, reality shows can be a great way to relax and unwind from the stresses of our own lives, but they also provide fascinating glimpses into how other people live and the very human struggles we all face.
These shows are more than just rich women throwing wine in each other’s faces, though that somehow never gets old. Shows like The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (2024) hook you in with intriguing premises—like a sex scandal involving a famously traditional religion—but what keeps you coming back are the human stories and drama. If you’re looking for the next guilty or not-so-guilty pleasure show to binge-watch, here are seven of the best.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (2024-Present)
Like many of the best reality shows, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives was born from a scandal, one that rocked the “MomTok” world. When influencer, now Secret Lives cast member, Taylor Frankie Paul went viral after admitting to participating in non-monogamous activity with her husband and other Mormon couples, she broke trust and damaged alliances with others in her MomTok friend group. The first season picks up in the midst of the fallout from that scandal, but the drama has only escalated from there.
What makes The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives so compelling and watchable is how candidly it deals with the typical reality TV topics of marriage, sex, and friendship with the added layer of the Mormon church. The show highlights the differences and intra-church conflict that exists within the Mormon community, especially as this younger generation of women seeks to balance personal expression with the expectations of a faith known for being quite restrictive.
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City (2020-Present)
My personal guilty-pleasure favorite, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, is an obvious perfect follow-up to The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, but it’s absolutely worth watching even if you haven’t seen that show. Also centered on a group of luxurious women from Utah, RHOSLC is packed with drama and scandals, including the arrest and eventual felony conviction of former Housewife Jen Shah and a shocking Season 4 finale that’s too juicy to spoil.
Mixed in with the typical reality TV fare are genuine moments of friendship, family, and personal growth, with the ladies sometimes using their platform to shed light on important topics like addiction and religious trauma. The best example of this is Heather Gay, a former Mormon whose journey of publicly leaving the church is documented in early seasons. Recently, she released the limited series Surviving Mormonism with Heather Gay (2025), which dives into the church’s dark history and controversial practices. Stories like this are part of why reality TV is valuable outside of mindless entertainment, but even if you just want to watch some ridiculous and fabulous women hurl wine and insults at each other, don’t worry—there’s plenty of that here too.
Vanderpump Rules (2013-Present)
Vanderpump Rules is the show I would recommend to anyone who is new to reality TV. It follows, for the most part, employees at SUR Restaurant & Lounge in West Hollywood, run by former The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (2010) star Lisa Vanderpump. The first 11 seasons are packed with memorable quotes and wild moments that made stars of people like Ariana Madix, who now hosts Love Island (2019), and Stassi Schroeder, who most recently hosted The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 3 reunion.
Now, following the very public cheating scandal known as Scandoval involving Madix and ex Tom Sandoval, Vanderpump Rules has been rebooted with a new cast. Season 12 has just started, so it’s impossible to say whether the new SURvers are going to be as dramatic and fun to watch as the OGs, but it is nice to go back to the restaurant after several seasons that deviated far from the initial premise.
Love Is Blind (2020-Present)
If you like dating shows with a side of social experimentation, Netflix’s Love Is Blind should be your next watch. The show follows groups of men and women who meet and date in separate “pods” and cannot see each other until they get engaged. At this point, the couples spend a week at a resort getting to know one another, then several weeks living together in an apartment complex to meet their new partner’s friends and family and plan a wedding—all in the span of four weeks.
As its title suggests, the show examines the role of physical attraction in romantic relationships and whether you can actually pick your ideal partner without knowing what they look like. Considering how few of the couples on the show have gotten married and stayed together in the years after, it seems the answer may be “no,” but that doesn’t make the drama and sheer absurdity of Love Is Blind any less entertaining, especially if you like dating reality shows like Are You the One? (2014).
Below Deck Mediterranean (2016-Present)
If maritime drama is your cup of tea, there’s no shortage of Below Deck (2013) content to watch. The original show is still going strong after 12 seasons, but if you need to pick one, I suggest Below Deck Mediterranean. The franchise’s first spin-off is currently airing its tenth season with fan-favorite Captain Sandy Yawn at the helm, a position she’s held since Season 2.
Below Deck Mediterranean, like the rest of the franchise, follows crew members on a superyacht as they balance personal relationships with their jobs and the demands of the wealthy clientele who charter the ship. But, if you’re like me and watch reality shows for the drama, Mediterranean outshines other Below Deck series in that department, with plenty of petty feuds and unwise romantic entanglements to keep you coming back for more.
90 Day Fiancé (2014-Present)
Like Love Is Blind, 90 Day Fiancé is another romance-centric reality show involving short engagements. In this case, the K-1 visa process motivates the short courtship, which allows the foreign fiancé of an American citizen to enter the United States for up to 90 days, during which time they are required to marry if they wish to stay permanently. The couples in question already know each other, though some have never met in person, and intend to wed, setting it apart from other reality shows that focus on the initial meeting and dating process.
That doesn’t mean it’s smooth sailing, though, not by a longshot. In addition to planning a wedding, 90 Day Fiancé couples have to navigate cultural differences, family expectations, and sometimes language barriers as they prepare to say “I do,” with the foreign partner, in particular, often dealing with culture shock as they adjust to living in a new country. It may not always lead to lasting or healthy marriages (watch spinoff 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? (2016) if you’re curious about how couples fare after the wedding), but it does make for endlessly interesting television for those who want to learn a little about world cultures while they take in other people’s relationship drama.
The Traitors (2023-Present)
There’s no shortage of reality competition shows, with long-running series like Survivor (2000) and Big Brother (2000) being among the most popular, but The Traitors is really something special. The American version of the Dutch show De Verraders (2021) places celebrity contestants in a social deduction game similar to Werewolf, Mafia, or Among Us, where everyone is either a Faithful or a Traitor. The Faithful’s job is to figure out who the Traitors are, while the Traitors work together to sow chaos and throw the Faithful off their scent.
What makes The Traitors so fun is its melodramatic tone. The series is set in and around a castle in the Scottish Highlands, giving it an extravagance and feeling of heightened drama that Emmy-winning host Alan Cumming perfectly embodies. Plus, the cast usually features plenty of reality TV stars from shows like The Bachelor (2002) and RuPaul’s Drag Race (2009), so you’ll probably see some familiar faces. If you love games of strategy where the low-stakes drama is treated as deathly serious, then you should definitely watch The Traitors, especially with Season 4 releasing in January 2026.
