Nadia Essex, a former host of Celebs Go Dating, has claimed that reality TV has become too toxic.
Asked if that was true, she said on GB News: “Yes, and as the host of a show for two years, I have lived experience of producers telling me that things have to go a certain way because drama creates viewers, viewers create advertisers, advertisers pay for the show.
“It’s kind of like a basic formula of any kind of business that you need revenue, and unfortunately the biggest shows with the biggest viewerships are the ones where there’s massive drama.
“Even though producers are still human beings, and obviously I don’t think anyone intentionally wants anybody to get hurt, absolutely, I’ve had conversations with producers that are like, ‘Go on, dial it up a bit. We need tears on this one. Go in there and get tears,’ and things like that to bump it up a bit. It happens all the time.”
She added: “The public have a lot of sway in the way that producers, they see how the land lies, and then they decide which stories to follow up on and which ones to drop, and things like that.
“They’re trying to juggle a lot of balls to make great telly, but the public might pick up on something really small that the producers didn’t even realise was going to be a big thing, because everyone on TikTok is talking about it and so then they’re going to hone in on that more.
“So I think it’s the rise in social media, and people have an opinion, people screaming at the TV and at social media, going duty of care, and then the next episode, when nothing happens, going, ‘This is so boring, why does everyone watch it? It’s so rubbish, this show should be finished’.
“So, from a producer and a TV point of view, I totally understand how difficult it must be to find that balance, but I think everybody knows my story, on Celebs Go Dating, and how difficult it was when I was trying to whistle-blow, and how much I was just ignored, and how hard it is.
“Hopefully now things have changed. I see these women getting so much support, and I think that’s a good side of social media, is that everything’s like out there, you can’t really hide anything anymore.”
On contestants undergoing psychological assessments, Essex said: “I know firsthand…everybody lies about that.
“They ask you, do you have any trauma, and this and that, and everyone’s just, ‘No, no, no, no.’
“The background checks aren’t good enough, in my opinion, as well. There’s not enough. They see a character, they like a character, and they don’t do enough background checks into social media.”
