Survivor,<\/em> a reality competition show now in its 50th season, was also a popular title.<\/p>\nHere\u2019s where it all began for more than a dozen reality TV legends.<\/p>\n
\u2018Boston\u2019 Rob Mariano, Survivor <\/em>and The Traitors\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cThe first was Survivor,<\/em> right? That’s the one that started it all. I remember watching Colby Donaldson on the second season, being at home on the couch, and being like, ‘I would kick that guy’s ass.’ And my dad, looking at me, he’s like, ‘Oh, you think so? Why don’t you try?’ And I did. I sent in a videotape … The rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Contestants Tom Buchanan, Rob Mariano, Amber Brkich, Rob Cesternino, contestant Susan Hawk and Alicia Calaway on Season 8 of Survivor.<\/em><\/p>\n(Richard Patterson\/TV Guide\/CBS\/Everett Collection)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nJonathan Cheban (aka Foodgod), Keeping Up With the Kardashians<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cIt’s always Big Brother.<\/em> I’m a big Big Brother <\/em>fan. I’m friends with [the host] Julie Chen, and I used to go to the sets.\u201d<\/p>\nBrooks Marks, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cOh, it’s controversial now; I don’t want to say it! … It was America’s Next Top Model,<\/em> but you know, I didn’t know all the ins and outs.\u201d<\/p>\nEJ Johnson, Rich Kids of Beverly Hills<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cIt was probably America’s Next Top Model<\/em>, if I’m remembering correctly, or American Idol <\/em>before that, if we’re really going back. I think that was … fifth grade, and I was obsessed. I even went to the finale show taping, [when] Kelly Clarkson won!\u201d<\/p>\nTaylor Hale, Big Brother<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cI was watching A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila<\/em> and Flavor of Love <\/em>\u2026 you know what I really miss? Room Raiders.<\/em> I miss Next<\/em>, which is really just Tinder for the modern age. They really need to bring back Next<\/em> and Parental Control.<\/em> \u2026 MTV, listen. You canceled all your good stuff. \u2026 Put those shows back on and you\u2019re going straight to the moon. Call me, I\u2019ll host it.\u201d<\/p>\nJackie Goldschneider, Real Housewives of New Jersey<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n“Well, I love The Real World. <\/em>You weren’t even born yet. [Author’s note: I was.] I loved the one with the guy who wore the clock around his neck … Flavor Flav! <\/em>I loved all the MTV shows, even 16 And Pregnant<\/em>. I loved those and the Real Housewives.<\/em> I used to watch New Jersey<\/em> on my couch in my pajamas before I was even on it. … I never even manifested it. I never thought there was a shot in the dark. The day I got the call, I was sitting outside my kids’ basketball practice, and I was like, ‘You sure you’re calling the right number?'”<\/p>\nMia Calabrese, Summer House<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cFlavor of Love.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mia Calabrese on Season 10 of Summer House.<\/em><\/p>\n(Sean Zanni\/Bravo)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nMary Bonnet, Selling Sunset<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cThe Real World.<\/em> You can tell my age. I\u2019m old school, right?\u201d<\/p>\nRob Cesternino, Survivor<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cMy first favorite reality TV show was The Real World <\/em>when I was very young, then Survivor <\/em>came along and changed everything \u2026 in the summer of 2000, I would hang out with a bunch of fraternity brothers, and I would sleep on the floor and tell them, \u2018I\u2019m getting ready \u2014\u00a0one day I\u2019m gonna go on Survivor<\/em>\u2019 \u2026 and within a couple years, I was there.\u201d<\/p>\nWitney Carson, Dancing With the Stars<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cSurvivor<\/em> \u2026 I love a good competition. I grew up competing, so it\u2019s in my bones and my soul, and I love the extreme part of it. I got to meet Parvati [Shallow], which was like a dream come true for me. \u2026 I would absolutely annihilate. Just kidding! I would get there and one day be like, \u2018I\u2019m so hungry, and I wanna go home.\u2019 \u2026 If they could just feed me, I would kill it. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dancer partners Witney Carson and Alfonso Ribeiro on Season 19 of Dancing With the Stars.<\/em><\/p>\n(Kelsey McNeal\/ABC \/ Courtesy Everett Collection)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nJazzy Collins, casting director for The Traitors\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cMy first favorite reality TV show was I Love New York. <\/em>I also loved The Real World <\/em>and A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila. <\/em>… We don’t have [dating shows] like that anymore. Maybe someone should do it now. That would be fantastic. I don’t know, is Nene single<\/a>? I would love to watch that.\u201d<\/p>\nMargaret Josephs, Real Housewives of New Jersey<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cFlavor of Love<\/em>. Flavor Flav with New York. That was the greatest season.\u201d<\/p>\nJennifer Fessler, Real Housewives of New Jersey<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cThe Real World,<\/em> right? That was No. 1. That was the first one.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reality TV is hotter than ever, but everyone remembers the show that first got them hooked. Even the pioneers of the format themselves. On the red carpet for Vulture\u2019s Reality Masterminds event honoring the stars, podcasters and producers shaping the genre of entertainment that we can\u2019t stop gossiping about, Yahoo spoke with 13 honorees and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2408127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[308657,470775,375643,23662,24122,348784,346036,308295,361816],"class_list":["post-2408126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-flavor-flav","tag-flavor-of-love","tag-jackie-goldschneider","tag-real-housewives","tag-reality-tv","tag-rob-cesternino","tag-rob-mariano","tag-survivor","tag-the-real-world"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/13-reality-TV-legends-tell-us-their-first-unscripted-obsession.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2408126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2408128,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408126\/revisions\/2408128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2408127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2408126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2408126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2408126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}