20 unhinged reality competition shows from the 2000s you totally forgot about

The Bachelor led to the creation of some even wilder dating competition series, including The Flavor of Love. The show was made in an effort to find Flavor Flav's love, but despite three seasons of the show, the most substantial consequence was reality star Tiffany Pollard (aka New York) becoming famous.  

Rock star Bret Michaels got his own version of a dating reality series, too. Rock of Love went on for three seasons, but he wasn’t able to find lasting love, either. But the entertainment value of the unhinged show lasted forever. 

America’s Next Top Model couldn’t have been more unhinged if it had tried. Tyra Banks had those contestants doing the wildest challenges, many of which were pulled from actual traumas the models had in their lives. 

Making the Band showed how toxic the music industry can be. The world should have listened to Aubrey O’Day much sooner.

Dating competition shows in the 2000s were absolutely wild. On Joe Millionaire, contestants were there under the belief that they were vying for the affection of a millionaire, only to find out later that the prize was actually just a regular guy without millions of dollars. 

Was 2000s MTV secretly in the business of social experimentation via reality competition series? Because it sure seemed that way. Parental Control was one of the network’s most bizarre dating shows, giving parents far too much input into their kids’ dating lives. 

The most unhinged detail about Next was the fun facts included about each contestant. Why would anyone agree to putting some of that information next to their name on national television?

By far the most unhinged reality competition series on MTV in the 2000s was Room Raiders. But it was strangely compelling, and it stayed on the air for eight seasons. Eight!

It took TV executives more than a few tries to figure out what audiences wanted out of reality TV. Who Wants to Marry My Dad? was one such effort, and though it didn’t last, it wasn’t made in vain. 

Date My Mom was quite different from the aforementioned reality series, and it was much more successful. But it was also unhinged. In retrospect, it probably highlighted many families with unhealthy parent-child dynamics. But that was reality TV of the 2000s!

The entire premise of Keys to the VIP was seeing which contestant was better at picking up women. If you were the victim of an absurd, condescending, stupid, insulting, or all the above pick-up lines in the 2000s, you might have this show to blame. 

TLC was giving audiences the unhinged wedding content of their dreams in the 2000s. On Four Weddings, brides competed against each other to have the best wedding, with the goal of winning a free honeymoon. The show highlighted some of the most over-the-top and strangest-themed weddings in America. 

The I’m a Celebrity… TV show format, which started in the U.K., has been adapted all over the world. In the United States, it only worked for two seasons, which is a tragedy, as it could provide the world with such great memes today. 

It’s not difficult to see why Are You Hot?: The Search for America's Sexiest People was cancelled. The show made no bones about what it was there to do: objectify people. 

Before there was Love Island, there was Temptation Island. The difference is that the latter mixed single people with taken people to see if the taken people could withstand the temptation of hot singles. Unhinged and iconic. 

So many reality competition series in the 2000s were based on looks, including Beauty and the Geek, which unfairly siloed contestants into two categories: Beauties and Geeks. In the 2000s, apparently, you couldn’t be beautiful and smart — just one or the other.

MTV and VH1 loved an unhinged dating show in the 2000s. A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila was basically the same as Flavor of Love and Rock of Love, only the lead was a female, Tila Tequila, who dated both men and women. 

Mr. Personality was an insane dating show that only lasted one season. Contestants had to wear masks throughout the entire series as they competed to date a woman who was unmasked, the hope being that a couple would forge a connection based on personality. Monica Lewinsky hosted the show. Everything in this paragraph is, amazingly, true. 

Get Sharon Osbourne back on reality TV stat. After The Osbournes ended, Sharon hosted Charm School, an unhinged show in which contestants from The Flavor of Love and Rock of Love competed to learn etiquette. It was as strange and amazing as it sounds.

The Swan took women across America who were considered ugly and gave them the chance to get loads of plastic surgery and compete in a beauty pageant at the end of the season to see which contestant became the most beautiful thanks to their procedures. A truly wild premise that wouldn’t make it to air today.