COPS has been said to be the first true reality show without a cast. What was the first reality show with a cast (participants) in the last 5 years? I can't remember because there's been so many.

MTV's "The Real World" comes to mind, but it is older than that.

Maybe you can find what you're looking for in this list:
http://www.realitytvlinks.com/

There is also reality tv mag (might have info somewhere):
http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/

Yep, Real World started back in 1991 or so. I shouldn't have said in the last 5 years but I meant when it really got heavy in the programming on the networks.

Wait a second James...

Are you saying The Brady Bunch wasn't the first one ?

Oh yeah, that's back when everybody minded their parents and punishment was a reality!

Candid Camera?

This is Your Life!

Anyone one remember "An American Family" on PBS in the 70's. They followed a LA family around with cameras.

Debuted January 1973.

I think that's the one that I originally mentioned in my first post but I removed it because I didn't think anyone would remember it. I never knew about it until I saw a show tlalking about it actually being the first reality show. Wasn't it kind of controversial, especially for that time period, because of how violent and unpredictable it was?

When I say reality show, I mean not in a studio and not with a live audience.

As I recall...The family had a rich liberal father, society mother and and one of their sons was realllllly gay. His name was Lance, I think.. I remember watching this each week. I was in High School. I am surprised I remember this much. I thought the show was compelling. Like nothing else on TV at the time. Good production also.

...realllllly gay.

As oppossed to those not very gay ones.

(NTTAWWI)

Yeah..Wearing womens clothing, make-up and nail polish equals reallllllllllllllllllllly gay. Extra-Shocking Gay for TV in the 70's.

Ohhhhh

That is really gay

LOL

IMO, BBC had the first "reality show". They had a camera crew documenting, for several weeks, an English family with very "difficult to raise" children in the heart of London. Something about unemployment...such and such.

I was just a kid watching this so this was filmed around the mid 70's. As far as I recall, they were there filming from morning to night and even while the family slept.

Yeah..Wearing womens clothing, make-up and nail polish equals reallllllllllllllllllllly gay. Extra-Shocking Gay for TV in the 70's.
Extra-Shocking..........LMAO!!!

The first things filmed EVER were reality based. Plots didn't come until later, after people got over the initial shock of the technology.

The people in "An American Family" were actually from Eugene, but shifted down to L.A. at some point in their story. Since most people in town knew them, we couldn't appreciate the show much, as we knew the difference between their real characters and the pretenses they put on for T.V. There was not much reality, but there isn't likely much in other such shows, either.
Things quickly became dicey for anyone else whose name was "Lance".

In the 50s and early 60s, Edward R. Murrow had a show where he visited celebrities in their homes and got down very cosy and casual with them. Just because they weren't addicts, criminals and weirdos, didn't make it any less a reality show. The subjects soon forgot about the camera and acted like their natural selves. The show with Louie Armstrong was my favorite.