History Main / RealityShowGenreBlindness

** Vicki in Season 17 ''didn't even know how the Fast Forward works'', even though it's worked the same way since Season 1 [[hottip:*:(except when paired with an Intersection)]]. She wanted to go for it because she was "pretty sure everybody did the Fast Forward". Once a team claims the Fast Forward, it's off the table for everybody else. Secondly, when Nick & Vicki got to the Fast Forward and saw the "Fast Forward Taken" sign, Vicki wondered if they're supposed to wait around.

* To do the "Before" part of the "Before and After" comparisons, ''WhatNotToWear'' interviews their contestant under the guise of a documentary. You'd think that if, for the previous seven days, a camera crew has requested to see your closet, asked you to describe your daily fashion style, and talked to your friends and family, maybe, just ''maybe'', Stacy and Clinton are going to show up soon.

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** Outside of ''Food Network Star'', she has continued to show RealityShowGenreBlindness. She went on to compete on to compete on ''{{Chopped}}: All Stars''. She didn't need to show any of her characteristic smugness, but she did, [[WhatAnIdiot even though she keeps complaining on the ConfessionCam "This is not who I am."]] Unfortunately, for fans of Food Network, she ended up winning against GentleGiant Vic and going on to the finale. Once again, her arrogance cost her the ''Chopped: All Stars''. On that level of competition, you'd have to be ''better than an IronChef'' and have to be practically flawless in order to win. She made 2-3 major errors on her dish, which got her eliminated 3rd place.
** And then she takes this UpToEleven on a meta level. She starts going on a rant against Amanda Freitag over some saffron (which the other judges said was too much as well) and she promises to conquer Food Network for not giving her what she needs. Someone who places 7th on ''Food Network Star'', 3rd in ''{{Chopped}}'' and is shown to be an overall {{Jerkass}} bitch is someone who does NOT deserve to get a show on Food Network.

* Perhaps what's the most ''generic'' example ever is just not acknowledging that not only do ''you'' want to win, but so does ''everyone else'', actually. A lot of people assume that everyone is thinking of HonorBeforeReason - if someone expresses desire to take you further, it's because they think they can beat you (as Russell Hantz found out the painful way).

** Additionally, many challenges presented to contestants are repeated from season to season, particularly those near the end. Anyone who had ever watched the show would realise there's always one taste test challenge, or that Ramsey has his sous chefs sabotage the dishes when he has the final three contestants run the pass. Very few contestants seem to have caught on to the latter especially, although some seem to have clued in and are beginning to expect it, to the point where one contestant overcompensated at the pass and sent perfectly unsabotaged dishes back to be redone!

** ''Series/KitchenNightmares'':

** The waiters/waitresses who serve Ramsay (in both versions) either misrepresent the quality of the dishes he's considering ordering, or try to reassure Ramsey that the next dish will be better, despite knowing full well that a camera crew is filming their interactions. Later seasons had the servers get wise to this fact, and either tell Ramsay to stay away from certain dishes or give their honest feelings about the state of the food in the restaurant.
* On ''MasterChef'' (US) some contestants do not realize that the rules are different than on a 'popularity' reality show or even a show like ''Series/HellsKitchen''. There is almost no strategizing to do and being an arrogant jerk will get you nowhere if you do not have the cooking skills of Ramsey.
** Many contestants fail to realize that Ramsey generally likes tasty, yet simple meals and you will get yelled at for trying to be fancy and screwing up.
** Even in the later rounds some contestants will fail to check if their meat is wholly cooked before serving it. Serving Ramsey raw meat is unforgivable on the show.
*** This was particularly exemplified in the most recent season, where a contestant who destroyed the palates of the judges with a particularly poor choice of spices was favored over another contestant who undercooked pork.
*** Eliminating contestants for undercooking meat on a reality show about cooking, however, is understandable and justified. Ever get so sick from food poisoning that you puked interesting colors? More often than not, it was because the cook wasn't carefully watching the meat he was supposed to be dutifully cooking, so of course Ramsey is going to come down hard on contestants for undercooked meat. Potentially poisoning your customers is a lot more important than a sub-par meal.

*** In Palau, Tom's wife suggested that he layer up and put his swimsuit on under his sweat pants. Turns out, she was right in suspecting another ''Pearl Islands''-style deception.
*** Justified in many recent seasons, where the outfits worn by the castaways while on the island are picked/approved by the producers, not the contestants. This is partially used to appropriately color code outfits for the castaway's intended tribe and partially used so the producers can create their character through easily identifiable visual cues (Dan Lembo's $1,600 alligator shoes in ''Nicaragua'' spring to mind, as they instantly revealed his status as an out of his element city slicker.) Similarly, Candice Cody interviewed that her personal swimsuit choices for ''Heroes vs Villains'' were all declined because they weren't sexy enough.
** How about those contestants who never learned to swim, or the occasional person who doesn't realize that during the game you can't get cigarettes?
** Part of the reason Russell Hantz got so far in ''Samoa'' was because almost all the other players appeared to be completely GenreBlind — Galu not shaking off their outsider when they had the chance, Shambo voting personally, Galu deciding to vote off their own teammate with a hidden Immunity Idol instead of [[FanNickname Pagonging]] the four players left, players practically being shown a map ''to the hidden Immunity Idol'' for the first time ''ever'' and ''not even bothering to look for it'', never learning to keep an eye on the Idol-hunting Russell, John changing his vote, etc. (Note we said "''almost''" — Natalie saw the dumb people voting the smart out, so she used ObfuscatingStupidity instead and ended up with the big bucks. Not only to his dismay but to the [[FanNickname Hantz Nation]].)

*** This could just be ManipulativeEditing, but Krista could actually realize that if she kept her mouth shut that she wouldn't be the first person targeted — heck, it worked for Brett, Natalie, Vecepia, and Fabio.

** Not so much on later seasons, since most of the contestants, when Stacy and Clinton introduce themselves, respond with something along the lines of "I know who you are!!" And apparently they don't know (beforehand, that is) that S&C have invaded their closet and/or talked to family and friends, which is why 99.99% of the time one of the people "in on it" lives in the same house (roommate, hubby, daughter, etc.) And I would guess on the second day that the contestants don't know where or when S&C are going to show up...just that they ''are''.
*** At this point, the show's been around for long enough that Stacy and Clinton don't even ''pretend'' to sneak up on the contestants anymore. The contestant just waits for them in the store and S&C walk up and say "let's get started!" And in an earlier season, one of the contestants actually snuck up on S&C before they had a chance to sneak up on her. [[FunnyMoment Which was hilarious.]]

*** The most {{egregious}} of all -- the most recent season of ''TheBachelorette'' as of this writing has a girl ''who was on it before'' and who ended up dumped soon after the show ended, so she went on it ''again'' to "find her true love". The ads for the season all but say this, saying that the engagement was broken off when "reality set in".

** Repeated in Season 5, when players were asked to break up into "a smart team", and "a dumb team". The big reveal was that the dumb players were dumb ''for picking the dumb team'', because it required them to do a harder task. This was actually fairly late into the season. Anderson's comment actually doesn't hold true all of the time, especially in season one. In a lot of games the contestants were allowed to choose their roles (albeit in vague terms before knowing the parameters of the challenge).

** Perhaps the biggest is "Let's get rid of our own alliance before cleaning out the other side, especially when they're on the block!". This is perhaps one of the ''dumbest'' things you can do in BigBrother, unless the situation is like the Final Four of ''Big Brother 6'' (the one member of her alliance remaining, Janelle, had won Head of Household and was exempt from nomination). Only ''once'' has the "Let's remove our own alliance before finishing off the other side" move worked, and ''that'' was because of the most GuideDangIt Final Four Head Of Household question ever (the one involving the guinea pigs being the third preexisting relationship; had Sharon gotten it right, she would've won). Yet every other time? Janelle had ''no'' shot at the Final Two short of winning the final Head Of Household because Will & Boogie weren't planning on taking her, especially since Boogie was going to pick Erika. Zach was ''right there'' on the block with a huge "Evict me, I'm a floater!" sign on his face, but because they evicted Amber, he flipped the game around on the little Julie Chens. Then recently, Jeff decided to blindside Russel before removing Kevin and Natalie who had a 50% chance of winning the next Head Of Household over Jordan and Michelle because he thought that Russel would be a bigger threat than Kevin and Natalie. Except that the ''same'' mistake was made at least three times before, and not ''once'' did it work without suspected ExecutiveMeddling.

** In the thirteenth season, there was an ''immediate'' split between the six returning players and the eight new players. So far, nobody has thought to ''count the votes''. Porsche can't vote, Keith can't vote, and Daniele, Jeff, Jordan, and Rachel only makes four - meanwhile, the other ''six''? The only reason they got what they wanted was because Shelly and Kalia flipped and voted out Keith.
*** ''Brendon'' even continues this. While trying to get Daniele on his side, he tells her that if one of them (Brendon or Rachel) goes to the final two, they'd win. This is the exact opposite thinking you want to encourage people thinking, because thinking you can beat them is typically why you get evicted in the first place.
** A more generic example. People tend to make ballsy moves or do stuff to put a target on their back...and are surprised when they're nominated for eviction. Or they are surprised that people who ''don't'' try to make ballsy moves (Especially for the first couple weeks) wind up going further.
*** ''Jeff'' is even guilty of this. He's complained that "nobody has been doing anything" and has been complaining about himself being targeted - when he ''already'' has a huge target on his back by being a returning player and a ratings machine (Smart people know [[ExecutiveMeddling producers have the power to slant the show and place safeguards up for ratings machines.]]) Nobody's been "doing anything" Because they're not trying to get themselves targeted, of course. Given how they keep talking about people were "Floaters" who "are bad at the game", one could only wonder if they would start accusing Dr. Will of having poor gameplay (with his zero competition wins in ''both'' his seasons) despite that he was taken further ''because'' he was thought of as being easily beaten and worthless.
*** Adam and Shelly apparently thought that aligning with unbreakable pairs who had known each other outside of the game and would ''never'' vote against each other unless they wanted to commit gameplay suicide would bring them to the finals over pairs that were easily swayed and not as iron-bound. Shelly at ''least'' realized that the pairs ''had'' to be split up but Adam apparently thought he'd be brought to the final two no matter what.
** Generically, volunteering to go on the block. It's normally pretty risky.

** It's possible that they could have gotten some clever concealment. What they might have been able to do in the episode about an indoor resort/water park was hide the cameramen in a crowd and disguise them as customers filming their family vacation. (Ask anyone who works at a resort; people do this ''all the time''.) Heck, depending on the crowds they could ''easily'' do that for a lot of the ones where they follow somebody into a resort of some kind.
** Recent episodes seem to have the cover story thought up on a case-by-case basis; for example, a waste treatment company had the CEO go undercover as an employee from a company closed for pollution codes violations being the subject of a documentary on him working as various "clean" industries.

** For that matter, a lot of Machinima based on reality TV shows aren't full of outright stupid players because they're all made up by fans of those shows.

* Most of the brides in "My Fair Wedding With David Tutera" who complain about him changing up their original wedding ideas, when they know that's the entire point of the show.

* It looks like many people who go to ''The Steve Wilkos Show'' have never seen an episode. Many don't realize that if you're not a "victim" then you'll probably get yelled at horribly and you won't be able to sit down on stage.
* ZigZagged in ''The Glass House'' - while the contestants were all well aware that they needed to be popular amongst the fans if they wanted to stay in the game, some contestants were more Genre-Blind than others, while others managed to piece together a strategy. The way the game works is that the house is broken into two teams each week, with the team captains being people who received the least popularity votes that week. If the team captain loses, they and one player from their team are sent to Limbo where the players vote to eliminate one of them. Some of the players like Gene figured out that since you pick your teams, you have to find a balance between trying to pick people who can win at the competition versus people you can beat in Limbo.
** Alex meanwhile asked the viewers whether or not he should be the best villain they've ever seen, and they answered with "Yes". He decided to be a complete JerkAss, wanting to be the person who the viewers LoveToHate. Unfortunately, he went too overboard with his act and we just hated him instead. Apollo went into the game without a strategy and made little effort to garner the viewers attention. By week two, he wound up with the least votes next to Ashley and was a team captain.
** Amusingly enough, the ''viewers'' became more Genre-Savvy. The first ''BigBrother'' had all the "interesting" houseguests who'd make drama voted out first, while the viewers complained the people left were boring. In The Glass House, Alex was voted out for being a drama whore by people who knew that if Alex remained in the house, the house would remain united against him, and that the lack of a common target would cause cracks to split in the house
* ''Beadles About''. People apparently don't look around or assume that some outrageous accident is possibly being filmed. Averted at one point when someone spotted that the parking lot she parked in had apparently become a showroom and every other car was replaced by identical cars. She simply looked at this and said, "Is this Beadle's About?"

** Outside of ''Food Network Star'', she has continued to show RealityShowGenreBlindness. She went on to compete on to compete on ''{{Chopped}}: All Stars''. She didn't need to show any of her characteristic smugness, but she did, [[WhatAnIdiot even though she keeps complaining on the ConfessionCam "This is not who I am."]] Unfortunately, for fans of Food Network, she ended up winning against GentleGiant Vic and going on to the finale. Once again, her arrogance cost her the ''Chopped: All Stars''. On that level of competition, you'd have to be ''better than an IronChef'' and have to be practically flawless in order to win. She made 2-3 major errors on her dish, which got her eliminated 3rd place.

* On RestaurantImpossible, nearly every owner gets defensive when Chef Robert tells them that their menu selection and/or quality is terrible. Even in the first season of this show, the restaurant is in deep trouble, and being open to any possible cause should be why you invited Chef Robert in.
** This is true of the similar BarRescue as well.
* On RuPaulsDragRace, contestants are often unprepared for events that happen at least once every season, such as the Snatch Game (a MatchGame parody where they impersonate their favorite female celebrities).

* While not exactly Reality TV, children's game shows would often have players who just couldn't figure out what to do during a certain challenge or endgame, no matter how many times it aired up until then. The most {{egregious}} ones include [[LegendsOfTheHiddenTemple the team's complete inability to put that stupid Silver Monkey statue together]], [[{{Knightmare}} contestants who can't spell or give directions worth a damn]], and [[Series/FindersKeepers teams who can't seem to get it through their heads that the nice and clean-looking room they're in is]] ''[[Series/FindersKeepers supposed]]'' [[Series/FindersKeepers to be demolished by them in order to find the hidden object]].

** But some of those may be a tad justifiable considering pressure — ''several'' teams in ''{{Knightmare}}'' died because the dungeoneer didn't act fast enough (but the instructors were plenty quick on their feet) or in ''LegendsOfTheHiddenTemple'', they're trying to get out of the temple as ''fast as they can'' and wind up getting klutzy. (Some people have spotted that in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey, the pieces are switched around the room but it's ''still'' a three piece puzzle.)

* Anybody who watches ''ThePriceIsRight'' on a regular basis would know that in "reorder the digits" games like Safe Crackers or Ten Chances, if there's a lone "0" digit in a price, it's almost always the last digit. After all, manufacturers tend to price their products at round numbers (or AndNinetyNineCents, which ''Price'' rounds to the nearest dollar). Yet far too many WhatAnIdiot moments occur when a contestant puts the 0 in the ''second-to-last'' slot (such as $607).

## Clavin's Rule: Do not put a runaway at risk with an excessive wager. In other words, if you're in the lead and have at least double the second-place score, you can easily wager $0 for a guaranteed victory. Therefore you should wager so that even if you're wrong, you still have at least double the second-place score.

*** The other 2 players should bet everything, because they're not going win unless they get it right (and the leader gets it wrong, or violates the above rule).

* There are a lot of contestants on shows focused on people lying and backstabbing each other that are surprised and even offended when they discover they have been lied or backstabbed. Even worse are contestants who think they are the only ones smart enough to do those kinds of things.

** Potentially justified in that there is a difference between seeing somebody else receiving beautiful new house on TV, versus seeing a new house in real life and being told it's ''yours''.
* ''WifeSwap'' and its derivatives. The families always seem to be shocked by how different the other family is from theirs (in fact, the producers tend to deliberately pick radically-different families). Sometimes they appear to be utterly flabbergasted by the notion that "rule change" will alter their household in ways they don't like and at times a particularly controlling husband will even insist that nothing is going to change in his house. Didn't these people know what they were getting into when they auditioned for the show? They only could've figured it out from watching any episode. Of course, these people are chosen precisely because of their curiously insular views.

** Also a more meta example, acknowledging the power that ExecutiveMeddling can have on the show. The producers want to make a good show, which in the case of a Fans vs. Favorites season, showcase the favorites as much as possible, meaning that they can slant the show by putting in a challenge or task that the favorites are familiar with and are much more likely to win. They have even been known to borderline fix a show by introducing convenient set of rules/twists that only seem to benefit the returnees. Naturally, the thing to do is to pretty much deny the producers a chance to slant the show that much and send the returnees out; but time and time again, people seem to get so awestruck at playing with their favorites they lose sight of the goal, backstabbing their own allies and ending up surprised when their new allies decide YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness and there's nobody there to help them out of the hole they dug, so they wind up RewardedAsATraitorDeserves.

* On a related note, how about getting into big alliances and thinking they'd gladly take you to the finals over people who've been with them longer/are closer to each other / are vastly incompetent and wouldn't get votes? Because surely after seeing people join big alliances only to be dropped at the first opportunity nobody would think of making any ''long-term'' plans or back-ups...

* Though it's not a game show, a huge proportion of the mothers who appear on ''ToddlersAndTiaras'' seem to think that they're doing their daughters a favour by inviting camera crews into their homes to film the lead-up to the pageant. This usually ends in one of two ways: ManipulativeEditing being played in the daughter's favour, and presenting the mother as an over-bearing ControlFreak, or flipping the situation, and portraying the girls as horrific little [[SpoiledBrat Spoiled Brats]] and the mothers as their helpless slaves. You almost wish their was a follow-up episode that captured the reaction of mothers and daughters actually ''watching'' the show.

* S7 of ''Series/TheNextFoodNetworkStar'' featured Penny Davidi who ''lives'' on this trope (as far as fans of Creator/FoodNetwork are concerned)...for all the [[WrongGenreSavvy wrong reasons]]. The prize for winning (or doing exceptionally well) on this show is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin having your own series on Food Network and eventually becoming a star]]. In order to win (or perhaps do very well), you would have to be able to cook very well under time pressure, have skills to work the audience, and be able to hold and develop a sizable fanbase. The problem with Penny? She has the cooking chops, but she has the '''wrong''' TV chops. What does she do? She eagerly begins deploying ''Series/{{Survivor}}''-style (or ''TheApprentice''-style) tactics to eliminate the other contestants, openly [[{{HannibalLecture}} brags about it to the other contestants]] and to the ConfessionCam in the most sickeningly SmugSnake way possible, and in general is the biggest {{Jerkass}} in the show's history and [[{{WhatAnIdiot}} thinks she can slide through anyway]] because "I have a plan to win." But then, [[{{HoistByHisOwnPetard}} her plan to use blatantly cutthroat tactics only served to alienate the audience more and more with each passing week until the judges couldn't ignore her smugness anymore and eliminated her from the competition.]] ''Food Network Star'' may be a reality show, but it's not the same kind of reality show as Series/{{Survivor}}, and not knowing the difference can backfire on you in a major way.

* The families on ''Series/ExtremeMakeoverHomeEdition'' seem to suffer from this. You'd think they'd be expecting a house that impressive by now, wouldn't you? After being on for ''five years'', wouldn't there be at least ''one'' family that didn't include someone crying or jumping up and down like an idiot when they saw their new house? Then again, many of the families were living in glorified trailers before the house was rebuilt.
** And yes, there ''have'' been incidents where the family didn't jump for joy. Several "home renovation" shows have released [=DVDs=] focusing specifically on families that ''hated'' their new digs. (There was an episode of ''TradingSpaces'' where one of the people saw their new room, was speechless, and then left the room and you could hear her crying.)

* ''WifeSwap'' and its derivatives. The families always seem to be shocked by how different the other family is from theirs (in fact, the producers tend to deliberately pick radically-different families). Sometimes they appear to be utterly flabbergasted by the notion that "rule change" will alter their household in ways they don't like and at times a particularly controlling husband will even insist that nothing is going to change in his house. Didn't these people know what they were getting into when they auditioned for the show? They only could've figured it out from watching any episode. Of course, these people are chosen precisely because of their curiously insular views.
** Heck, some haven't even watched ''Wife Swap'' and '''still''' know what anyone signing up will be put through just from the regular postings on some fandom message boards. (The producers have tried several times to get someone from a specific fandom activity on their show. The first couple people they asked read the information packet and said "no freaking way".)
* Doubly true for ''Series/HellsKitchen''. Not only are the contestants thoroughly unprepared for Ramsay's abuse, but the restaurant's customers both have unrealistic expectations about the food in the first half of the season and are surprised at Ramsay's invective when they complain in person.
** Reportedly, it's possible the customers are fake and just acting along. Or maybe they're GenreSavvy and go for the floor show rather than the food. After all, who else would eat at [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Hell's Kitchen]]? Even if that's not the name given, the restaurant is clearly split up into two teams.
** A truly stunning number of the contestants seem to think they're hot stuff and will tell Gordon Ramsay (who is effectively one of the top chefs in England if not the entire world) that he's wrong and they know better than him.
*** This was exemplified in Ben from the latest season. While having the stereotypical "I'm hot shit" view can be expected in this sort of reality show, he would constantly respond to any challenge he lost by claiming in his private camera sessions that he should have won, and often responding to the real winner that he felt they didn't have any real desire to win. This included contestants who Ramsay would personally compliment. And when he was brought back to help the final two in the finale, he spent the entire time reminding the camera that he was actually better than [[spoiler:the girl who ended up winning the entire season]]. His fairly obvious sexism aside, he just refused to believe Ramsay at all if the topic was someone else being better than him.
** Since the menu barely changes between seasons, you'd think the contestants would've tried to learn how to make perfect risotto and scallops in their sleep before coming on the show. Yet, these two dishes are always problematic.
*** Heck, Beef Wellington was so problematic that it was actually dropped from the Season 6 menu, only to be brought back in Season 7 as ''Lamb'' Wellington.
*** And Beef Wellington was brought back in Season 10 with [[EpicFail predictable results]].
** In one season, the fresh contestants saw video messages of some people who were on the show previously and were told what to do and not do in order to survive the show. Try and guess if any of them actually listened.
** A related example is the people who go on Ramsay's other shows — ''Series/KitchenNightmares'' and ''The F Word'' — and are surprised by his low tolerance for bullshit and his straightforward manner that can be harsh and abusive.
** ''Hell's Kitchen'' is a rather special case itself, simply because what counts as GenreSavvy for most reality shows (trying to get strong opponents eliminated, forming alliances, etc) doesn't cut the mustard in the eyes of Gordon Ramsay. Unlike most reality shows, on ''HK'' you're expected to function as part of a team from start to finish; pulling the usual selfish, conniving reality show behavior earns you nothing but a stern reprimand (or worse) from Gordon.
** Additionally, many challenges presented to contestants are repeated from season to season, particularly those near the end. Anyone who had ever watched the show would realise there's always one taste test challenge, or that Ramsey has his sous chefs sabotage the dishes when he has the final three contestants run the pass. Very few contestants seem to have caught on to the latter especially, although some seem to have clued in and are beginning to expect it, to the point where one contestant overcompensated at the pass and sent perfectly unsabotaged dishes back to be redone!

* Contestants on ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' seem to suffer from this a lot, such as the "car curse", in which a late-game car giveaway contestant has never won the end prize.
** Subverted when Todd Herzog, after winning ''Survivor: China'', explained that he was a longtime fan of the show and, essentially, that he had watched enough of it to become GenreSavvy.
** In ''Survivor: Fiji'', ironically, the car-curse became self-fulfilling. A contestant won the car and traded it in exchange for a promise. The contestant who received the car broke the promise, resulting in the original winner's elimination and his progression to the final round...where his actions had so disgusted the rest of the players that he was immediately on the wrong side of the first unanimous victory in the history of the series.
** There's also the fact that almost nobody knows how to make fire. You'd think more people would look it up upon learning they're going on a month-long campout (especially after seeing tribe after tribe not be able to do it in previous seasons).
*** Subverted by Jane in ''Survivor: Nicaragua'', who had fire within the first hour of the game. When she was at Tribal council, she literally said "Why would anyone come on ''Survivor'' without knowing how to make fire?" and said she practiced for two months. Jeff Probst was actually surprised that someone listened.
** There are also people who aren't thinking about getting appropriate clothing. Sometimes this is actually justified, because they aren't often ''told'' they're going to start the game and are often told they're going to a promo event...which was a big twist in Pearl Islands. (During the final two tribal council, Lilian stated she wouldn't have worn her scoutmaster uniform if she had known they were going to the game instead of a promotional event. In the same season, Savage would've also not worn a bloody tuxedo.)

*** However, while savvy to the mechanics of the game (the front end), Russell was blind to its core (the back end) — games like ''Survivor'' are ''social'' games; evicted players have to like you (or at least respect you despite what you did) before they vote for you to win. Russell didn't grasp this (while the aforementioned completely GenreBlind players ''did''), and paid the price when he finished in second and then third when he played the game. (Russell ''still'' didn't get it by the end of the second game, even claiming that [[CompletelyMissingThePoint America needed to control a portion of the votes]].)
*** Russell had the advantage of players having never seen him before in ''Samoa'' and the all-stars not seeing him in ''Heroes vs. Villains'' when ''he'' had seen ''them'' play. This worked well for the most part. However, in ''Redemption Island,'' where ''everyone'' had seen him play, he told everyone that he would play differently. Unfortunately... he assembled his usual harem of girls who were perpetually at arm's length, started Idol-hunting without making sure he wasn't being followed first, then essentially asked someone to be another third wheel. And he's ''surprised'' that he's targeted right off the bat in his tribe?
** One of Russell's new "concubines", Stephanie in particular, lectured everyone not to vote out Russell (who had a '''huge''' target on his back) by saying that everyone else would backstab each other... but Russell wouldn't. [[UpTOEleven And in a tone of voice Natalie White would never use.]] Apparently she wasn't watching ''Samoa'' or ''Heroes vs. Villains,'' whereupon he'd backstab all of his allies.

** With the show waning in popularity, the pool of auditioning contestants has become smaller, and a greater proportion of contestants have come from on-the-street recruiting, meaning that later seasons have actually had ''more'' people who hadn't seen the show before being asked to be in it.
*** Tamara Johnson-George (known more as "Taj") has actually lampshaded this phenomenon — she admittedly never saw the show prior to casting and didn't know how to swim or fish. She actually answered casting mostly because [[http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/archives/survivor_tocantins/2009_Feb_06_taj_johnson_george they were casting for an NFL wife]], which she actually met the description of. She finished in fourth, was from a vast minority alliance, and was voted out simply because she was seen as a social threat because she never backstabbed anyone — a move that isn't uncommon in ''Survivor'' when the numbers dwindle to five.
* To do the "Before" part of the "Before and After" comparisons, ''WhatNotToWear'' interviews their contestant under the guise of a documentary. You'd think that if, for the previous seven days, a camera crew has requested to see your closet, asked you to describe your daily fashion style, and talked to your friends and family, maybe, just ''maybe'', Stacy and Clinton are going to show up soon.
** Even better is how, on the second day of shopping, the contestant almost never considers that the hosts are watching, despite the fact that they do this every episode. Some even go as far as to willfully disregard the "rules" laid out earlier in the show for their shopping experience, buying things that fit into their old lifestyle instead of the new look. In fact, once, when a contestant managed to obey the rules on the first day to the letter, she was rewarded with the ability to spend that $5,000 on non-clothing items (she bought a computer). Who doesn't love free money?

* Similarly, the home-redecorating program ''While You Were Out'' not only arranges for a family member to get out of the house while the team swoops in and helps the rest of the family redo the place, but invariably sends a camera crew along with him or her on some bogus pretense — such as a documentary. Only ''twice'' has the stooge figured out what was going on; the first found out because his favorite radio station reported the presence of the show's distinctive vehicle in his town, while the second was told by one of the staff at the hotel he was staying at.

* Most of the nuts who audition for ''Series/AmericanIdol'' fall right into this. Many of the others are actually GenreSavvy enough to know that the '''really''' awful auditions get on TV, so they deliberately up their awfulness.
** The producers actually deliberately let some bad people through, even encouraging them, so they can have the audience laugh at their SoBadItsGood performance.
*** Some have attended auditions and reported seeing good singer after good singer get cut while a few good ones and ''several'' moderately bad to hideous ones made it through. Not only that, but contestants have to make it through quite a few rounds before actually getting to the audition you see on TV, which means that these horrible singers are passing through round after round while good singers who just aren't entertaining enough get cut. They probably end up thinking they've got talent ''because'' they're getting through each round.
** Before people can get to the main auditions, they must go through local auditions first. Local auditioners are explicitly instructed to only let through the ''best'' and the ''worst'' contestants. Average singers would be boring, while horrible contestants are amusing.
* ''TheBachelor'' is especially bad about this, because more than any of the others, this show is exactly the same every time. Yet somehow the late dumpees always end up shocked — ''shocked!'' — that the guy who told them he might be falling for them, and with whom they really thought they had a "connection", and who slept with them in the Fantasy Suite, picked one of the other 24 women he was seeing while also seeing them.
** The blindness has become even more {{egregious}} as the show has been on for years, and yet only one couple has seemed to find true love (Trista and Ryan from Season 1 of ''The Bachelorette''). Two other couples are together, but one had reports of domestic violence. The show might as well be called ''The Public Breakup Machine'', yet every contestant talks about the experience as if they're going to meet their one and only and live happily ever after.

** During an ice cream Throwdown, Flay said "I'm Bobby Flay, and I challenge you to a Throwdown!" and the contestant replied "You're ''who?!"''

* Referenced right near the beginning of the reality TV pastiche ''TotalDramaIsland'', where Heather remarks to Lindsay "Haven't you ever seen shows like this?" in "Not-So-Happy Campers, Part 2". Of course, if [[AlphaBitch Heather]] had paid a little more attention to such shows herself, she would've realized being a manipulative bitch wouldn't win her the grand prize...and it doesn't.
** [[ManipulativeBastard Alejandro]] follows a similar game plan with a similar fault. In his defense, it would take a good deal of MediumAwareness to realize that the fans of the show vote for the winner. However, his current strategy of [[Series/{{Survivor}} Russell Hantz-like scheming]] and elimination of a bunch of well-liked contestants (male and female) due to his charms means that nearly any other character would likely go up against him and win — even [[TheScrappy Sierra]].
** Heather does wise up to the social aspect of the show by the end of the third season. [[spoiler:When ''World Tour'' comes down to her, Alejandro, and Cody, she realizes that as the popular one Cody would have the advantage, while Alejandro is the only one potentially less popular than herself. She distracts Cody while he and Alejandro duel for 2nd place, so that Alejandro would win by eliminating Cody, making him even less popular. But she has forgotten the main rule of ''Total Drama'' — [[JerkAss Chris]] is in control, and he decides that the winner will be chosen by a challenge.]]
* The British show ''How To Look Good Naked'' invariably puts up large photographs of their current subject in their underwear in a public area. Yet the subject is always shocked and embarrassed by this.
** The first season of the American version had a segment in which the subject was asked which of two photographs showed a woman with a better body, with the big reveal being that they were the same woman. This was dropped for Season 2, as anyone who'd seen the show would say "Well, they're the same woman."
* At least partly justified on ''{{Intervention}}'' — the "interviewees" for the "documentary" are usually so stoned that they don't see what's coming, or to remember seeing previous episodes on television. (And that's if the person isn't already homeless or hasn't already sold the TV for drug money.)
* There is ''always'' at least one ''Series/AmericasNextTopModel'' contestant on every cycle who claims that "ImNotHereToMakeFriends" and generally acts in a hostile and self-absorbed manner towards the others. All of this despite the fact that ''none'' of the past contestants have had their progress hurt by making friends in the house, the "bitch" of the group never seems to win, and the winner of each cycle always seems to have made at least one close friend, usually having had amiable relationships with most of the contestants.

* Anderson Cooper actually [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] this in ''Series/TheMole'' ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlltgR5fEjs&feature=PlayList&p=6A29F101255613A3&index=27 Season 2, Episode 6]]), explaining to a few players who didn't quite understand that they are never being told the truth:

** Repeated in Season 5, when players were asked to break up into "a smart team", and "a dumb team". The big reveal was that the dumb players were dumb ''for picking the dumb team'', because it required them to do a harder task. This was actually fairly late into the season. Anderson's comment actually doesn't hold true all of the time, especially in season one. In a lot of games the contestants were allowed to choose their roles (albeit in vague terms before knowing the parameters of the challenge).

* Some have stopped believing in ''Date My Mom'' as Reality TV. ''Every single time'' the daughter/son says to her/his mother what ''not'' to tell the date, the mother ends up saying it anyway '''without even being pressed on it'''! This might be a case of ''don't think about the white elephant''.
* This is pretty much what killed ''Series/JoeMillionaire''. There are only so many times (turns out it's just two, and even then they had to go to Europe the second time) that you have a guy pretending to be a millionaire and the girls believing it.
** This probably also would have killed the reality DeconstructiveParody show ''Series/TheJoeSchmoShow'', but they stopped at two seasons (each with a completely different reality show formula being deconstructed). Even so, one of the stars of Season 2 figured out the hoax and had to be replaced.
* Jamie of ''Series/TopChef: New York'' averted this during her season's Restaurant Wars. Knowing that whomever's made executive chef for that challenge has basically a 50/50 shot of being eliminated, she intentionally lost the challenge that would decide who got to be executive chef of each team.
** Yes, but the show plays the Trope straight with the season finale. Every year there's a twist. Every year, the final chefs are surprised by it. You'd think they never watched the show before.
*** Which is finally averted in Season 6 as Brian, Michael, and Kevin all expected to have to make an extra dish long before it was announced they would have to do so.
*** In general, the "cheftestants" are getting increasingly GenreSavvy. (Everyone in Season 6 seemed to assume that they'd be forced to make dessert in at least one challenge too, which is something many previous contestants had been unprepared for.) It's probably hard to find people who are simultaneously nationally-ranked chefs ''and'' TooDumbToLive...
* You'd really think that every political figure would make it their business to know what ''Series/TheDailyShow'' correspondents and Creator/StephenColbert look like. Ali G pulled it off for years, but he never had the same size audience.
** If not the political figures, at least someone on their staff or in their immediate family...
** ''The Daily Show'' is so big, most people they interview just run with it.
*** In a January 2010 "Written By" interview, a ''Daily Show'' writer said that many interview subjects know what they're in for and figure as long as they get a few licks for their cause in, [[ColbertBump they're coming out ahead thanks to publicity]]. And with ''Daily Show'' and ''Colbert'' wielding legitimate clout, they almost certainly are.
** Most, if not all, attendees are expecting to be mocked, and it's not a particularly unusual setup — Presidents have been sitting in for Correspondents' Association Dinners for over 30 years now and even adding jokes themselves. You'd think they'd have better material for ''The Daily Show'', given the speechwriters ''otherwise''...
** According to Rob Corddry on an NPR interview, guests are told what to expect and frequently try to play along with the correspondents and be funny, only to be told off-camera "You're very funny, but this is all going to be edited out. Act like this is a real interview."
* On ''Series/TheColony'', a show about a 10-week experiment where several people are placed in a simulated AfterTheEnd environment, the volunteers are often portrayed as taking the setting completely seriously. Many of these scenes are obviously coached or outright scripted (especially obvious in the last episode), but some may not be, and the experts that occasionally comment on the show bring up cases such as the Stanford Prison Experiment where volunteers begin treating the experiment as real. FridgeBrilliance kicks in when you realize the show is supposed to be a simulation, and actually acting like it's just a reality show would be [[{{Metagame}} Metagaming]], and no fun for anyone.
* Tests of courage and loyalty or not, you'd think the contestants of ''WhoWantsToBeASuperhero'' would realize that a reality TV series can't legally have them meet and interact with real prisoners who were arrested for murder. Or let the host be kidnapped. Or budget a giant monster version of said host attacking the city. Plus, considering the fact that most contestants bragged that they were huge fans of Marvel and comics in general, they missed following superhero rules like helping others in trouble or not giving away their secret identity. On the other hand, one cast member ''was'' GenreSavvy enough to figure out the twist when they were asked to pick who should be eliminated — [[HeroicSacrifice that they were supposed to choose themselves]]. She even said to the camera later that "Stan's going to have to be a lot smarter than that to trick me."
* While many teams on ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' demonstrate that they've watched previous seasons, a couple of teams from time to time demonstrate a surprising lack of knowledge as to typical challenges on the race:
** Mika in Season 15, Leg 6 is a prime example — there's virtually '''always''' a physical-thrill task on the race. She stopped dead in her tracks upon facing a waterslide, refusing to do it ''even after the last place team arrived and threatened to pass them'', eventually quitting the task to come in last place.
** The multitude of contestants who never learned to swim or to drive stick-shift. (Even in season 17, when the contestants had to drive in the UK, at least one person said "Uh oh, Stick shift!")
*** The [[http://www.cbs.com/cbs_casting/amazing_race/Application_Form.pdf Season 17 contestant application form]] actually asked contestants "Can you drive a car with: (a) manual transmission; (b) automatic transmission (check all that apply)" and "What is your swimming ability? / Excellent / Medium / Poor / I can't swim." This means the producers are '''intentionally''' invoking this.
** Not to mention the contestants who take taxis when they're supposed to walk, leave something they're supposed to bring with them behind, or basically forget in any way the most basic rule of the Race — "[[ReadTheFreakingManual Read the entire clue, do exactly what it says.]]" Season 17 alone saw ''five'' 30-minute time penalties for taking a cab or having one guide them when they weren't allowed to.
** Remarkably few teams have bothered to do the math and realize when the time penalty for skipping a task will be less than the time it takes to do it. Only two teams have ever taken advantage of the fact that by definition you can't be eliminated due to a time penalty if you can convince a team ''behind'' you to accept the same penalty.
*** That's because, at four hours for quitting a Roadblock and 6 (formerly 24) for quitting a Detour, there have been only a few times in the show's entire history where quitting a task was actually beneficial. At any other time, quitting a task is suicidal at best. Plus, oftentimes the penalty for quitting a task is tacked upon reaching the mat, meaning teams don't have a chance to get others to quit as well.

** Vicki in Season 17 ''didn't even know how the Fast Forward works'', even though it's worked the same way since Season 1 [[hottip:*:(except when paired with an Intersection)]]. She wanted to go for it because she was "pretty sure everybody did the Fast Forward". Once a team claims the Fast Forward, it's off the table for everybody else. Secondly, when Nick & Vicki got to the Fast Forward and saw the "Fast Forward Taken" sign, Vicki wondered if they're supposed to wait around.
* People from the American ''BigBrother'' don't seem to have watched the show that often and expect to somehow win. Justified in Season 2 — they didn't ''know'' what they would be facing, which is part of why Dr. Will was so revered and why Monica got so far. But that still doesn't excuse the rather ignorant mistakes, and it is in fact mind-boggling to see people make the ''same mistakes'' every '''single''' season.
** Perhaps the biggest is "Let's get rid of our own alliance before cleaning out the other side, especially when they're on the block!". This is perhaps one of the ''dumbest'' things you can do in BigBrother, unless the situation is like the Final Four of ''Big Brother 6'' (the one member of her alliance remaining, Janelle, had won Head of Household and was exempt from nomination). Only ''once'' has the "Let's remove our own alliance before finishing off the other side" move worked, and ''that'' was because of the most GuideDangIt Final Four Head Of Household question ever (the one involving the guinea pigs being the third preexisting relationship; had Sharon gotten it right, she would've won). Yet every other time? Janelle had ''no'' shot at the Final Two short of winning the final Head Of Household because Will & Boogie weren't planning on taking her, especially since Boogie was going to pick Erika. Zach was ''right there'' on the block with a huge "Evict me, I'm a floater!" sign on his face, but because they evicted Amber, he flipped the game around on the little Julie Chens. Then recently, Jeff decided to blindside Russel before removing Kevin and Natalie who had a 50% chance of winning the next Head Of Household over Jordan and Michelle because he thought that Russel would be a bigger threat than Kevin and Natalie. Except that the ''same'' mistake was made at least three times before, and not ''once'' did it work without suspected ExecutiveMeddling.
** For such a big fan of the show, Ronnie of Season 11 didn't seem to show it...what with his constant flip-flopping during week one and making himself a massive target. Kevin seemed to know more about the game than Ronnie did.

* Whenever the advertising task comes around in the UK version of ''Series/TheApprentice'', one of the teams will pour all their effort into a TV advert that looks slick and polished [[WhatWereTheySellingAgain but says absolutely nothing about the product]]. The other team will put together an advert that looks sloppy and amateurish, but says enough about the product to allow them to win the task.
** Subverted somewhat in Season 3, where the winning team's advert was ''deliberately'' produced in a cheap-looking way to go with the theme of their product, although the opposing team fell into the usual trap and produced a slick but meaningless advert.
** Averted for once in Season 5, where the losing team's advert just outright sucked.

* Justified in ''Space Cadets'', where prospective contestants went through a long (televised) audition process in order to try to determine which were the most gullible, most suggestible, and had the lowest knowledge of the genre. (Strangely, though, the actors that were mixed in with the contestants occasionally forgot they were on a reality TV show as well...)
* Obstacle course show ''[[{{Series/Wipeout2009}} Wipeout]]''. The real game begins after the first round and you have a pretty good idea of what it contains, so before making a fool of yourself on television, make sure you can ''at least'' clear that round. If you doubt it, you probably can't, and you're on the show to be made fun of.
** While most of the obstacles are simply NintendoHard, if you watch a few episodes you start to notice which strategies work and which ones fail miserably every single time. None of the contestants seem to have done this, because they ''always'' tend toward "run like mad and hope for the best" or "tiptoe and hesitate until you fall".
** Given that even the best contestants ''are'' going to fall into the water several times throughout the game, just being a strong swimmer is very likely to get a contestant to the final round. This is helped by the fact that obstacles slow down and get easier to cross after repeated failures, so huge amounts of time can be saved by shortening the inevitable swims.
* ''UndercoverBoss''. Similar to ''Joe Millionaire'', you'd assume that after Season 2 that people would pick up on the presence of cameras following around this new employee and begin to put on their absolute ''best'' behaviour. The producers have gotten out ahead of this one; the employees are now told that they're participating in a reality show to see if the "contestant" (actually the boss) has what it takes to make it in the organization. Presumably they'll think up a new cover story for Season 3.
** It's possible that they could have gotten some clever concealment. What they might have been able to do in the episode about an indoor resort/water park was hide the cameramen in a crowd and disguise them as customers filming their family vacation. (Ask anyone who works at a resort; people do this ''all the time''.) Heck, depending on the crowds they could ''easily'' do that for a lot of the ones where they follow somebody into a resort of some kind.

* Inverted on a FOX reality/talent show where the contestants were "dared" to do something like recite a scene of a Shakespeare play with no errors or learn to play or sing a song in key by a certain timeframe. Naturally, they never ''fully'' expect what the dare was going to be, since it was ''rarely'' the same and often wasn't a hobby they did.
* In the latest series of ''ImACelebrityGetMeOutOfHere'', Gillian [=McKeith=] so far seems amazingly genre-blind, apparently unaware that the contestant who makes the most fuss about the Bushtucker Trials will inevitably be voted by the public to do every single one (and that anyone who goes on this show risks being covered in snakes, insects, etc. at some point). Not to mention the news that the next trial is called "school dinners" — as disgusting food challenges are one of the most famous parts of the show, the rest of her team make the obvious (and correct) guess that this challenge would be an eating one. [=McKeith=] suggested that maybe she'd be asked to ''plan'' a school dinner.
* Fictional, but averted in ''Sims Big Brother''. Most of the characters actually seem to know ''very well'' what they're doing or how the game works. The closest example would have to be Keri, who didn't ''really'' know what she was getting into, but this actually became CharacterDevelopment as she became ''scarily'' competent later on.
** For that matter, a lot of Machinima based on reality TV shows aren't full of outright stupid players because they're all made up by fans of those shows.
* Many a {{Bridezilla}} has expressed surprise at how bad the show makes them look. One Bridezilla even said the producers asked her to insult her husband on national TV, then [[WhatAnIdiot couldn't figure out why strangers on the street hated her]].

* While not exactly Reality TV, children's game shows would often have players who just couldn't figure out what to do during a certain challenge or endgame, no matter how many times it aired up until then. The most {{egregious}} ones include [[LegendsOfTheHiddenTemple the team's complete inability to put that stupid Silver Monkey statue together]], [[{{Knightmare}} contestants who can't spell or give directions worth a damn]], and [[Series/FindersKeepers teams who can't seem to get it through their heads that the nice and clean-looking room they're in is]] ''[[Series/FindersKeepers supposed]]'' [[Series/FindersKeepers to be demolished by them in order to find the hidden object]].
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qveSczrl9HY Simon! Sidestep to your left!]]
** But some of those may be a tad justifiable considering pressure — ''several'' teams in ''{{Knightmare}}'' died because the dungeoneer didn't act fast enough (but the instructors were plenty quick on their feet) or in ''LegendsOfTheHiddenTemple'', they're trying to get out of the temple as ''fast as they can'' and wind up getting klutzy. (Some people have spotted that in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey, the pieces are switched around the room but it's ''still'' a three piece puzzle.)

* TheCrystalMaze, good god the Crystal Maze! It was a common thing for viewers to start yelling at their TV screens when stupid contestants couldn't spot the obvious solutions to puzzles. Now granted it's harder when you're on a time limit, you have five other people trying to give you advice and a BaldOfAwesome chap playing the harmonica. But sometimes it really did get ridiculous. Take a look at [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U68PUwXUoQ this set of outtakes from the show.]] Note how even the production team starts insulting and laughing at them!

* TheCrystalMaze, good god the Crystal Maze! It was a common thing for viewers to start yelling at their TV screens when stupid contestants couldn't spot the obvious solutions to puzzles. Now granted it's harder when you're on a time limit, you have five other people trying to give you advice and a BaldOfAwesome chap playing the harmonica. But sometimes it really did get ridiculous. Take a look at [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U68PUwXUoQ this set of outtakes from the show.]] Note how even the director starts insulting them!

* Tests of courage and loyalty or not, you'd think the contestants of ''WhoWantsToBeASuperhero'' would realize that a reality TV series can't legally have them meet and interact with real prisoners who were arrested for murder. Or let the host be kidnapped. Or budget a giant monster version of said host attacking the city. Plus, considering the fact that most contestants bragged that they were huge fans of Marvel and comics in general, they missed following superhero rules like helping others in trouble or not giving away their secret identity. On the other hand, one cast member ''was'' GenreSavvy enough to figure out the twist when they were asked to pick who should be eliminated — that they were supposed to choose themselves. She even said to the camera later that "Stan's going to have to be a lot smarter than that to trick me."

* On ''TheColony'', a show about a 10-week experiment where several people are placed in a simulated AfterTheEnd environment, the volunteers are often portrayed as taking the setting completely seriously. Many of these scenes are obviously coached or outright scripted (especially obvious in the last episode), but some may not be, and the experts that occasionally comment on the show bring up cases such as the Stanford Prison Experiment where volunteers begin treating the experiment as real. FridgeBrilliance kicks in when you realize the show is supposed to be a simulation, and actually acting like it's just a reality show would be [[{{Metagame}} Metagaming]], and no fun for anyone.

[[AC:Show-Specific]]

* Just about all the time in the British ''BigBrother'', there'd be one or two people punished a season for discussing nominations, which is against the rules.
* While not exactly Reality TV, children's game shows would often have players who just couldn't figure out what to do during a certain challenge or endgame, no matter how many times it aired up until then. The most {{egregious}} ones include [[LegendsOfTheHiddenTemple the team's complete inability to put that stupid Silver Monkey statue together]], [[{{Knightmare}} contestants who can't spell or give directions worth a damn]], and [[Series/FindersKeepers teams who can't seem to get it through their heads that the nice and clean-looking room they're in is]] ''[[Series/FindersKeepers supposed]]'' [[Series/FindersKeepers to be demolished by them in order to find the hidden object]].
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qveSczrl9HY Simon! Sidestep to your left!]]
** But some of those may be a tad justifiable considering pressure — ''several'' teams in ''{{Knightmare}}'' died because the dungeoneer didn't act fast enough (but the instructors were plenty quick on their feet) or in ''LegendsOfTheHiddenTemple'', they're trying to get out of the temple as ''fast as they can'' and wind up getting klutzy. (Some people have spotted that in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey, the pieces are switched around the room but it's ''still'' a three piece puzzle.)
** ''TheBozoShow'' occasionally would have a child who just didn't understand the fairly simple Grand Prize Game (where you stand and toss a ping-pong ball into a row of buckets) and would instead walk over to the bucket and drop it in, causing Bozo to keep repeating the rules of the game. Many times the child was often somewhat slow mentally, and it called for increasing patience on Bozo's part to deal with the determined young contestant.

* GameShow example: Anybody who watches ''ThePriceIsRight'' on a regular basis would know that in "reorder the digits" games like Safe Crackers or Ten Chances, if there's a lone "0" digit in a price, it's almost always the last digit. After all, manufacturers tend to price their products at round numbers (or AndNinetyNineCents, which ''Price'' rounds to the nearest dollar). Yet far too many WhatAnIdiot moments occur when a contestant puts the 0 in the ''second-to-last'' slot (such as $607).

* On ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', there are 3 golden rules of wagering in Final Jeopardy!:
## Clavin's Rule: Do not put a runaway at risk with an excessive wager. In other words, if you're in the lead and have at least double the second-place score, you can easily wager $0 for a guaranteed victory. Therefore you should wager so that even if you're wrong, you still have at least double the second-place score.
## If you have an untied lead, do NOT wager everything, no matter what. Leave at least $1 as insurance, because of the rule that a 3-way $0 tie is a triple loss (as opposed to a triple win for a non-zero tie).
## If the player in the lead has between 1.5x and 2x the second-place score:
*** If you're the guy in 1st place, wager so that if you're right, you have at least double the 2nd-place score, while if you're wrong, you still have more than the 2nd-place score. You should also wager so that if you're wrong, you still have at least double the 3rd-place score, if it is possible to do so while still satisfying the first part of the rule. This way the only way you can lose is if you get it wrong ''and'' someone else gets it right.
*** The other 2 players should bet everything, because they're not going win unless they get it right (and the leader gets it wrong, or violates the above rule).
** Every now and again, a player comes along and violates one of these rules, throwing away a game they otherwise could've won with a better wager. This tends to happen primarily in the Kids Tournament and Teen Tournament, since most of the adults who get on the show study wagering strategy ahead of time. The 2013 Teen Tournament saw at least 2 such contestants in the span of 2 weeks, one of which resulted in [[spoiler:the first triple loss ever to occur in a tournament game.]]

* This is pretty much what killed ''Joe Millionaire''. There are only so many times (turns out it's just two, and even then they had to go to Europe the second time) that you have a guy pretending to be a millionaire and the girls believing it.

* In the latest series of ''I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here'', Gillian [=McKeith=] so far seems amazingly genre-blind, apparently unaware that the contestant who makes the most fuss about the Bushtucker Trials will inevitably be voted by the public to do every single one (and that anyone who goes on this show risks being covered in snakes, insects, etc. at some point). Not to mention the news that the next trial is called "school dinners" — as disgusting food challenges are one of the most famous parts of the show, the rest of her team make the obvious (and correct) guess that this challenge would be an eating one. [=McKeith=] suggested that maybe she'd be asked to ''plan'' a school dinner.

** Let's not forget the girls who go in knowing that they will eventually get makeovers and there is a possibility of their hair getting cut short. Cue some girls being shocked, throwing tantrums, and one even quitting.

** Repeated in Season 5, when players were asked to break up into "a smart team", and "a dumb team". The big reveal was that the dumb players were dumb ''for picking the dumb team'', because it required them to do a harder task. This was actually fairly late into the season.

*** Eliminating contestants for undercooking meat on a reality show about cooking, however, is understandable, if not justifiable. Ever get so sick from food poisoning that you puked interesting colors? More often than not, it was because the cook wasn't carefully watching the meat he was supposed to be dutifully cooking, so of course Ramsey is going to come down hard on contestants for undercooked meat.

--->'''Sinbad:''' ''And what about those talk shows? Like our problems can be solved in one hour on a TV show. Men, if you get invited to go on one of those shows, and they put you in the SoundProofBooth -- don't come out! Don't sit down in that chair next to your woman! Are you stupid enough to think they're gonna cheer you on? No, they want to dog you -- that's why you're on the show! That girl you thought nobody knew about is waiting for you behind the curtain. BOOM! Here she comes! That's why they put you in the sound proof booth, stupid!''

* People who come on ''The JerrySpringer Show'' or ''{{Maury}}'' because their partner has "something to tell them", and are told they have been seeing someone else. This always comes as a complete shock.
** It's fairly evident that there's little-to-no actual "reality" happening on ''Jerry Springer''. But then again, there's not a lot on all these other shows, either.
*** Parodied in TheOnion in a sidebar article: "Jenny Jones Guest Has Secret, Man-Sized Adam's Apple".
** This went horribly, horribly wrong on ''Jenny Jones'' — a man was brought in to meet his secret admirer on the air, which was another man. The guy murdered his admirer shortly afterwards. For what it's worth, her show's ratings spiked for quite some time after the news broke.
** A different sort of genre blindness pops up in {{Maury}} episodes that talk about specific stuff. For example the "men who abuse women" episodes, you'd expect the guys to realize that at the end they'll probably see their wives and girlfriends "dead".
* You'd think that the people being chosen to compete in ''Throwdown With Bobby Flay'' would have a clue that the Food Network wouldn't just randomly give them a TV show on their network out of the blue, even if it ''is'' allegedly a special... but some of them do.
** Subverted in one episode where Food Network actually '''was''' doing a regular special, and a couple of brothers assumed that it was a Throwdown. So Food Network turned it into one. Only instead of Bobby doing the work of bringing in the ''expert'' judges, he forced the brothers to find two judges because "They declared a Throwdown."

* Most of the nuts who audition for ''AmericanIdol'' fall right into this. Many of the others are actually GenreSavvy enough to know that the '''really''' awful auditions get on TV, so they deliberately up their awfulness.

* On ''Masterchef'' (US) some contestants do not realize that the rules are different than on a 'popularity' reality show or even a show like ''Series/HellsKitchen''. There is almost no strategizing to do and being an arrogant jerk will get you nowhere if you do not have the cooking skills of Ramsey.