I was in one of the 30 Days episodes. It was... very very very much reality-TV, not reality.
They made things up, planted things, and generally hammed it up to make things interesting. Still maybe interesting to watch, but not something I'd treat as accurate.
Every person who has ever been in a reality TV episode will provide stark testimony that it's completely manufactured, yet millions of Americans will staunchly swear that it's just "embellished" reality, not manufactured reality.
We've sadly been in a post truth era for a while. And the advertisers have won the war.
The most palatable reality shows are game shows, and it's only middling in the day where you can search up any esoteric fun facts. Sure, the contestants are highly biased in selection, but I assume (maybe wrongly?) that the rest of the show is people playing by some set rules and answering unprepped trivia. Ripped off in prizes by taxes, but everything else is "real"
