32 Epic Moments in Reality-TV History

One of the first shows to propel the rise of reality TV, the U.K.’s Big Brother series landed on a winning formula: throw myriad personalities into a house and have them compete with one another, and you’re bound to have compelling drama. The show led to an American version and inspired countless knockoffs, including a celebrity version that, unsurprisingly, only increased the theatrics. Case in point: the 2007 season of Celebrity Big Brother was mired in an international scandal as three contestants — model Danielle Lloyd, reality-show veteran Jade Goody and singer Jo O’Meara — were shown routinely mocking and bullying fellow contestant Shilpa Shetty, an Indian actress. The bullying was widely perceived as racist, as Shetty’s name, accent and appearance were ridiculed, both to her face and behind her back. The U.K.’s television regulator, Ofcom, received tens of thousands of complaints and there was substantial media backlash against Lloyd, Goody and O’Meara both in the U.K. and in India. Goody and O’Meara both reported that they received death threats after leaving the house and Lloyd lost several lucrative modeling contracts due to the controversy. While O’Meara maintained that she didn’t bully Shetty, both Goody and Lloyd offered apologies to the actress — which she graciously accepted.