Dave Hester is just as annoying in real life as he is on TV, suing AMC and exposing the show's fakeness in a lawsuit. Apparently AMC plants items inside the storage unit the teams bid on, for story purposes, and also makes sure to have plenty cash to bid and buy the units. AMC never denied the fakery, settled with Hester and convinced him to return to the show- for a hefty pay raise, I'm sure.
#8 Pawn Stars
So far no one has the inside dirt on Pawn Stars, but then again you don't really need any insider information to know that some of the items and people featured on the show are researched and planned ahead of time. In 2011 someone did catch the show sending in a guy with a Les Paul guitar, who the Pawn Stars guys got evaluated by an outside expert. The expert actually worked at a shop with the guy who had the guitar, which shows you how they screen and plan the seemingly "random" pawn buys.
#7 American Idol
Even competition reality shows have a lot of fakery in their episodes. Since American Idol, the X-Factor, The Voice and other competitions rely extensively on sob stories in addition to vocal talent, it should be no big shock that a contestant invented a boo-hoo background to grab attention. Jermaine Jones claimed his dad abandoned him as a child, but his real dad strenuously objected. The show kicked Jones off before the viewers could even vote on his talent.
#6 America's Got Talent
Speaking of sob stories, America's Got Talent also ripped off when a man with a stutter named Tim Poe showed up claiming to an injured military veteran with a brain injury that only improved when he was singing. Turns out, his military records reveal there was no traumatic brain injury and dozens of his fellow soldiers contacted AGT the minute they saw him on TV telling tales.
#5 Breaking Amish
Breaking Amish has the distinction of being one of the biggest hoaxes of all time. The TLC show promised to show you the experiences of Amish youth who were leaving their farms for the first time, living in Manhattan. But the show was less like MTV's the Real World and more like The Fake World. The kids had already left Amish life behind by the time the cameras rolled.
#4 Ghost Adventures
It always looked fake to us, but some of you were really shocked in 2014 when one of the members of the Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures blew the whistle on the goblin-chasing shame of a show. When the teams are up all night getting no footage, the producers force the crew back and act out some "spooky" scenes, supplied sound effects and storylines.
#3 Survivor- Russell Hantz
Russel Hantz is a classic Survivor villain. He has appeared on three seasons of the hit CBS show. Hantz told fellow campers in Samoa that he survived Hurricane Katrina but that his dog died in the hurricane. He also claimed to be a millionaire (he was not) who was on Survivor just to show everyone how gosh darn easy it was to win Survivor. Hantz never won Survivor.
#2 Survivor- Brian Heidik
Brian Heidik was the winner of season 5 of Survivor. CBS and Heidik claimed he was a used-car salesman when he was not posing shirtless on the show. Turns out Heidnik was selling his body, not cars, as the star of several soft-core pornographic films, like "Virgins of Sherwood Forest," Passions Obsession," "Sinful Obsession" and "The Pleasure Zone."
#1 Hardcore Pawn
It's hard to believe Hardcore Pawn has been on TV for more than 9 seasons. The Detroit-based reality show features a cast of shrieking, over-the-top customers who get into fist fights with pawn shop owners over such things as "I want my TV!" The scenarios and arguments are so extreme it's obvious the show is completely scripted and staged.
