The best and worst reality shows of 2023

"Squid Game: The Challenge" is an emotional rollercoaster.

Even if you ignore the context of the original "Squid Game," there is an inherent discomfort in listening to contestants talk about how much they need this money or watching the emotional pain they are put through.

And yet, "The Challenge" was so entertaining to watch that it was almost addictive. The editors do a great job creating main characters out of the massive pool of 456 contestants and making you root for or dislike a contestant quickly. Yet, you could never truly guess who would win, as contestants were often taken off the board without warning.

The most interesting part of "The Challenge" was the social tests, where the producers would attempt to break apart social bonds. It is here the show puts the lens on human nature. When it comes to a life-changing sum of money, will we choose to backstab or work together? Each player is forced to make that decision, and watching them wrestle with that dilemma is riveting.

"The Challenge" may be a bit overdramatic, but it is one of the best competition shows on Netflix. — Ayomikun Adekaiyero

"The Ultimatum: Queer Love" was so good it made me wonder why this wasn't just the normal format for the show.

The season provided every ingredient needed for a great reality show. There was a big villain character with Vanessa Papa, who went through a redemption arc toward the show's end. Messy, divisive arguments between contestants were a constant. Yoly and Xander provided a couple to root for. There were moments where fans could learn more about the daily realities of queer people. There was also clear growth from the contestants, and fans were brought along that journey.

On top of all of that, "The Ultimatum: Queer Love" gave us the most shocking back-to-back pair of episodes of reality TV this year.

Despite their trials, four of the five couples decide to get married on "Ultimatum Day" in episode nine. The following episode is the reunion, where the contestants reveal that only two of the four couples are still together. As the credits roll on the final episode, there is a notice that another couple also broke up shortly after filming the reunion.

"The Ultimatum: Queer Love" was incredibly messy, but such an entertaining show to watch. — AA

One word: Scandoval.

There's no denying that the cheating scandal reinvigorated Bravo's floundering "Vanderpump Rules" in season 10. Whether you believe the affair — in which Tom Sandoval cheated on his long-term partner Ariana Madix with friend and fellow cast member Rachel "Raquel" Leviss — was manufactured by production or not, the results were the same.

Scandoval made New York Times headlines, propelled Madix into the stratosphere of celebrity, and kept us all glued to our screens to see how the producers, who hustled to pick their cameras back up when Madix discovered Sandoval's cheating after season 10 filming had already wrapped, would deliver the chaos. It's gone down in reality TV history, and we're counting the days 'til season 11 premieres and brings back all the mess. — Caralynn Matassa

There are two kinds of reality dating shows: ones where you come to form a relationship, and ones where you come to ruin an existing one. "Temptation Island" is the ideal example of the latter.

I already waxed poetic about the appeal of "Temptation Island" on Business Insider's best TV shows of 2023 list, so I won't belabor the point here. What I will say is that the reunion features a pregnancy shocker, an argument over oral sex, and usually dignified host Mark L. Walberg shouting, "Put a fucking condom on!"

"The Ultimatum" could never. — Sam Rollins

While the latest seasons of "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" haven't been particularly remarkable, ABC nabbed us hook, line, and sinker with "The Golden Bachelor," its new septuagenarian-focused version of the dating show.

Featuring an incredible cast of older female contestants and a very sweet and earnest lead, "The Golden Bachelor'' proves that seniors deserve to find love, too.

And call us crazy, but we think mature, self-assured adults who've had plenty of life experience make much better reality TV stars than desperate twenty-somethings just trying to land a brand partnership or two. — Libby Torres

With "Physical: 100," it felt like Netflix had cracked the formula for a global reality hit by way of South Korean broadcast producer Jang Ho-gi. A competition series bringing together South Korea's most elite athletes, ranging from Olympians to imported baseball players to fitness YouTubers, it was one of Netflix's most popular shows this year, clocking in at 235,000,000 hours watched from January to June 2023.

But what makes "Physical: 100" exceptional is its ability to quickly identify its characters and give them moving narrative arcs, even if they're far from the winner's circle. Wrestler Jang Eun-sil is the best example of this: While she becomes a lightning rod for the show's frequently tense gender politics as male athletes shy away from working with women on team challenges, she shines as an athlete both through physical prowess and sportsmanship.

More than watching people show off physical skill, "Physical: 100" makes it apparent that we want to see them be good to each other — win or lose. — Palmer Haasch

"The Great British Baking Show" (or "The Great British Bake-Off" in the UK) is the television equivalent of a warm blanket and a cup of hot chocolate.

But the show's been marred in recent seasons with its cringeworthy, country-specific theme weeks, wherein bakers are instructed to recreate culturally-specific dishes for each challenge. Unsurprisingly, these don't always go over well (last season's "Mexican" week was particularly grating). But luckily, "GBBO" seems to have heard our complaints, and didn't feature any country-specific challenges this season.

"GBBO" is peak comfort TV, and this season was a much-needed return to the show's gently wholesome, low-stakes roots. — LT

"The Traitors" rounds up a delightful array of reality stars from the past — including fan-favorites, villains, and champions from the likes of "Survivor" and "Big Brother" — as they betray each other, sabotage, and lie their way to the top. The backstabbing is delicious, and the twists will earn some genuine gasps.

And with Alan Cumming as host, a $250,000 prize on the line, and a gorgeous castle in Scotland as a backdrop, the show has everything you could ever want in a reality series. — Paige DiFiore

The 20th season of "Top Chef" represented the end of an era as Padma Lakshmi's last. To celebrate, "Top Chef" made its (for the first time) global cast — composed of chefs from the US, French, Brazilian, MENA, German, Canadian, Italian, Thai, Spanish, Mexican, and Polish editions of "Top Chef" — cook British food for a full season.

At some points, the focus on British food can feel grating and frankly, a bit cruel in a way that still makes for good television. Have you ever seen two people fall apart over a Scotch Egg? But the cast's vibrancy tends to make up for it well enough, and the moments where they're allowed to cook and innovate from their own culinary backgrounds are where this season shines brightest.

While chef Buddha Lo's victory starts to feel like a foregone conclusion pretty early on in the show (particularly that he literally just won "Top Chef" season 19 right before this), it doesn't sour the journey for one of the show's most compelling, and certainly most globally diverse, casts. And its grand scale feels like an adequate sendoff for Lakshmi, whose influence feels crucial to what the show has become today. — PH

As the beach-going little sister to Netflix's real-estate reality juggernaut "Selling Sunset," "Selling the OC" came out of the gate with a chip on its shoulder. But season two proved the OC agents at The Oppenheim Group don't need to be strutting down Sunset Boulevard in stilettos to deliver genuine drama that easily surpasses the strained mania of its glitzier counterpart.

Not that there isn't glitz on "Selling the OC," too — arguments between agents happen in stunningly vacant modern homes, where the venomous comebacks practically bounce off the walls, and against the vistas of Cabo San Lucas, where the Oppenheim brothers are opening a new office.

But the season's central and most compelling drama is centered on the O Group's resident dreamboat Tyler Stanaland, who, after separating from his famous wife, has a series of flirtations with two of his coworkers, one of whom he pursues a relationship with in earnest by season's end. The fact that Stanaland has since left the O Group (and by extension, the show) for reasons unclear only thickens the plot — and the potential for even more drama in season three. — SR

"MILF Manor" is a fever dream that feels ripped out of an episode of "30 Rock" — and I mean that almost literally, because there was actually a fake series on the NBC comedy called "MILF Island."

In some ways, "MILF Manor" is brilliant, but it loses points for every single one of those ways being pretty horrifying. The show's big twist, easily predictable in advance, is that the show's cast of "MILFs" looking for love will be doing so from a pool of eligible bachelors composed of their own sons. What results is something that would make Freud roll in his grave, as mothers and sons watch their family members try to get it on, and spill horrifying sexual secrets in front of each other as part of challenges.

To be clear, "MILF Manor" is a bad television show that can't really hold water. But the entire conceit is just wild enough to sustain something that compels you to watch — albeit like a car crash that you can't help but rubberneck at on the highway. — PH

After spending a few years building up a slate of original reality shows, Netflix was wise to devise a dating show that would bring back the most memorable characters from those shows for another chance at fame (I mean... love?).

But what should have been an entertaining exercise in corporate synergy in which Netflix-lebrities pair off or get dumped ultimately ended up lacking in the entertainment department, as the setup of "Perfect Match" bent too much to the wills of cast members with outsized senses of entitlement (cough Francesca Farago cough).

One crucial mistake was allowing the couple that wins the day's compatibility challenge to decide who will join the house and who will go on dates, effectively eliminating two tried-and-true dating show producer tools — choosing the exact right (or wrong) arrival for the present moment, and choosing dates for maximum entertainment value — that usually keep the drama quotient on a dating show high at all times.

Instead, "Perfect Match" gave us the television equivalent of an influencer networking event, where the biggest drama came not from the events happening onscreen, but from watching the contestants size each other up based on where they are on the Instagram follower totem pole. For the rest of us spectators, it wasn't worth pressing the Like button. — SR

For eight seasons, "Are You The One?" was one of the most ridiculous and addictive dating shows on the air. The eighth season in particular, which aired on MTV in 2019, was particularly juicy. It featured an all-queer cast — a first in the world of reality competitions — who bonded and bared their souls as often as they flirted and wrought emotional havoc.

Fans of the show were thrilled when another season was announced, set to premiere on January 18, 2023. Unfortunately, those fans were betrayed with a new formula. Season nine was filmed in Spain with an international cast — an obvious attempt to mimic "Love Island" with disastrous results. The show also swapped its host (Terrence J for Kamie Crawford), streaming platform (MTV for Paramount+), and production company (Lighthearted Entertainment for ITV Netherlands). Amid all these changes, "Are You The One?" lost every hint of its unique sparkle. — Callie Ahlgrim

Netflix's crown jewel of dating shows has gotten progressively messier since it began airing in 2020, and not in a good way.

Season five, however, takes the cake — there was some unnecessary and hateful drama involving Izzy and Stacy's borderline obsession with Johnnie, a cringeworthy breakup between JP and Taylor over the amount of makeup she wears (yes, really), and the profoundly strange but ultimately inconsequential Uche/Lydia/Aaliyah situation.

In every season of "Love Is Blind," the show chooses to follow the stories of only a certain number of couples, even though more might end up getting engaged and leaving the pods together. Unfortunately, none of the couples featured on season five were remotely worth following. With any luck, Netflix will choose better on "Love Is Blind" season six. — LT

Much like season five of "Love Is Blind," this most recent season of "Bachelor in Paradise" seems to have lost the plot.

While the cast was interesting enough (Kylee Russell and Kat Izzo were particularly polarizing contestants), the show tried to do too much this season, and didn't focus enough on the banal drama that makes "Paradise" so watchable. For instance, a wedding teased early on in the season turned out to involve two "Paradise" alums from a previous season (in what appeared to be a major favor to producers), and by forcing contestants to end with an engagement instead of just a relationship, the stakes feel too high for a show that's primarily about getting drunk and flirting on a beach for roughly three weeks.

Let "Paradise" be fun again, please! — LT