The 10 Most Memorable Reality Show Moments

As much as we would like to call reality shows pure garbage they have contributed some of the most memorable moments on television. Here are the top ten.

#10. Apprentice Contestants Sell Lemonade ( 2004 )
Show: The Apprentice
16 contestants were recruited to play in a reality game show where the prize was a job working for Donald Trump. They were the best and brightest independent businessmen and businesswomen from around the country, some who had founded their own successful companies. They all knew that there wold be some sort of competition to determine who was the best businessperson but at that point had no idea how this would work out. Trump broke the contestants up into two teams then gave them their first task. Go out and sell lemonade. The team that sold the most lemonade wins a reward. The team that sells the least must go to the boardroom where one of them would be fired by Trump. Watching these yuppies attempting to sell lemonade on the streets of New York was worth watching the show for. It was especially funny watching the men's team picking the smelly Fulton Fish market as their location for their lemonade stand not realizing that people walking by the building and smelling the odor would not be in the mood to buy refreshments. Unfortunately Trump would veer away from simple tasks like this and begin assigning tasks that involved promoting sponsors.

#9. Verne Troyer Pees ( 2005 )
Show: The Surreal Life
An extremely drunk Verne Troyer wanders around the Surreal Life house naked on a scooter. Finding a corner of the living room he takes a leak much to the disgust of the other cast members.

#8. David Is Evicted From the House ( 1992 )
Show: The Real World
It all seemed innocent. Real World cast member David Edwards was fooling around with roommate Tami who had covered up her bikini with a towel when he yanked the towel off. Both the girls and boys in the house were laughing along with the incident including Tami. But it was a few minutes later when Tami broke into hysterics and said that she had been humiliated by having the towel removed that suddenly what began as a harmless act turned into the girls accusing David of sexual assault. And with that David became the first roommate in the history of The Real World to be evicted from the house.

#7. Jessica Simpson Confused by Chicken of the Sea ( 2003 )
Show: The Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica
While sitting on a couch eating Chicken of the Sea from the can, Jessica Simpson wonders out loud if there is actually chicken in the tuna fish. Her husband has to explain to her that Chicken of the Sea is just a brand name and what she is eating is in fact tuna fish.

#6. William Hung Singing She Bangs ( 2004 )
Show: American Idol
Early on during the show American Idol a parade of untalented wannabe singers audition in front of Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul. This has always been a great source of entertainment, but none of these bad performances compared to that of William Hung singing She Bangs. His performance was so ridiculous that someone actually signed Hung to a record deal just to release it as a single.

#5. Bachelor Dumps Winner ( 2009 )
Show: The Bachelor
Bachelor Jason Mesnick had narrowed the field of girls down to two, Mellissa Rycroft and Molly Malaney. In the final show Jason chooses Melissa even giving her an engagement ring and asking her to be his wife. The music swirled and the series concluded with a happy ending. Then came the reunion show where Jason and the contestants were interviewed. Here Jason shocked everyone by suddenly calling the wedding off, then telling everyone that he realized that he was really in love with Molly and wanted her to be his wife. While an angry Melissa stormed off the set a tearful Molly accepted Jason's proposal, and everyone at home watched in stunned disbelief.

#4. Wife Admits to Affair ( 2008 )
Show: Moment of Truth
Moment of Truth was a game show where someone would be strapped to a lie detector and have to answer questions about themselves truthfully. Contestant Lauren Cherri was asked if she had ever cheated on her husband and proceeded to shock the audience by saying yes. Her husband Frank who was on the set knew that she had cheated in the past, but was blown away by the next question where she admitted she still loved her ex-boyfriend who which she was cheating with. Lauren ultimately lost the game on the final question which asked if she was a good person. Lauren answered yes and the lie detector registered she was not telling the truth.

#3. Crew Learns of 9-11 Terrorist Attacks. ( 2002 )
Show: The Ship
The Ship was one of the intelligent reality shows that aired on PBS. The premise was to take a group of individuals and see how they reacted to living like sailors on a ship from the 1800's. The crew had to dress in period clothing and eat food from the same period. The captain did have a radio to keep in contact with civilization, mainly to keep from sailing into any storms. It was September of 2001 when the series was being taped when the captain got disturbing news over the radio about the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. In an unforgettable scene the captain gathers the crew on the deck and telling them that at that moment, being in the middle of nowhere, they were on the safest place in the world. He then tells them about how the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been hit with hijacked airliners and how both towers had collapsed. An extremely chilling moment made even more chilling as the series did not air until a year after the events of 9-11.

#2. Susan Boyal Sings ( 2009 )
Show: Britain's Got Talent
I had tried to keep the memorable moments to reality shows that aired in the United States, but thanks to Youtube this is the lone exception. It was during the audition rounds to the show Britain's Got Talent when then unknown Susan Boyal surprised everyone with her angelic voice as she sang I Dream a Dream. The performance went on to become a worldwide sensation as it's clip was shown on Youtube, allowing everyone outside of England to also enjoy her singing.

#1. Pat Loud Asks For Divorce ( 1973 )
Show: An American Family
After weeks of following what was suppose to be the ideal American middle class family around, mother Patricia Loud shocked America by asking her husband for a divorce and to leave their house immediately. It had been obvious in the weeks leading up to this moment that Pat was not digging her husband. But in the 70s divorce was still considered taboo. And it was expected by everyone that Pat would have soldiered through and continued to live with her husband as was going on with thousands of other loveless marriages. The Louds had literally become Americas favorite family, so watching them self destruct on national television was a bit jarring.