Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded. Reality television began in 1948 with Alan Funt's TV series Candid Camera. The genre exploded as a phenomenon around 1999–2000 with the success of such television series as Big Brother and Survivor. Programs in the reality television genre are commonly called reality shows and often are produced in a television series. Documentaries, television news and sports television are usually not classified as reality shows.

The genre covers a wide range of television programming formats, from game show or quiz shows which resemble the frantic, Japanese variety shows produced in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s (such as Gaki no tsukai), to surveillance- or voyeurism-focused productions such as Big Brother. The most popular reality TV show for 2010-11 was American Idol, and the least popular was Shedding for the Wedding.

Andy Dehnart (born August 26, 1977) is an American journalist and television critic. He may be best known as reality television's "longest-standing critic" for his online journalism, as he's the creator of the genre's first tracking website, RealityBlurred.com. He is a member of the Television Critics Association.

Currently a contributor of television criticism and cultural journalism to NPR, The Daily Beast and msnbc.com, Dehnart has also written for Salon.com, Wired.com, The Boston Globe, Metro, The Chicago Tribune and Playboy. He regularly appears on television and the radio to discuss reality TV and popular culture.

He created Reality Blurred in July 2000, and the daily-updated site quickly became a primary source for devotees of the reality TV explosion. The web site has received accolades from entertainment media, with Slate deeming it "the site the best culture weblog dedicated to television" and Entertainment Weekly awarding it an "A." USA Today named Dehnart one of the Top 100 People in Pop Culture in 2001.