The 12 Best Reality TV Shows for Grownups, Ranked!

Welcome to reality TV, where the viewing is compulsive, the memes viral and the escapism total. While some series, from Keeping Up With the Kardashians to the Bachelor shows, have dominated conversations for years but not aged particularly well (except for time-defying Golden Bachelor Gerry and his 22 telegenic women!), some shows have innovated, dominated, endured and are still worth a pleasure watch. Meet the best reality TV shows for grownups, ranked from number 12 to number 1, and all streaming now. (And don’t miss the broadcast season premieres of The Voice on Feb. 26 and Survivor on Feb. 28.)

​12. The Real World, MTV (1992-2017, 2019)

Feel-good or guilty pleasure: Guilty pleasure

Number of seasons: 33

Why it’s worth your time: Credited as the launchpad of every TV reality series to follow it, this unscripted, raw look at what happens to a group of strangers when you put them together in a house for several months (in a different city every season) was based on PBS’s groundbreaking 1973 reality series, An American Family. The messiness of real life — relationships, prejudice, politics and religion — is on real display here, and while it doesn’t have the zip and zing of latter-day, highly produced reality TV shows, it’s worth a revisit.

A real win: Season 3 in San Francisco was a refreshingly open treatment of gay cast member Pedro Zamora’s struggle with AIDS (and the first televised LGBT commitment ceremony). 

Watch it: The Real World on Paramount+

​11. Shark Tank, ABC (2009-)

Feel-good or guilty pleasure: Feel-good

Number of seasons: 15

Why it’s worth your time: With its serious premise of entrepreneurs pitching their One Great Idea to a rotating panel of high-profile potential investors (dubbed “sharks”), this remains a quality watch season after season. Like other panel-driven reality competitions, this one has good cops and bad cops (the compassionate Barbara Corcoran, 74, versus the harsh Kevin O’Leary, 69) who inject a bit of reality TV juice to the mix. But the best reason to watch Shark Tank is to witness creativity and moxie get rewarded in a world of corporate calculation.

A real win: Bombas, those socks everywhere on your social media feed, were funded in Season 6 by FUBU founder Daymond John, 54. Shark Tank’s most successful company to date matches every item sold with a similar essential clothing item donated to organizations that help unhoused people — 100 million items so far.

Watch it: Shark Tank on ABC, Hulu

​10. Alone, The History Channel (2015-)

Feel-good or guilty pleasure: Feel-good

Number of seasons: 10

Why it’s worth your time: This under-the-radar reality series pares away the backstabbing politics of Survivor to yield a more truthful, occasionally grim, deeply instructive look at 10 seasonal contestants who must survive completely alone in deep wilderness with scant supplies, plus a camera to capture the experience (except for Season 4, which featured seven teams of pairs). Whoever lasts the longest wins a grand prize of now $1 million; contestants can tap out by choice or be pulled if they fail required medical check-in visits. The psychology is intense, the strategies fascinating.

A real win: Alone’s inversion of what makes a great survivor. Contestants who arrive crowing about hunting moose for their dinner often don’t make it very far, while humbler strategies — like living on seaweed and slugs in Season 1 — go the distance.

Watch it: Alone on History

​9. The Amazing Race, CBS (2001-)

Feel-good or guilty pleasure: Feel-good

Number of seasons: 35

Why it’s worth your time: Combining problem solving, travelogue and relationship psychology, CBS’s Emmy-winning reality juggernaut hurtles 13 teams with limited budgets around the world for $1 million in prize money. What makes The Amazing Race so watchable is the Swiss Army knife set of skills that winning requires: mental acumen to solve clues, physical stamina and flexibility to navigate different languages and cultures. Plus, the show is about working together, not knocking someone else down, and that’s an action-packed breath of fresh air. (Season 36 premieres March 13.)

A real win: While plenty of Amazing Race contestants have other reality TV chops, it’s Mike White, 53, later the creator of TV sensation The White Lotus, who captures your heart (but, sadly, not first place) with his father, Mel, in Season 14. 

Watch it: The Amazing Race on CBS, Paramount+