I was almost a dating show contestant - but I definitely wouldn't sign up now as reality TV has gone too far

In 2016, on a lonely New Year’s Eve, I decided fill in an application form to be on popular TV dating show ‘First Dates’. Several months later I got a phone call from a casting agent and then, after a phone and video interview, I was told a match had been found for me and I’d be taking part in the show in the coming weeks.

My match - whom I never knew the identity of - obviously wasn’t the one for me, however, as fate intervened and the date, and therefore my reality TV appearance, never happened. He was unavailable on the filming dates offered - and they were the last dates for that particular series of the show so that was that.

At the time, I remember being disappointed. But, I’d never be tempted to apply for a reality TV show again. That’s because the concept of them seems to be getting more and more outlandish - and it’s the contestants who end up suffering in the name of ‘entertainment’.

Now, don’t get my wrong, I like to watch reality TV shows just as much as everyone else at times, I’m currently mourning the end of ‘Married at First Sight Australia’. I realise these shows are heavily edited and that, in some cases, participants are put in certain scenarios on purpose in order to create arguments, for example.

But, that doesn’t mean that some reality shows don’t have value - they do. For example, there are many couples who met on reality TV dating shows who are still together after many years - and without those programmes they wouldn’t have ever met. That’s amazing.

Speaking of dating shows, there’s also important shows which shed a light on the many different types of relationships. For example, the first gay dating show, BBC Three’s ‘I Kissed a Boy’, was widely praised from bringing gay relationships in to the spotlight last year. The lesbian follow-up ‘I Kissed a Girl’ is airing shortly, (and I can’t wait to watch it).

But, then there’s some dating shows that don’t appear to add anything meaningful to society . . . they seem to have been created purely for shock factor and nothing else - and they are an uncomfortable and awkward watch.

I’m thinking of ‘MILF Manor’, a show which is currently airing it’s second series on TLC and Discovery Plus. I can’t repeat what MILF stands for here, (if you’re not sure look it up!), but it’s a very derogatory way to describe a mum for a start.

The concept of the show is based around older women, who are mums, trying to find relationships with much younger men. There’s nothing wrong with that at all and people should stop their obsession with age gap relationships - but that’s another point! - but then the twist is that the dads of the young suitors are introduced to try to get the attention of the mums.

What follows then is a series of cringeworthy and highly awkward situations where men and their sons are encouraged to compete for the attention of the same woman. As you can imagine, it’s jaw-dropping TV which all just feels a little exploitative.

I understand that TV bosses have to keep coming up with new concepts to keep reality shows fresh so that viewers continue to be engaged, but there’s a line of decency which is crossed with some shows - and this is just one of them.

It’s also recently been revealed that one of the participants on the above mentioned show has had their intimate Only Fans images leaked, now they have come to public prominence.

This is the other big problem I have with reality TV shows now - there’s no such thing as private life - or even a past life - for the people who take part. It seems to me that if you fill in an application form you are agreeing to sign your whole life away; past, present and future. Viewers are so quick to find personal details about contestants of their favourite shows - whether it’s just their Instagram page or something more intimate.

I realise that if you’re taking part in a TV show you are putting yourself out there in a way that means that thousands, if not millions, of people across the country - or even the world - will know your name very quickly. But, does that really mean you deserve to have every small detail of your life exposed? After all, even at it’s most innocent, who doesn’t have a buried photo from ten years ago that they’d rather forget about? I certainly do.

We all know that some reality TV contestants have been subjected to the most horrendous trolling too; either because of the way they look or because of their actions or the things they say. Now, I know that sometimes people do say or do things on these shows that are absolutely not okay - but they also don’t deserve to be targeted with abuse from hundreds or even thousands of people.

We have to remember that the contestants on these reality shows are just normal people at the end of the day; they have real emotions and they don’t become public property just because they put themselves in the public eye.