Day-to-day life is inherently awkward. You might be reading this very article while picking your nose or doing heaven knows what on the toilet. Being awkward is part of being human, and for most of the population, we can confine that awkwardness in private so that no one else ever has to see it. But things quickly become complicated when someone invites a film crew and cameras into their homes and workplaces to capture every ugly moment for millions of other people to see. 

Reality TV has become a popular choice of entertainment for TV networks and streaming services. It’s cheap, and with the right collection of volatile personalities, some intense drama can unfold that the greatest Hollywood screenwriter could only dream of. The most awkward reality TV scenes see folks truly descend into depravity, from questionable fashion choices for their children to first impressions gone horribly wrong. 

The following moments only scratch the surface of what the genre has accomplished in terms of overall cringiness. But for our money, these are the reality TV moments permanently seared into our brains due to the sheer second-hand embarrassment.

If aliens ever invaded Earth, it would probably only take them about three seconds of watching “Toddlers & Tiaras” before deciding humanity needed to be wiped out. The series aired for seven seasons from 2009 to 2016, and it’s one of many TV shows anyone who watched it probably regretted later. The show follows incredibly young girls and their often overbearing stage mothers dolling them up to compete in beauty pageants, raising all sorts of ethical concerns, primarily around some of the sexualized costumes these literal children were made to wear. 

Plenty of bad moments are in bad taste, but arguably, the worst came from Season 3, Episode 11 — “Universal Royalty, Texas.” The episode features 2-year-old Mia doing a dance routine, first entering in a white smock with angel wings on the back. But then, she removes that to reveal a gold ensemble with a pointy cone bra, which is what Madonna wore during the 1990 Blonde Ambition Tour. Mia’s mother, Tina Grande, uploaded a separate video of the routine to YouTube, showing how Mia danced to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer,” which wasn’t included in the episode. 

The outfit combined with a song featuring sexually explicit undertones makes the whole thing downright creepy. “Toddlers & Tiaras” was filled with these questionable choices, and while the show’s no longer around, child beauty pageants strangely persist. To borrow a “Spy Kids 2” quote: “Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he’s created?”

Some truly incredible products have come through the doors of “Shark Tank” over the years. On the flip side of that coin, there have absolutely been pitches that make it seem like anyone can get a business degree these days. One of those faulty concepts was the Wake N’ Bacon from Season 2, Episode 2. Matty Sallin pitches his idea for an alarm clock that cooks bacon at a predesignated time so that the user wakes up to the delicious aroma first thing in the morning. The Sharks have a good laugh at the idea, but it quickly becomes apparent that this concept is better on paper. 

Kevin O’Leary shows why his “Mr. Wonderful” nickname is largely sarcastic by really taking Sallin to task. O’Leary wisely points out that the fundamental concept is a fire hazard, as it’s basically an oven someone would need to put right by their bed. The other sharks politely decline, but things really get uncomfortable at the end of the clip.

O’Leary offers $300 because he likes the prototype box in the shape of a pig, telling Sallin, “Listen, I think I’m gonna save children by doing that. We’re gonna put that in my ‘Museum of Really Bad Ideas That Could Kill People.'” Sallin takes the insult with a smile without firing anything back. If you’re going to be in the same room as Kevin O’Leary, you better be prepared to both take the heat and dish it back out. 

What goes on between two people in the bedroom should stay between them. Issues can certainly crop up, and it’s important to have open lines of communication so that they can try to reach compromises or get past any obstacles. When it comes to awkward reality TV moments, such personal conversations get aired out in the open, which was the case between Mohamed Jbali and Danielle Mullins on “90 Day Fiancé.” 

To be honest, their relationship is a disaster from the start. It’s clear Jbali doesn’t want to get physically intimate with Mullins. He’s a young man from Tunisia while she’s a middle-aged woman, causing many fans online to believe he only got into the relationship for a green card. Many scenes with the couple throughout “90 Day Fiancé” are awkward, but the worst might’ve come during a retroactive look at their time on the series. Mullins reveals that Jbali avoided being more intimate with her due to her smell and how she urinated on him during the act. 

These are matters two people should discuss in private to try to find some common ground. Mullins even mentions during the chat how Jbali had told others about these issues, which seems like a breach of trust on his end. The host wisely tries to get them to move on, but the saga of Danielle and Mohamed remains an all-time awkward relationship on “90 Day Fiancé.”

Was VH1’s “Flavor of Love” peak television? That’s open to personal interpretation, but given the sheer lunacy of the show, involving rapper Flavor Flav trying to find his one true love, it made for one of the best reality TV shows of all time. Season 2 opens with quite a bang as the premiere episode involves someone defecating on the staircase. Flavor Flav and the other women quickly realize that someone did indeed poop on the floor, and there isn’t even a dog in the house for someone to blame. 

The perpetrator is Tykeisha Thomas, whom Flav gives the nickname “Somethin.” She’s caught red-handed (brown-handed?) in the bathroom and immediately owns up to being the one who did the deed. Honestly, there could be more to this story than “Flavor of Love” let on. Take this with a grain of salt since it comes from a random Redditor, but u/Catsgirlsspaceships commented in a thread, “According to stories I’ve heard from other cast members, the girls had to stand on the risers to wait for elimination for 3+ hours that day … The poor girl tried her damndest to hold it for around THREE HOURS and eventually it couldn’t be held any longer.” 

That definitely recontextualizes the situation, but it’s awkward all the same. She didn’t last too long on “Flavor of Love,” and during her elimination, Flav admits that it was strong of her to stick around. At the end of the day, he just couldn’t get past it, but at least Somethin definitely made a mark.

We’ve all heard stories about people who have an instant attraction to one another. However, could true love really spawn from two strangers who don’t know a single thing about one another and have to decide whether to go further based on a single kiss? That’s the premise of TLC’s “Love at First Kiss,” and honestly, the whole thing sounds awkward. It can take some time for people to get a good rhythm down with kissing, but even with the expectation of some cringey moments, no one could’ve anticipated the kiss between Josh and Emily. 

To be fair, Josh had never kissed anyone before his reality TV debut. He did get one kiss in before his time with Emily with another contestant, Annalisa. He keeps his mouth closed the whole time, and apparently, it involves too much use of his teeth. Josh may have overcorrected too much in his encounter with Emily — his second kiss ever. While she’s naturally expecting a kiss on the mouth, he instead gingerly kisses her on the cheek and then hugs her. We’re not even sure he made contact with her skin, and anyone watching instantly feels bad for the guy who clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing. 

Fortunately, Josh’s reality TV appearance did have a positive affect by showing how not everyone gets a first kiss when they’re younger. Josh later told Vice, “People have never seen someone go 27 years without a first kiss. They don’t think that’s real—but that was me! I’ve got a couple of people who have messaged me telling me I’m brave, and that they’re the same age, or even older. I think that’s amazing: I thought I was the only one!” 

Social media blew up into a tizzy after a moment on “Love Is Blind” Season 6. The show’s premise centers on people trying to form a romantic connection without knowing what the other one looks like. Chelsea Blackwell talks to Jimmy Presnell, and they chat about famous people they get told they look like. It’s a pretty standard “getting to know someone” question, and Blackwell reveals how people have told her she looks like Megan Fox. 

The internet unfairly roasted Blackwell over an innocuous comment, and honestly, her self-comparison to Fox isn’t the awkward moment that’s making this list. It’s Presnell’s reaction when he chooses to get engaged to Blackwell and is visibly upset. He even mentions how she doesn’t look at all like Megan Fox, which is a weird point to get hung up on when it was a throwaway comment. When people say they look like a celebrity, it doesn’t mean they’re literally twins; it means they kind of share some similar traits, which she absolutely does with Fox.

Blackwell even received death threats later on in her “Love Is Blind” season (for other reasons than the Megan Fox statement) which no one deserves to get. Fox herself even chimed to E! News, “I did see a picture of her. A hundred thousand percent, people have told her, ‘You kind of look like Megan Fox.’ So I believe she’s telling the truth and I hope like she still has that sparkle in her eye.” So yes, the awkward “Love Is Blind” moment is Presnell taking a lighthearted comment to heart and not Blackwell making the comparison in the first place. It’s not that serious. 

We’ve heard about women bending over backwards for a guy, but this clip from “The Bachelor” is just ridiculous. 

The long-running reality show sees whoever the titular bachelor is meet his prospective future love. It must get repetitive to see women pull up in limousines and greet them one by one, and there’s probably a ton of pressure on the women to make good first impressions. Season 17’s Robyn Howard must’ve decided to show off how flexible she is by doing a backflip in front of bachelor Sean Lowe. She does the first backflip okay but winds up falling over on the second. 

Fortunately, Lowe and Howard have good senses of humor and laugh it off. Doing a backflip in front of someone new is undoubtedly a big ask even if they weren’t in a long dress. Howard got sent home in Week 5, but her entrance left a lasting, albeit awkward, impression on all those watching. 

“America’s Next Top Model” Season 4 is often seen as one of the best — if not most controversial, seasons of the reality series. This is really when the show begins pushing the boundaries of good taste, and one of the more noteworthy moments seemed entirely accidental. During filming, Kahlen Rondot learns one of her childhood friends has just died. That’s a lot for anyone to go through, especially when they have to compete when they’d probably prefer to grieve with loved ones.

To make matters worse, the challenge on the day involves a photoshoot at a cemetery, with Rondot needing to embody the deadly sin of wrath while in a coffin. Watching her writhe and scream can get uncomfortable to watch. It feels all the more emotional knowing she was likely genuinely wrathful, whether it was at the world or from having to do such an insensitive challenge. 

For those knowing that reality TV isn’t always “real,” it may lead to questions of whether the cemetery photoshoot was planned to coincide with the news. A spokesperson for host Tyra Banks told Entertainment Weekly years later, “The shoot had been planned beforehand, and, as is standard with any production of this magnitude, it would have been near impossible to pull off an entire shoot change.” It goes to show that sometimes the most awkward reality TV scenes simply come down to bad timing.

“Hell’s Kitchen” might be one of the most intense reality TV series out there. It’s stressful enough trying to provide exquisite meals to customers, but when you have Gordon Ramsay breathing down your neck and yelling at you for any minor error, the show becomes a true test of who’s cut out to run their own restaurant one day. While Ramsay gets away with being a jerk at times, Season 6’s Joseph Tinnelly didn’t get the same leeway. 

Tinnelly isn’t even one of the contestants up for elimination, but when Ramsay repeatedly asks him to explain why the Blue Team picked who they picked for the elimination round, he asserts that they can speak for themselves. There are no bonus points for being rebellious, especially since Ramsay isn’t even being rude at first. But Tinnelly buys himself a one-way ticket out of the competition due to his attitude. The entire exchange is awkward, but the pièce de résistance is when Tinnelly trips over a step, leading to a clunky, yet hilarious, exit.

For those wondering what happened to Joseph Tinnelly, it appears he went back to work in the New York restaurant scene for a brief period of time at least. If he wants to let the world know how he’s doing these days, he can speak for himself. 

A good story, fictional or not, requires a good villain, and “Vanderpump Rules” has a great one in the form of Jax Taylor. He’s done plenty of truly awful things on the show, from cheating on partners to just existing in general. It’s no surprise he earned a spot on the “House of Villains” reality series. It’s hard to pick just one awkward moment involving him for this list, but there’s something incredibly unsavory when he talks about his girlfriend-at-the-time, Brittany Cartwright, getting the exact breast augmentation he wants. 

Women deserve full bodily autonomy, and Cartwright does appear to want the surgery. In the Season 4 clip, she talks about getting C or D cups, but he wants her to go even bigger. He even compares Cartwright’s breasts to another woman’s, with the whole thing having an underlying ickiness to it. Taylor asserts, “If I’m gonna help finance this, I want ’em how I want ’em.”

Luckily, there are other people in the room to put him in check, and he walks back his statement a bit. But it’s a glimpse into the mindset of Jax Taylor, who’s been a reality show staple ever since. 

Even people who have never watched a full episode of “Real Housewives” probably know the show is famous for its tableside arguments. Teresa Giudice’s table flip helped make the franchise a household name, but the most awkward table-centric moment came in “The Real Housewives of New York City” Season 6. 

Aviva Drescher has the most iconic mic drop to an argument of all time. When things get heated at dinner, she loudly proclaims, “The only thing that is artificial or fake about me is this!” She then slams her prosthetic leg onto the table, much to the bemusement of other people in the vicinity but to the dismay of her fellow “Real Housewives” cast members. 

Later when speaking with Extra, Drescher explained, “I had this knee-jerk reaction to take my leg and bang it on the table to hopefully shut up these shrews who were coming after me!” Some may have found it an odd way to end the argument, but as with any awkward moment, it makes for great reality TV.

If a reality TV show contestant is going to get eliminated, they may as well go out with a sick burn. That may have been Tyler Neasloney’s thoughts on a 2020 episode of “Project Runway” when he was tasked with designing a dress for host and model Karlie Kloss to wear to Paris, France. It didn’t go over well, with judge Brandon Maxwell stating, “I cannot see Karlie wearing it anywhere, honestly.” Neasloney responded, “Not even to dinner with the Kushners.” 

Kloss looks taken aback while Neasloney’s fellow contestants have their mouths agape over the jab. The statement is in regards to Kloss being married to Joshua Kushner. He’s the brother of Jared Kushner, who’s married to Ivanka Trump and worked as a senior advisor in Donald Trump’s presidential administration. Neasloney’s remarks seem to make fun of Kloss’ conservative ties even though she herself has expressed liberal viewpoints over the years. 

Neasloney was voted off “Project Runway” for the bad dress, but the viral moment means he’ll live on forever. Of course, now we can’t help but wonder what Kloss really does wear to dinner with the Kushners.