Reality TV Storylines We Never Got To See

Reality TV would be nothing without those juicy storylines that persist throughout a season and keep viewers hooked until the finale. These storylines have hypnotizing build-ups that leave viewers with bated breath, waiting for tensions to boil over or culminate in an unforgettable moment that makes reality TV history. Whether it's a brewing rivalry between two competitors that's about to come to a head or a blossoming romance that has you waiting until an inevitable hook-up, some reality TV plots are honestly as good as any beloved movie or scripted series. Some storylines become even more iconic when a twist gets introduced and everyone is left stunned by the fallout.

Unfortunately, viewers don't always get to see every storyline play out as intended since some arcs get left on the cutting room floor. Maybe the moment just didn't fit into the flow of the episode and was ultimately edited out, or perhaps it was too hot for TV and simply left a secret until the reunion special. Regardless, there are plenty of fun storylines that fans missed out on. That's why we're here to spill the tea and — with the help of your favorite reality TV stars from shows like "Survivor" and "The Bachelorette" — dive headfirst into some reality TV storylines that got cut out.

Before the season even ended, fans learned about a major twist from the "Survivor 45" premiere that essentially got voted out by the producers. According to host Jeff Probst on his podcast "On Fire: The Official Survivor Podcast," there was supposed to be a twist introduced after the premiere's Immunity Challenge.

The twist allowed the winning team — Belo — to send their tribe member Kendra McQuarrie over to the losing team's camp to not only listen to who would likely be voted out, but also cast a vote themselves. "Kendra goes over and she literally just hangs out there watching all of them scramble," described Probst. "So, they're trying to figure out who they're going to vote for. But, they're also aware that someone is eavesdropping."

Unfortunately, this potentially devastating twist was cut from the premiere due to someone quitting. When Hannah Rose –- a member of the losing Lulu tribe –- decided to quit when the tribe arrived at Tribal Council, the entire vote was nullified. Thus, McQuarrie's vote didn't matter, and it caused the producers to leave out the storyline entirely. Probst mentioned that as much as they loved the twist, it just didn't play out like they wanted it to and sadly had to be cut. Perhaps a similar advantage can come back in a later season, but for now, it's an exciting twist that fans never saw in action. 

The immediate success of Netflix's social experiment "Love is Blind" apparently caused a couple of engagements in the first season to be completely left off. Castmates Rory Newbrough and Westley Baer spoke with People about their respective engagements being slashed out of the show. "As we were preparing to go to the Mexico trip, the leads of the show came in and said, 'Hey, we were expecting maybe one or two [engagements],'" Newbrough explained. "... 'Then we got eight engagements.'" 

Newbrough was then given the news that his and his fiancée's story on the show ended there: "We got our phones back. They thanked us graciously and said, 'Sorry, we just don't have enough to cover everybody.'" Baer had a similar story. He told People, "The next day [we were told], 'Unfortunately we can't follow your journey.' I don't know the reasoning, but I'm glad I was able to connect with somebody, at least."

In the same story from People, a representative of the series disclosed why Newbrough and Baer's stories were cut. According to the rep, it came down to a lack of bandwidth and the sheer shock of how much there was to suddenly cover. "They practically picked names out of a hat because it was hard to predict what the outcomes would be for anyone," said the rep. Although the "Love is Blind" production crew would be better prepared in later seasons, the trend of engagements being axed only continued. 

Even by the fifth season of "Love is Blind," many cast members still dealt with their engagement stories being left out of the show. In a recent interview with Variety, series creator Chris Coelen talked about how multiple couples from Season 5 didn't get their proposals shown. 

"There were multiple other couples that got engaged that were not followed," said Coelen. "Each season, there are lots of stories that we don't tell, regardless of whether couples get engaged or not. Some of them even, we will follow for a little bit and not show their story on the show ... It's a little bit of a judgment call."

While Coelen didn't directly mention which couples had their stories cut short or completely out, "Love is Blind" fans are surely left wondering which stories they've missed these last couple of seasons. It seems like the show simply can't handle its own success rate and at this point, Netflix could probably churn out a whole season's worth of stories that were left unseen. 

While most seasons of "The Challenge" generally follow the same format, there was one that took some inspiration from "Survivor" that no fan has forgotten — "Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Island." As described by series legend Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio to Entertainment Weekly: "The format was very similar to 'Survivor,' where 28 cast members were marooned on an island in Panama and basically forced to survive on meager food rations which usually consisted of a bowl of rice and a small piece of fish." It was a pretty wild season and the conditions got so rough that some cast members turned to thievery to stay afloat — which never got shown.

Along with fellow "Challenge" veteran Kenny Santucci, Devenanzio stole food from a production tent. "Like a scene out of the movie 'Shawshank Redemption,' we cut a hole in a fence, trudged through close to 100 yards of knee deep mud, and sneaked past ARMED guards until we reached the food tent," recounted Devenanzio. Eventually, the two used their pants like shopping bags and they took as much food as they could back to camp and hid it as fast as possible.

Sadly, it wasn't long until these two got caught and they paid a hefty fine of around $2,000 for their robbery. That might be a harsh price to pay for stealing food, but the unaired story is a priceless entry in Devenanzio's legacy in the series. 

In "The Challenge: USA" Season 2, a pretty impactful section of the finale was lobbed off. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, season winners Chris Underwood and Desi Williams mentioned that there was an entire overnight part of the final challenge that fans didn't get to see.

"It probably would've been really boring to watch, but there was an overnight challenge," said Williams. "We had to stand on these little pedestals, and as a group, we had to collectively count in our heads to an hour. If it was less than an hour, you had to do it again. If it was more than an hour and five minutes, you had to do it again."

Just the description of the challenge alone sounds exhausting and according to Williams, it seemed like the scrapped overnight challenge actually played a big role in everything that followed. "I think that's why so many people were dehydrated on day two. There's no context to demonstrate why people were struggling so much, hydration-wise, but we didn't have time to drink water," said Williams.

So, if there were any "Challenge" fans wondering why everyone looked so distraught on the treacherous second leg of the finale, this unseen overnight event helps establish why. 

MTV's "Are You the One?" has its fair share of hookups and no-match couples heading to the infamous Boom Boom Room for a night of pleasure as everyone finds their perfect match. However, there was one couple in Season 6 whose trip to the Boom Boom Room resulted in a pregnancy scare that wasn't brought up until the reunion.

In a never-before-seen clip that played during the reunion (via Hollywood Life), cast member Keyana Land was concerned about possibly being pregnant after sleeping with castmate Michael Johnson. In the clip, she mentions that her worries stemmed from a past pregnancy prior to the show, where she experienced a similar illness. While Land ended up not being pregnant, there were rumors that spread amongst the cast. 

Although Land entrusted fellow castmates with the situation, news of it eventually got to Johnson before she discussed the situation with him — which led to some mistrust. During the reunion (via YouTube), some cast members openly apologized to Land for spilling her secret and she accepted it, saying, " If I was in your shoes, I would've done the same thing because I wouldn't want him to not know."

So, while everything was resolved by the reunion, "Are You the One?" fans were left in the dark about a very serious storyline that would've been shocking to watch unfold. 

While it's common for there to be tension between competitors on "The Bachelor," there have also been times when the contestants had conflicts with the titular bachelor. Back in Season 17, there were major strains between the season's bachelor Sean Lowe and contestant AshLee Frazier after she was eliminated in the final three. Those issues spilled into the season's "Women Tell All" reunion — where Bachelor Nation saw these two face each other again. However, there were some spicy tidbits that fans missed out on. 

Thankfully, LA Times writer Amy Kaufman attended the reunion and touched on some things that viewers didn't see with this feud. While Frazier confronted Lowe on-stage about supposedly saying that he had no genuine feelings for either of the girls he picked over her – which he outwardly denied — she further disclosed to Kaufman why her accusation was true. "I had written some things that he said to me on the overnight [date] just because I never wanted to forget that," said Frazier. "He did say it. Clearly, I wouldn't just make something up on national television. I think he just forgot."

Apparently, Frazier also made a snide remark about Lowe to host Chris Harrison, which wasn't aired. Kaufman noted that Fraizer said: "He wanted to rise above and be this all-American great man — like my father. But maybe he's just not ready for that." Bachelor Nation sure would've loved seeing this clash on camera. 

Along with "The Real World," "Road Rules" was a quintessential tentpole in MTV's reality TV lineup. But, many probably don't know that there was an unaired pilot episode filmed that set the stage for what the series became known for. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Jonathan Murray and cast members Mark Long, Shani Rosenzweig, and Heather Maclean all talked about what fans missed in the never-before-seen pilot. 

"We were able to find great people among the people we had rejected for 'Real World' but who had the qualities that we thought would be great for 'Road Rules,'" said Murray. Rosenzweig also confirmed that she was up for a slot on "The Real World: San Francisco" at the time, but was glad this opportunity came. 

Long — who went on to be cast in the first season of "Road Rules" when it eventually got greenlit — also brought up how the series-standard RV wasn't around and that the group drove a van and navigated with multiple maps. In the pilot, the group was tasked with making money in Long Beach, California, where they found an Arabian horse ranch to work at.

"I remember saying, 'I will not shovel manure.' Cut to me shoveling manure," said Rosenzweig. Although fans never got to see this pilot on TV, it led to the iconic MTV series being created — so, it played the role it needed to. 

Peacock's reality competition series "The Traitors" brought reality TV all-stars together to weed out the traitors among them. As the season went on, the mind games of guessing who was a traitor became much more complicated. However, there was one contestant — "Shahs of Sunset" alum Reza Farahan — who tried really hard to mess with his competitors.

In an interview with Metro.co.uk, Farahan revealed that he left cryptic notes around the house to sow mistrust in his enemies. "I did try to sneak out of my room to leave notes ... I was trying to have fun in the moments where you weren't supposed to have fun," Farahan said. "I would leave notes under people's castle doors that said, 'I know what you did last summer, signed The Traitors.' I was having fun with it."

Unfortunately, this fun storyline surrounding Farahan's notes was sliced out — likely due to Farahan being eliminated first. So, fans never got to see any of the castmates' reactions to Farahan's handiwork, and a potentially fun way to kick off the season was stopped short. 

Throughout all 33 seasons of MTV's "The Real World," there were plenty of wild moments that got edited out. For instance, in Season 22 — "The Real World: Cancun" — a cast member's rebellious act against the MTV crew never made it to the final cut. Based on an interview with Cracked.com,  a "Cancun" cast member — anonymously identified as Pat — revealed that fellow cast member Joey Rozmus openly defied MTV's constrictive rules. To maintain a sense of continuity within the season, the producers often instructed cast members on how to maintain their image. "We weren't allowed to get new haircuts or tattoos. I tried to grow a mustache as a joke and they said 'You have to shave it,'" said Pat. 

The frustration between the cast and producers grew because of this, and eventually, Rozmus got a wrist tattoo that directed his disdain right toward MTV. "One time Joey got really mad that they fined him for breaking a rule, and he actually had the balls to run away from the house," said Pat. "He comes back with this brand new tattoo on his wrist that says, 'F–k MTV.'"

Given that this action was incredibly negative towards the network, it wasn't surprising that it got left out of the show. But it could've been an interesting meta-storyline for reality TV. 

Netflix's "Perfect Match" showed plenty of couples coming together as well as tensions that boiled between others. One fight between cast members Francesca Farago and Savannah Palacio was particularly memorable, but — according to Farago — had a lot of its context cut out.

During an appearance on "The Viall Files," Farago discussed how the build-up to her confrontation with Palacio wasn't shown in the series. "I think there was a lot of buildup leading to that," explained Farago. "A lot of buildup that didn't make the edit and it was like days on end and I felt personally bullied by her the whole time and everyone else was agreeing with me. There was like a full storyline that wasn't shown." 

When further pushed by host Nick Viall to talk more specifically about what storyline producers didn't want fans to see, Farago explained: "That she had a boyfriend during filming so everyone knew. Everyone knew she had to go home, and, it was the buildup so I knew she was just going after Dom to just spite me. I took like 5 tequila shots and I was like 'Let's go, let's do this.'"

It's a shame that all the lead-up to Farago and Palacio's showdown was cut out because it honestly would've made the eventual blow-up between them much more entertaining — and might've had fans picking different sides.