Which was the first reality programme?

For obvious reasons, this is a contentious issue, Allen Funt’s ‘Candid Camera’, which started in 1948 on ABC, is popularly regarded as the grand daddy of all reality shows. In fact, ‘Candid Camera’ itself has its roots in a radio programme called Candid Microphone’, where Allen Funt taped and broadcast the complaints of fellow servicemen on Armed Forces Radio. However, ‘An American Family’ could be called the first modern reality show. This series, which was broadcast on PBS in the US in 1973, dealt with a nuclear family going through a divorce. This genre has existed in some form or another since the early years of television, but really became popular around the year 2000.