Nobody wants to admit that they have kids who refuse to listen, but the truth is that’s the reality for lots of parents. In 2004, the show Supernanny set out to help those parents who were struggling with badly behaved children. Of course, as with any other reality show, Supernanny was also meant to be entertaining. Over the course of five seasons, professional nanny, Jo Frost, worked with parents to help stop their children from acting out. While there were some success stories on the show, people couldn’t help but wonder whether or not Jo’s work was real or simply set up for TV.
Although it’s been about a decade since the original Supernanny aired its final episode in the United States, the show has been revived by Lifetime. As you can guess, questions of the show’s validity have been revived with it. Keep reading to get more information on whether or not Supernanny is staged.
Origins Of Supernanny
During the early 2000s, reality TV was just starting to take off and it was becoming clear that there was a huge market for shows featuring ‘real’ people. Although some people assumed that Jo Frost created the concept for Supernanny, that wasn’t the case. She was actually hired by the network due to her experience as a professional nanny. During each episode, Jo would visit a family and work with them to help get their children under control. In many cases, parents felt that being on Supernanny was the last resort. Jo approached each visit with a combination of evidence based methods to help participants see results.
Although Jo definitely isn’t the type to tolerate a bunch of nonsense, she also has a sweet disposition that makes parents and children feel comfortable around her. Over the years, Jo has helped many families turn things around and get their children back on the right track.
Is Supernanny Staged?
If there’s one thing we’ve all learned about reality TV over the years it’s that it’s rarely real. Unfortunately, Supernanny doesn’t seem to be an exception. With that being said, I really hate to bearer of bad news, but someone’s got to do it. While the show isn’t completely scripted, there is some information to suggest that things are staged.
A Reddit user named HerpDerp4867 claims to a member of one of the families featured on the show. Although he wasn’t one of the children who needed to be disciplined, he says that his younger brother and sister were completely out of control. Overall, he has positive memories of the experience but says that “a lot was scripted”. However, he adds that there were some elements of the show that were natural because the crew literally followed the family around during their regular activities. He didn’t go into exactly what was scripted. It’s unclear whether or not he meant that they were given an actual script with what to say although that doesn’t seem to be the case.
As with many other reality shows, HerpDerp4867 claims that producers purposely created situations to add fuel to the fire. For example he says, “There were situations that they would put me in just to get a rise from my brother and sister. like in one instance i would go in my room to get away from the family to play xbox and sh*t and my brother would always come in just to f*ck sh*t up. so they would purposely tell me to go to my room so they could handle the situation for the camera.”
Do Jo Frost’s Methods Really Work?
So the show may be a little scripted, but that doesn’t mean that the families featured in the episodes don’t really need help. In HerpaDerp4867’s case, he said that while some things worked, his siblings’ behavior didn’t improve much in the long term. He did add, however, that being on the show did help bring the family closer together. While that isn’t necessarily the main goal, it’s still a solid win nonetheless.
But just because something Jo does doesn’t work for one family doesn’t mean that it won’t be helpful for another. In another Reddit thread about the show, some viewers said that they implemented things they saw on the show into their own lives, and the methods were helpful.
A lot has changed since Supernanny debuted, but one thing that hasn’t is the fact that there are still plenty of families who need Jo’s help. Now that Supernanny is back in action, it’ll be interesting to see how this new generation of families benefits from Jo’s expertise.
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