Can ‘Reality TV’ ever live up to its name when so many celebrities have extensive cosmetic surgery procedures?

This skews the perception of what a ‘normal’ person is and opens up both men and women to extreme inspection. Take Chelsea Blackwell from Love is Blind. She simply compared herself to Megan Fox in a throwaway comment, and was ridiculed for months, all because she looked - well average.

But when it becomes so normal to see perfection on a screen in front of you, in something that is marketed as reflecting you and me, it can only be expected that beauty standards in the average person be raised exponentially.

In an interview with Tab Megan Barton Hanson from season four of Love Island UK has admitted to spending upwards of £10,000 on cosmetic surgery before entering the villa, including a nose job, boob job, veneers and filler.

And yet, there is no disclaimer about this, we are simply expected to believe that these naturally perfect people exist. Perhaps the easiest way to illustrate this is by looking at side by side images of the original casts versus now.

Though cast members were always objectively attractive, they still looked like people that you might see in day to day life. But now, most contestants look like something straight out of an Instagram model catalogue: it is a prerequisite to be insanely beautiful.

Psychology Today says that there is an audience for reality TV because people connect with a level of empathy and witnessing how others live their private lives. When reality TV stars stop looking like ‘normal’ people surely a level of this fascination subsides.

The purpose of Love is Blind is now completely overshadowed by the fact that the majority of contestants are extremely attractive. Contestants are aware that though they cannot see the person behind the wall, they would not have been casted if they did not fit this newfound description.

And aside from this, even if they aren’t impressed with their match, they will be rewarded with a sizable social media following to make up for it. The villain of this year's Love is Blind, Matthew Duliba, has been attacked on his social media for walking out of the show mid- date and claiming he finds it too difficult to speak about love.

And yet, he signed himself up to a dating show which was intended to result in marriage. The only plausible explanation for this is a desire for social media popularity on a scale that only a reality TV show can generate.

It is therefore very difficult to ever view reality TV as authentic any more and major changes need to be made to the process of casting if it is ever expected to replicate what season 1 of each of these shows achieved.

Despite these potential fame seeking individuals, viewing numbers for these shows have remained the same or increased with Love is Blind remaining in the top 20 most watched shows of Netflix this year.

So maybe this previously unattainable level of attractiveness has simply become the norm. Practically everyone uses filters, or edits their social media posts, meaning we only see the most perfect versions of ourselves every day.

Cosmetic surgery was once reserved for celebrities but has now ballooned in popularity among the average person, leading one to question what average even means anymore.

More than 10% of the UK population underwent some form of cosmetic surgery last year and six million more said that they were considering it in the future.

So there is certainly an argument that due to accessibility of these treatments what we see on our screens may simply begin to reflect what society is starting to look like.

The question now is what is reality and will that ever be replicated by reality TV once more?