Falling ratings, cancelled shows and lurid scandals: 2014 was a trying 12 months for reality television, particularly in the United States, as audiences wearied of producers chasing success by recycling the same tired old formats.
Will this year be any better? Some experts say real-life TV shows are facing a grim new reality.
For more than a decade, reality-television shows bulldozed their way across the global TV ratings unchecked, attracting bumper audiences year after year.
But the once big-hitters of the genre, such as Survivor and American Idol, are showing serious signs of fatigue after years of dominance.
At the climax of its first season in 2000, CBS hit Survivor attracted an audience of more than 50 million. That had plunged to just 9.7m by the end of the most recent season last year, according to industry journal Variety.
Viewing figures for American Idol have slumped by nearly two-thirds in a decade, from the 28.8m who watched the 2004 series finale to 10.5m last year, according to Forbes.com.
Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at the University of Syracuse, says reality television has struggled to find another ratings blockbuster for 10 years.
"The last hit franchise was maybe Dancing With the Stars in 2005, he says.
While established shows have lost their lustre, candidates to replace them have yet to emerge.
The Fox network's Utopia placed 15 people together in an isolated location last year with the aim of charting their attempts to build a community from scratch. It flopped in spectacular style, and was cancelled just two months into what had been intended as a year-long project. "Too complex, not fun to watch," is Thompson's verdict.
“Too derivative, not really innovating,” says UCLA School of Theatre Film and Television professor Tom Nunan.
Meanwhile, some shows that had enjoyed success in the ratings found themselves embroiled in scandals.
The hit show Duck Dynasty, about a Louisiana family who run a business that makes products for duck hunters, was left floundering after being plunged into controversy towards the end of 2013 by homophobic remarks by one of the show's stars, who was suspended but then reinstated.
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, about a child beauty-pageant contestant and her family, was cancelled in October after it emerged one of the show's stars was dating a convicted child molester.
Not even Dating Naked could find ratings glory. The show, an extreme version of The Bachelor, where the contestants are devoid of clothing, achieved only a modest 826,000 viewers after debuting on the VH1 channel.
Now, fewer reality TV shows are making it to air. According to the LA Times, 13 hours a week were devoted to them last autumn on the major networks, compared with 20 hours in 2011.
According to Nunan, the US reality-TV genre has stalled because of a lack of creativity and over-reliance on importing foreign formats.
Executives “have lost their mojo, so to speak, when it comes to programming interesting reality television”, he says.
“They have to stop being so derivative – no more singing-competition shows, we’ve had enough of this for now. They have to find other competitions and talents.
"The broadcast networks are looking for formats that have worked around the world – they forget that some of our best reality TV shows have been created here: The Apprentice, The Bachelor, The Amazing Race."
Producers also believe the genre needs to do more to adapt to a changing audience, offering competitions and interactive experiences across different platforms with an eye on younger viewers who increasingly consume their media through smartphones.
Thompson believes reality TV is far from dead, despite the ratings slide.
“Anybody hoping the reality show will die, will die before the reality show,” he says.
But the LA Times warned: "Without a strong reality line-up, the already-sobering prospect for broadcasters can look downright perilous."
