Real Life

**Original release** | 4 June 2013 – present

***Real Life***, also known by its Lashardian title ***Hoppa lik***, is a Lashardian reality television program broadcast on Tele Lash.

First broadcast in 2013, the show follows six strangers residing in a shared apartment each season from a span of three months. The series was groundbreaking in Lashardia, focusing on issues affecting young adults such as sex, prejudice, religion, abortion, illness, sexuality, death, politics, and substance abuse. However it came with controversy, with many citing the show's adult themes and cast members' behavior as inappropriate.

The show quickly became one of the most-watched television shows in Lashardian history, on top of becoming Tele Lash's best-performing program ever. The first season was shot in Ubenmoor and debuted in on 4 June 2013, ending on 6 August. The second season took place in Kesa, and the third in Beck. The upcoming fourth season will take place in Port of Lashardia, Pesa, becoming the first season with an international city.

## Format

### Structure

Each season consists of six people, aged 18–25, usually selected from thousands of applicants from across the country, with the group chosen typically representing different races, genders, sexual orientations, levels of sexual experiences, and religious and political beliefs. Should a cast member decide to move out, or be asked to do so by his or her roommates, the roommates will usually cast a replacement, dependent on how much filming time is left. Cast members are paid a small stipend for their participation in the show. The cast of the first season, for example, was given $5,000 per episode. However, because cast members are not actors playing characters, they do not receive residuals routinely paid to actors whenever a TV show on which they appear is aired and replayed.

Each season begins with the individual members of the house shown leaving home, often for the first time, and/or meeting their fellow housemates while in transit to their new home, or at the house itself.

The residence is typically elaborate in its décor. The residence usually includes a pool table, a Jacuzzi, and an aquarium, which serves as a metaphor for the show, in that the roommates, who are being taped at all times in their home, are seen metaphorically as fish in a fishbowl. This point is punctuated by the fact that the Tele Lash logo title card seen after the closing credits of each episode is designed as an aquarium. In some seasons, the group is provided with a shared car to use during their stay.

The housemates are taped around the clock. The house is outfitted with video cameras mounted on walls to capture more intimate moments, and numerous camera crews consisting of three to six people follow the cast around the house and out in public. In total, approximately 30 cameras are used during production. Each member of the cast is instructed to ignore the cameras and the crew, but are required to wear a battery pack and microphone in order to record their dialogue, though some cast members have been known to turn off or hide them at times. The only area of the house in which camera access is restricted are the bathrooms.

Despite the initial awkwardness of being surrounded by cameramen, cast members have stated that they eventually adjust to it, and that their behavior is purely natural, and not influenced by the fact that they are being taped. Movement of the roommates outside of the residence is restricted to places that are cleared by producers through contractual arrangements with locations to allow filming.

At the end of each week, each housemate is required to sit down and be interviewed about the past week's events. Unlike the normal day-to-day taping, these interviews, which are referred to as "confessionals," involve the subject looking directly into the camera while providing opinions and reflective accounts of the week's activities, which are used in the final, edited episodes. The producers instruct the cast to talk about whatever they wish, and to speak in complete sentences, to reinforce the perception on the part of the home viewer that the cast is speaking to them. Beginning with the second season, a small soundproof room was incorporated into each house for this purpose, which itself has also become known as the Confessional.

In each season, the roommates were allowed to sign up for one of three jobs in the area that were approved by production. They all must sign up for one of the jobs and if they got fired they'd be removed from the show.

Footage taped throughout each season is edited into hour-long episodes.

### Rules

Physical violence of any kind is typically not tolerated by the producers. After an incident occurs, producers or cast members are typically given the choice as to whether a violent housemate can stay due to a contract clause that prohibits violence.

Cast members are also subject to random drug tests, and a cast member failing a drug test will lead to him or her being evicted from the house. Cast members are held responsible for any damage to property that occurred within the house.

## Seasons

 2
 3
 4