Web Animation / The Reality Project

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The Reality Project is a planned web animated reality TV series franchise inspired by Total Drama. It was created by RealityCove, who was previously known throughout the Total Drama community for his "My Way" and "Next Generation" series' on YouTube, as a way of branching out into a more official and unique television series that paid homage to not only Total Drama and Survivor, but various other types of reality TV franchises and series as well.

The series is centered around an in-universe reality TV series franchise known as The Reality Gauntlet. Each season of The Reality Gauntlet consists of one "cycle" through four separate reality TV competitions, with each being based on a real life reality TV competition equivalent, that take place in the span of one year and are aired in the following order:

• Reality Resort. Inspired by Big Brother and King of the Nerds, this competition takes place on a secluded resort island.

• Reality Race. Inspired by The Amazing Race, this competition takes place all around the world.

• Reality Ranch. Inspired by Survivor, this competition takes place in the depths of the wilderness.

• Reality Royalty. Inspired by The Challenge and many various All-Star seasons, this competition will change it's luxurious location every season.

The first three series' each have a monetary reward of $250,000 and feature a unique cast of contestants of various ages of at least 18 years. Throughout each series, in addition to the final monetary prize, contestants will have opportunities to earn or lose an in-game currency known as "Legacy Points" by accomplishing (or not accomplishing) various tasks. After one season of the first three series' are completed, the top 5 point-getters from each series (plus one extra contestant who will be decided by a viewer poll) will qualify for the fourth and final series, Reality Royalty, where they may redeem their points for advantages, rewards and other prizes in order to win the final grand prize of $500,000 and the title of "Reality Monarch".

The first episode of Reality Resort premiered on July 29th, 2024, and can be seen here.

The series also has a fan wiki.

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Tropes:

• All-Stereotype Cast: The Reality Resort cast already consists of this we have a Sadist host, a Brainless Beauty with an ego, a party animal, a Cosplay Otaku Girl, an Asian and Nerdy teacher, an eccentric redhead, a shy and rootable blondie, a Phony Psychic, an Ascended Fangirl Housewife, a sarcastic brunette, a scam artist posing as a yoga teacher, a gymrat, a Passionate Sports Girl with a Career-Ending Injury, a Lazy Bum baseball player, a Conspiracy Theorist, a Rich Bastard lawyer with a drinking problem, and a Cowboy with a broken heart.
• Alliterative Name:
  • Each season ends has "RR" as their initial: Reality Resort, Reality Race, and so on.
  • Also the case for the teams: Tropical Toucans and Exotic Emus in Reality Resort.
• Animation Bump: With a change in the animation team, the art style becomes more colorful and characters' movement becomes more smooth and fluid as of Reality Resort's third episode.
• Artistic Licence: Most reality shows in real life prohibit physical violence among contestants, with the act of doing so resulting in immediate disqualification. Here, the hostess welcomes contestants to physically fight among themselves.
• Art Shift: A segment during Seth's post-eviction interview where he talks about how he gained nothing from the show features a similar different art style to Owen's from Total Drama.
• Audience Participation: Once the first fifteen contestants of Reality Royalty have been chosen, a viewer poll will be held to decide the fan favorite of all three competitions, who will then be selected as the final 16th contestant.
• Betty and Veronica: Sarah's the Betty to Analise's Veronica for Brad's Archie.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Per the inspiration show's art style, all characters have distinct character designs.
• Denser and Wackier: Compared to most other Total Drama inspired shows, as the Reality Project is more willing to lean itself into goofy expressions and Looney Tunes physics, such as when Marcus grabs Cheryl’s lips and stretches them to a cartoonish length.
• Everyone Meets Everyone: Per a typical reality show format, contestants meet each other for the first time in the premiere episode of their debut season.
• Formula with a Twist: Though each of the Reality TV competitions take inspiration from a real life counterpart, they also have their own unique spin on some of the more well-known mechanics to give them their own personality. For example, Reality Resort follows the Big Brother gameplay style, but unlike the latter, has teams in place who decide on the nominees instead of a singular person, with the winning team picking a member of the losing team before the losing teams picks a second nominee on their team. Afterwards, rather the person being sent home being decided by a majority decision as in Big Brother, the two nominees then compete to see who will get to stay in a final challenge, with the loser being immediately evicted.
• Impossible Hourglass Figure: Per the inspiration show's art style, most female characters have a perfect hourglass physique.
• Love Dodecahedron: Sarah has a crush on Brad and Seth is attracted to Analise who initially seemed interested in him as well, but was swayed by Brad's manipulation of her. Disconnected from these four, Kylie is also shown to have a crush on Finn until she is crushed when Marcus blackmails him about Cheryl’s alliance.
• Love Triangle: The first one had Brad and Seth over Analise. After Seth's elimination and Analise moving on to Brad, it's now Analise and Sarah over Brad.
• Ms. Fanservice: Analise and Monica are the two beautiful women in Reality Resort.
• Non-Indicative Name: Reality Ranch, one of the seasons, has a name that implies it would take place at a farm, or barn, or... well, ranch. Instead, it takes place in the wilderness.
• Player Elimination: In Reality Resort, contestants are eliminated at the end of each block, with the pre-merge eliminations taking place every two episodes and the post-merge eliminations taking place every episode.
• Rotating Protagonist: Not only does the series allow for this because each season would have its own elimination order, but also because the first three seasons will introduce a whole new cast of contestants.
• Running Gag:
  • Analise asking Victoria if she endorses a questionable or immoral behavior only to get an unconventional answer in turn.
  • Seth quoting his mother's sayings.
• Shout-Out:
  • All series in general are inspired by reality shows.
    • Reality Resort's theme and gameplay are inspired by Big Brother (most notably the second season with no veto option) and King of the Nerds.
    • Reality Race's theme and gameplay are inspired by The Amazing Race.
    • Reality Ranch's theme and gameplay are inspired by Survivor.
    • Reality Royalty's theme and gameplay are inspired by The Challenge.
  • And there's a references to Total Drama, which is about a reality show.
    • The art style in general as well as the series being an animated reality show are both an inspiration from Total Drama.
    • The Art Shift during Seth's complains about how he gained nothing from the show in his post-eviction interview is a nod to the art style of Owen's stories.
  • In "Crash and Burn", Kylie motivates Finn by telling him to "channel his inner Goku and go Super Saiyan".
  • The title of the fifth episode of Reality Resort, "Reckless Recall", is likely a reference to Total Recall (1990).
  • In the second live feed, Isadore mentions "Read It", a reference to Reddit.
  • When thanking the Patreons in "Shell Shocked", Brad was initially about to sign off the episode with "now sod off, you twain wankers", a Catchphrase of another character voiced by his voice actor, Nick from Disventure Camp.
• Trailers Always Spoil: Although not a proper trailer per say, the new opening theme for the jury phase completely spoils who made it to said jury phase and who was eliminated beforehand.