The First Reality Show: An American Family

Was The Loud Family Not The First?

While the Loud family was arguably the center of the first ever reality show, there were other early documentations of families on film. What a notable example were the Canadian Dionne Quintuplets. The Dionnes are the first set of quintuplets that are known to have survived their infanthood. Their mother suspected she was pregnant with twins but had no idea that having five babies at one time was even possible.

As babies, they were taken from their family by the Canadian government and subsequently exploited as a tourist attraction. They were raised very rigidly, cared for by nurses, and forced to have constant testing done. They were also used in commercials endorsing a variety of products and then they appeared in three separate films. Ultimately, a documentary was made about them called Five Times Five in 1939.