’Til cancellation do us part! Through the years, many celebrity couples have made the decision to share their real-life romances with the world by signing up for reality television shows.
The first reality TV couple arrived as early as 1971, when Bill and Pat Loud starred together alongside their family in what many scholars cite as the first reality TV show: An American Family.
While the Louds, whose eventual divorce was showcased on the PBS show, didn’t survive the “reality TV curse,” plenty of other couples have had better luck in their own lives.
Forty years after An American Family was first broadcast, Ice Loves Coco premiered on E! in June 2011, leading fans to quickly fell in love with Ice-T and Coco Austin’s dynamic.
After marrying in 2002, the pair put on a star-studded vow renewal for the show in its first season with an episode titled “Baby Got Vows.” While many Real Housewives suggest having a vow renewal on TV will lead to divorce, the couple are still going strong today.
Another pair of E! lovebirds, Jessie James Decker and Eric Decker, shared their journey to the altar on Eric & Jessie: Game On. After premiering in 2013, the pair’s show ran for three seasons. A necessary break in filming came after season 2 when they welcomed their first child, Vivianne (whose birth was shown during the finale).
“Never say never, but I just don’t know how comfortable we are with having a camera crew around our children,” Jessie said during a January 2016 HuffPost Live event prior to season three. “The great thing about Instagram and Twitter and all that, is we’re in control of what we want to put out there.”
Nevertheless, the pair ended up making their grand return before ending the series for good in 2017. Later, two more children joined the family: Eric Jr., who was born in 2015, and Forrest, who made his debut in 2018.
Some other couples made such good TV that they got their own spinoffs after starring on a separate show.
Caroline Manzo and Albert “Al” Manzo, who originally starred on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, received their own series after five seasons of Housewives. While their show ended in 2017, the beloved family may grace our screens again someday.
“It’s just a big ‘what if,’ and that’s fine,” the reality star told Us Weekly in March 2021 about a potential return to television.
Scroll to see more iconic couples who had reality shows:
