If Dancing With the Stars proves anything, it’s that reality TV hurts. (And that no one over the age of five looks good in sequin, but that’s beside the point.)
In the latest season, Little House on the Prairie’s Melissa Gilbert almost took herself out of the competition when she suffered a mild concussion and whiplash while performing her dance routine. Not long after, Cuban heartthrob William Levy tweets that he’s injured his ankle during rehearsal.
Though it may seem like someone is always getting injured in the dancing competition, reality TV stars have been taking hits for years. And not just in the media. Don’t believe us? We count down the eight scariest injuries to happen to reality stars, starting with the not so bad and ending with the OMG.
8. Jersey Shore: The Jersey Shore crowd claims to be authentic Italian, but they sure looked out of place when they headed across the pond to Italy for one season. During their time there, famous guidette Snooki took a stab at driving Rome’s notorious chaotic streets and made it easy for the cops to take her in when she smashed into a police car.
7. America’s Next Top Model: Turns out the red carpet may be hazardous for your health. A combination of nerves and a medical condition got to aspiring model Becca during this episode when she blacked out while host Tyra Banks was judging her work. Doctors cleared her once she got to the hospital, but the show must go on and the rest of the girls still had to face the judges.
6. American Idol: Symone Black might have been singing “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” during her Hollywood audition, but not long after the 16-year-old was falling off the edge of the stage. Turns out the young performer got lightheaded and fell, hitting her head hard on the ground in front of the famous judges. After being rushed to the hospital, she was released and returned to the show to finish her audition.
5. The Amazing Race: Normally performers would have vegetables thrown at them if they weren’t worthy. In this challenge-gone-wrong from The Amazing Race, one female contestant gets a face full of watermelon as her grenade launcher backfires in the worst way.
4. Deadliest Catch: The “deadliest catch” typically refers to the critters in the ocean. But in this episode, deckhand Nick catches an industrial-sized flying metal hook smack in the face. Though the blow knocks him right off his sea-legs, this tough fisherman wants to shrug it off and get back to work.
3. Dancing With the Stars: Hines Ward is known for pulling off some sweet moves on the football field, but he had a hard time pulling off a dance move with his partner, Kym Johnson during a training session. While practicing a move in which Hines flips his partner, he fell on top of Johnson, whose neck was in a compromising position. She left for the hospital on a stretcher but returned later only to win that season’s competition in the end.
2. The Bachelorette: In order to win a date with bachelorette Ashley, suitors were made to box one another in a ring in Thailand. And yet despite attending Yale, Harvard, and Columbia, Ivy-leaguer Ames Brown was not smart enough to see that this was not a love worth fighting for. The fighting virgin got into the ring only to be knocked out by a fellow contestant. The blow to the head landed the 31-year-old a concussion and an ambulance ride to the hospital. Though he did make it to the next round, he was not the last man standing in the end.
1. Survivor: Australian Outback: In the second season of the hit CBS show, it was the first time a contestant would have to leave the show due to an injury. Michael Skupin was evacuated by way of helicopter after getting burned, literally, when he passed out into his camp’s lit fire. He suffered severe burns to both his hands, making it impossible for him to return to the game.
