It's no secret: I'm the only non-U.S. blogger here at TV Squad. I live in Quebec City, the capital of Canada's French province. Living here means that I have access to American, Canadian, and French-Canadian TV channels on basic cable. Canadian and American TV lineups are pretty much alike, especially since a lot of the U.S. shows also air on the Canadian airwaves. But French-Canadian TV is somewhat different than the two other ones because of the language, the culture, etc. However, the influence of American TV can be felt throughout the French-Canadian lineup. One of the main areas influenced by U.S. TV is reality programming.

Reality TV, like it or not, is definitely a major part of TV today all around the world. A lot of the U.S. reality shows originated in other countries, while some U.S. shows made their way around the world. In Canada, we have our own version of American Idol and America's Next Top Model, for example. In Quebec, there is a singing competition, Star Académie, not unlike Idol and a Big Brother-like show too and some U.S. reality shows are dubbed. That got me thinking, what are the reality shows that are watched elsewhere around the globe?