Reality TV - Figure Skaters Behaving Badly

[FigureSpins]

My brother posted on my FB page a few days ago, saying he was channel-surfing and came across one of those courtroom reality TV shows.  The litigants were allegedly a competitive figure skater and her coach.  She was suing him for a competition entry fee because he tied her skates too tightly before she had to skate.

This was intriguing, so I got more details and this is the episode:

Supreme Justice with Judge Karen
Season 3, Episode 159

September 9, 2019
Fickle Friend Friction & Laced Up for Love

A woman sues for the cost of her zipline tour. A woman blames her coach for missing an ice-skating contest.

We watched it last night and my husband, who is a very kind man, said they were both lying. 

The woman, who is 25, claims that all coaches tie the skates of skaters before they perform.  It's part of being on "the coach's team" for which she paid no coaching fees.  Ever.  Just the $250 (appx) entry fee, which he used to register her for the competition.  Or, as he called it "the individual skating contest."  They both had American accents, so I don't think it was in another country, but it was absolute BS.

I looked up the alleged coach's name and he's not a professional member/coach of the ISI or US Figure Skating.
The woman's name didn't come up at all in a internet search for tests or competition events.

I'm betting they just wanted a free trip to Miami or wherever the show is filmed, so they made up the story. 

The judge was good: she nailed the woman for lying about not being allowed to tie her own skates.  The judge stated that she bought ice skates when she was 30, with the idea of learning to skate like a pro, so she knew the story was bogus.

[AgnesNitt]

[Query]

We watched it last night and my husband, who is a very kind man, said they were both lying...

Probably not lying - just acting. The entire show may have been scripted.

The judge may not be real either.

Of course I could be wrong.

A U.S. law that says broadcast game shows must be real. Once in a while a "News" program gets sued. Not much else on TV has to be real, and according to some internet sources, most reality TV isn't covered by the law.

(But see https://www.chapman.edu/law/_files/publications/clr-vol-22/12brietigam_online.pdf for a longer discussion, beyond my knowledge and interest to fully understand.)

In other words, I would treat the show (which I haven't seen) the same way as I would "Dance Moms", "The Cutting Edge", or "Lion King". (E.g., I wouldn't worry about how quickly a non-figure skater could qualify for the Olympics, or whether Disney correctly characterized the typical interactions of Lions and Hyenas.) That has nothing to do with whether the show is fun to watch.

The show succeeded in its goals - you watched it. Maybe you even watched the commercials! To the producer, that's all that counts.