I know what you mean. I was watching Kitchen Nightmares (US) and Chef Ramsey was at a restaurant called the Flamingo or something like it. Before the commercial break it starts flashing all these quick cuts of fire and parts of the restaurant engulfed in flames and the owners crying while fire trucks and other emergency vehicles come racing up. The narrator says something clever like "the flamingo had needed to get things in order before everything...goes up...in flames!"

  It turns out they just took some of the tacky decorations outside to a very safe area and burned them.  I can't even watch anything remotely reality tv anymore unless it's something like COPS, Top Gear (UK), and Kitchen Nightmares (UK). Everything else is completely 100% scripted and the background music and noises, especially the cymbal crash and screech sound bugs the hell out of me.