( CNN ) -- Table flipping . Hair pulling . Name calling . Glass chucking . Fist throwing . Who needs scripted dialogue when women are willing to physically and emotionally exchange blows for the camera ? MTV 's `` Jersey Shore , '' the mega-hit known for both male and female brawls , featured yet another bar fight on Thursday night 's episode . Despite hyping the altercation between cast member Sammi Giancola and a female club-goer in a promo for the show , the scene was treated like any other segment . Catfights have become practically de rigueur for many cable and network reality series . Shows like `` The Bachelor , '' `` Mob Wives , '' `` The Real Housewives '' and `` Love & Hip Hop '' all seemingly rely on female cast members ' aggressive behavior for ratings . The genre has become more about shock TV than reality TV , said Steve Carbone , who runs the spoiler site Realitysteve.com . That said , `` If you 're shocked by what you see ( on reality TV ) , you should n't be , '' he said . For almost a decade , viewers have watched 25 to 30 women vie for the attention of one man each season on ABC 's `` The Bachelor . '' And if the majority of catfights on reality TV have taught us anything , it 's that viewers love watching women fight over a man . So what 's shocking about the current season 's villain , Courtney , who said she 'd like to `` verbally assault '' and `` rip another girl 's head off '' ? Carbone rhetorically asked . `` People , two years ago , were saying the exact same thing about Vienna . '' Mary McClelland , who contributes to the reality TV site Reality Tea , said viewers are still shocked by cattiness and girl-on-girl violence despite no longer being appalled by it . `` Viewers almost revel in it ... in an excited way , '' she said , adding that stories about catfights on reality shows elicit the most comments on Reality Tea . Judging by the comments , people seem to be annoyed by the constant cattiness on such shows , McClelland said , adding , `` Maybe people like the cringe factor . '' And so producers routinely cast women who will be controversial . As Shaunie O'Neal , the executive producer and star of VH1 's `` Basketball Wives , '' wrote in a commentary for CNN.com in July , `` I 'm not a big supporter of the bickering , drink throwing and fighting , but when you put a group of strong , independent and vocal women who are going through or just came out of a bad relationship together , there 's bound to be a little drama . '' `` More and more people are starting to realize how scripted some of this stuff is , '' Carbone said . `` Not in terms of words , but in unscripted drama . They 're not telling people what to say , but they 're giving them a situation where they know what 's going to arise . '' That 's exactly what happened when VH1 's other reality hit `` Love & Hip Hop '' found Chrissy Lampkin and Kimbella Vanderhee in the same room . What began as a verbal disagreement ended with flying fists and exposed lady parts . `` Viewers like to find a character to dislike , '' McClelland said . `` People like to have sides . Like with 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey ' -- Caroline ( Manzo ) vs. Teresa ( Giudice ) . Fans are into that . '' Who could forget Giudice 's infamous `` last supper , '' in which she flipped a table over . `` There 's over 100 ( reality shows ) with all of the cable programs , '' Carbone said . `` You almost have to outdo the others to get noticed . '' The aggression appears to have amped up recently . A study out of Brigham Young University published in 2010 stated that `` reality-television programs contained high levels of verbal and relational aggression , but almost no physical violence . Such 'meanness ' is so frequent , that it is almost expected in reality programs . '' And shows like Oxygen 's `` Bad Girls Club '' are built around mean girls and fights . These shows clearly have an audience . However , Carbone said , that does n't mean viewers are desensitized to girl-on-girl violence . If they were , he said , producers would move on to a new attention-grabbing storyline . Which raises a frightening question : What does a show have to do for us to say , `` Oh , we 've never seen this on reality TV before '' ?
Sammi Giancola engaged in a bar fight on Thursday 's episode of `` Jersey Shore '' Catfights have become standard for many cable and network reality series . `` The Bachelor , '' `` Mob Wives '' and `` Love & Hip Hop '' feature such aggressive behavior .