Broadcast reality television shows are able to better engage viewers than scripted shows, although the latter tends to draw younger and wealthier viewers, MediaPost reports, citing research from ExperianSimmons.

Using a scale with the top rating being 500, the study found that reality television scored a 262, compared with 238 for scripted drama when measuring a show’s "inspirational" aspect.

Viewers with incomes of more than $100,000 scored about 130 for scripted shows, compared with 92 for reality.

 —Aimee Picchi