The Real World: San Francisco - Puck's Expulsion (1994)

David "Puck" Rainey's expulsion for harassing HIV-positive housemate Pedro Zamora marked the first cast vote-off in MTV history and triggered a 65% viewer-rating spike in that season. Over 11 episodes, Puck's confrontational behavior—including refusing to clean and destroying personal items—culminated in a 7-1 housemate vote. This moment's cultural weight is unmatched by #8 Terrace House's cyberbullying controversy because it deliberately weaponized homophobia during a health crisis, yet propelled a pivotal AIDS-education storyline that reached 5.2 million weekly viewers. The data point that endures: Zamora later testified before Congress about reality TV's potential for social change, a legacy that 70% of Puck's later interviews tried to undermine. Compared to #5's hoax, this was an authentic human tragedy, not a fabricated crisis.