RealHousewives-related stories
Posted Jan 22nd 2010 6:05PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd
Last night was the wrap up for
Jersey Shore. I have to tell you, I won't miss it. Unlike many
others who were drawn in to Jersey Shore, the show never grew on me. The MTV reality show got an inordinate amount of media coverage. It became the butt of jokes all over the place, the perfect gag line. It was controversial and insulting to the actual people who love and live on the Jersey Shore.
But the show is horrible. Truly, deeply and utterly horrible. I watched it to see what the fuss was all about, but after ten minutes, I had had enough. It wasn't funny or goofy or even car-wreck compelling. It was just dumb. Even with the subtitles, I could barely understand them.
Continue reading I won't miss Jersey Shore
Posted Dec 12th 2009 10:00AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Festivus, Reality-Free
On the twelfth day of Festivus, TV gave to me ... twelve shows a'stinkin'!
Being the endless wasteland that it is, television has no shortage of bad product. Mind you, "bad" is always a matter of opinion. This year saw the end of
According to Jim after eight years of decent ratings while in terms of quality it lasted about seven years too long. What follows is my own opinion and at the end of each item in the list, I will quote everybody's favorite critic,
Jay Sherman.
12. Heroes – This show was great in the first season, then with only brief glimpses of greatness in the later seasons, the writers and the network proceeded to dump it in the trash, rub it around some sewage and finally make it have a one night stand with Andy Dick. IT STINKS!
Continue reading The Twelve Days of Festivus: Twelve shows a'stinkin'!
Posted Nov 16th 2009 5:07PM by Hemal Jhaveri
Filed under: OpEd
Is it wrong of me to be finally, justly, overjoyed at the financial ruin that has befallen the
Real Housewives of Orange County? When the Bravo show first started, we were on the brink of a national recession. Now, a few seasons later, we're waist-deep in financial hardship, the likes of which has just hit the overly-tanned ladies of Coto.
After seasons of watching the
Housewives -- and pick any permutation you want here, from NYC to Atlanta -- gobble up jewels and homes and indulge in a kind of narcissism that many parents wouldn't even allow their toddlers, it's supremely gratifying to see the house of cards they built on credit come crashing down.
Continue reading Finally, the Housewives get their comeuppance
Posted Sep 6th 2009 3:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd
Lately, I feel like I need a shower after watching an episode of any of the
Real Housewives on Bravo. The franchise is getting progressively trashier, which probably doesn't bother Bravo because the ratings have continued to boom.
This latest news might help
The Real Housewives of Orange County when it returns.
Reality star Lynne Curtin has been accused of stealing furniture from the house she'd been renting for the show. Not only that, but the homeowner is claiming Curtin also destroyed property before vacating.
That image is diametrically opposite of the one presented on the show. Curtin's home was never revealed to be a rental for starters. Her domestic situation was also seemingly secure and stable, with no problems with her husband and children.
Continue reading Real Orange County wife evicted and scandalized
Posted Jul 29th 2009 6:01PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals
Those
Real Housewives series are big business for Bravo. So the big question Fox Reality is asking is if America is ready for the real
Househusbands of Hollywood? Jane first brought us
news of the Househusbands last December. Now
Fox Reality has set a premiere date of August 15th, and provided a little more details as to what these husbands do.
As Jane hoped, it looks like a full reversal of the traditional roles. These men take care of the kids, run errands and manage the household while their wives work as a psychologist, a celebrity makeup artist, a newscaster, an attorney and Tempestt Bledsoe (
The Cosby Show). It's certainly an interesting idea that will challenge America's traditional views of gender roles in this country.
Continue reading The Househusbands of Hollywood have a premiere date, but is America ready?
Posted Jul 22nd 2009 9:30PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Celebrities
When a television show like
Barney does a live tour, you automatically know two things: 1. Barney will sing and dance and somehow be entertaining on some level, and 2. The show is geared towards children. That being said, why the hell would anybody host any sort of live performance of
The Real Housewives of New Jersey? Well, it's happening at the
Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ.
I mean, what are they going to do? Sing? Dance? Sit around and gossip about each other? Will it be some sort of round-robin discussion or interview where we learn even more things about these women that nobody except a very few give a damn about?
Only under very specific circumstances would I purchase tickets to this event. If the housewives were eaten by a bear onstage, I would pay to see that. But not just any bear ... a dancing circus bear that would perform after his meal. That would be cool.
Posted Jul 9th 2009 1:05PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Casting
This news actually made my day. Apparently, in order to appear as "celebrities" on the television show
The Real Housewives of New Jersey, the housewives themselves
were not paid and in some cases owed the producers some of their non-television related income.
This is brilliant! This solves the issue of declining profits for television. Want your own reality show? Then pay for the privilege. It's like buying commercial time without anything definitive to promote. If any of them start their own business as a result of their undeserved fame (like a line of clothing or something), will they owe that income to the producers as well?
No matter how much I loathe reality television, I loathe
The Real Housewives of New Jersey just a little bit more. I applaud any opportunity to stick them with a fine for having the viewer subjected to them. The punchline to this joke would be if they all signed the same contract for their
upcoming second season.
Posted Jun 29th 2009 9:35AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Video, Pickups and Renewals
If I go to Hell after I die, I'm quite certain that part of my eternal punishment would be sitting in a room with all the Real Housewives of New Jersey for all eternity. Therefore the following piece of news is about as close to Hell on Earth as I can get: popular rumor has it that Bravo has
renewed The Real Housewives of New Jersey for a second season.
I was born and bred in New Jersey (those of you offering condolences can shut it right now. I like New Jersey). As a result of sharing my humble abode with someone of the female persuasion, I have been subjected to this program. I can personally attest that very few people in New Jersey actually act like these "housewives". If you're planning a vacation, please don't let the behaviors of these women put you off from visiting the Garden State.
However, to give credit, the program did lead to a funny sketch on
Chelsea Lately. The video of that is after the jump.
Continue reading The Real Housewives of NJ gets a second season
Posted Jun 18th 2009 11:29AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Watercooler Talk
The power of
The Real Housewives of New Jersey is amazing to me. I normally can't stand the
Real Housewives series. And, as a lifelong Jerseyan, the
Sopranos-esque stereotypes of pampered Bergen County wives initially made me queasy. But dammit, the show hooked me and kept me watching the whole season; it even led me to write the hacky headline above. Why? Because this one had a
plot.
The story of the creepily over-Botoxed Danielle Staub and how the rest of the Housewives found out about her sordid past was the thread that kept even Bravo-except-for-
Top-Chef-averse people like myself tuning in. Oh, and the fact that they teased the "Last Supper" finale all season (showing matriarch Caroline saying "we're thick as thieves" about a thousand times) also kept me watching. And the finale didn't disappoint: people turning on each other, tables getting tipped over, exceedingly mature children horrified at their parents' behavior... it was great.
But if you thought it was over, think again. As the
New York Post reports and Bravo has been promoting, the cable net will
air four more episodes.
Continue reading Think the Real Housewives of Jersey is over? Fuggedaboudit!
Posted Jun 11th 2009 3:00PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, The Amazing Race, American Idol, Survivor, Big Brother (US), Dancing With The Stars, Celebreality
Considering how prevalent reality television is these days, it's got to be a pretty daunting task to try and put together a comprehensive list of the best and worst of all time. But
Entertainment Weekly thinks they've done just that. They've compiled the
top 20 reality shows of all time, but also the
ten worst reality shows of all time. All in all, they did a pretty damned good job.
I completely agree with the top six, but they lose me with
Jackass at number seven. I have never understood the appeal of filming morons doing stupid things on purpose just to be stupid. But there were some shows missing from the list completely, like
Little People Big World, So You Think You Can Dance and
Beauty and the Geek. Surely those shows are better than
The Hills and
The Real Housewives of Sesame Street, or whatever franchise they're spinning now.
Continue reading EW declares the all-time best and worst of reality television
Posted Jan 5th 2009 11:01AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, House, The Simpsons, NCIS, WGA Strike, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
A year ago at this time, who would have guessed that Jay Leno would be leaving late night and NBC would be handing him five hours of prime time instead? Who would have predicted CBS continuing to dominate in the ratings or that ABC's sophomore series like
Eli Stone and
Pushing Daisies would stumble and fall so completely after being off the air all last spring? Predictors from last January were on target about there being a
writers' strike; that did happen and it was definitely not a good thing.
Fortunately, I don't see a SAG strike in the future. However, here are ten things I'm betting will happen by the time the ball drops on December 31st.
1. Martin Scorsese will be the next big thing on HBO. He's producing a drama based on the book
Boardwalk Empire. HBO is overdue to launch another big series in
The Sopranos tradition.
Boardwalk Empire seems to have all the right elements: violence, sex, gambling, and Oscar-winning, iconic director Martin Scorsese.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Fearless predictions for 2009
Posted Dec 16th 2008 7:38AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Programming, OpEd
Just when you think they can't possibly come up with another reality-show idea, they do! A new show on
Fox Reality Channel,
Househusbands of Hollywood, puts a little twist on the trophy spouse thing. Instead of focusing on women who stay home, sip wine, and flaunt their wealth a la
The Real Housewives, this one features
the stay-at-home husbands of successful L.A. women.
But based on the players, something tells me these guys won't be hanging around the house watching QVC. There's Darryl M. Bell (
A Different World), husband of
The Cosby Show's Tempestt Bledsoe; Grant Reynolds, husband of
Good Day LA's Jillian Reynolds; former L.A. Dodger Billy Ashley, and others.
Continue reading Househusbands of Hollywood sounds interesting!
Posted Jun 24th 2008 9:05AM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, News, Industry, Celebrities
She doesn't exactly come off as a Martha Stewart-esque homemaker on the show but
Bethenny Frankel really knows her way around the kitchen. The star of Bravo's
Real Housewives of New York City has launched her own line of baked goods. The NYC cougar is bringing us
vegan cupcakes and other healthy desserts. The line is called Bethenny Bakes and she launched her new company at the Bridge Market Food Emporium in Manhattan on Sunday. Some of the products include lemon cupcakes, banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, fudge chocolate chip muffins, and blueberry muffins. There is no word on whether or not these will be in stores outside of New York.
I wonder if these treats actually taste good. More importantly, I wonder if Bethenny's boyfriend will help her run the business. He
lost his Wall Street job as an executive at Patriarch Partners, LLC because he appeared on the show.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on 'Faces of America' and the Beer Summit
Six Reasons Why '24' Has Jumped the You-Know-What
The Super Bowl Commercials: The Best
