Reality-related stories
Posted Mar 4th 2010 10:23AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Celebrities, Casting
She's already done
stand-up comedy during
'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,' but now it looks like Sarah Palin is teaming with über-reality producer Mark Burnett to bring you
a series about Alaska. No network is involved with the series yet, but Fox News would be a good place to start.
Seriously, when one does a "reality television show" about a state, it's usually called a documentary or a tourism video. If that's the purpose, then this is a good idea. Sarah Palin could host a documentary about Alaska. She'll likely be on script, so there are no dangers of fielding questions from reporters and given her fame, it would likely be a boon to the state in terms of tourism. They would want to see the sort of place that would produce someone like her.
However, this show will more likely focus on the ex-Governor herself as well as her family and their experiences within the state. It is interesting how she wants the media to leave her family alone but has no problems parading them in front of the camera for her own ends.
Posted Feb 10th 2010 3:02PM by Jay Black
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, OpEd, TV 101, TV Squad Lists
I have a lot of irrational fears: nuclear war, CHUDS, whatever the dark magic is that keeps Jeremy Piven's hairline in place ... the list is long and varied.
Ever since I saw the movie '
Contact', I've been afraid that the TV we pump into space is being watched by aliens far more advanced than we are. Imagine all that garbage floating up into the ether, being judged not by bloggers armed with keyboards and snarky bon mots, but by ETs armed with
Gunstars and Death Blossoms.
Who knows what aliens might make of our current TV landscape? What if an alien culture used sophomoric double entendres to make declarations of war? In that scenario, it would take just a single episode of '
Two and a Half Men' to end the human race.
Even if the aliens understood what we were saying, most of what passes for entertainment doesn't make us look good - we've become a world obsessed with karaoke and sex rehab, mostly. In fact, there's only one show on TV today that I'd actually WANT aliens to see ...
Continue reading TV 101: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love 'Jersey Shore'
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 Jan 21st 2010 8:30AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows
I saw a stand-up comic a few years back that noticed the weakness in the whole "pet psychic" premise. Whenever the animal clairvoyant -- someone who is supposedly able to read pets' minds -- enters a home to "sense the thoughts" of a house pet, they always ask the same question first:
"What's your pet's name?"
What? Couldn't Fido or Mr. Fluffy-Kins give you a psychic business card?
With the prime time arrival of
Pet Psychic Encounters on Saturday nights over at Animal Planet, we have yet another show that exists comfortably in the realm of the unprovable. You can't disprove that series host
Sonya Fitzpatrick is a pet psychic because an Alsatian is very unlikely to hop up and scream, "No, I did
not say I prefer dry food to leftover meatloaf! I object, sir!" You can't prove a negative. The same rule holds up for the endless march of ghost shows on "reality" TV.
Continue reading Pet Psychic Encounters goes to the dogs
Posted Jan 18th 2010 9:03AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Music and Variety, TCA Press Tour, British TV
The star of the upcoming BBC America reality series,
The Choir pulled a fast one on the assembled reporters gathered for the network's press conference during the TCA proceedings this weekend.
The reality show features choirmaster Gareth Malone (right) as he attempts to forge a top-notch choir in England's cash-strapped schools and underprivileged neighborhoods. The 13-episode series will run this coming spring on BBC America.
So, Malone showed up in Pasadena this weekend to promote the show to the assembled TCA throng. After the standard clips and Q&A were winding down, Malone ducked out of the quick and easy farewell and invited the reporters to come up on stage and form their own flash choir.
Continue reading BBC's The Choir turns reporters into singers
Posted Dec 31st 2009 2:02PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, The Amazing Race, American Idol, Survivor, Festivus, Project Runway, TV Squad Lists, So You Think You Can Dance, Top Chef
More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about a major category that came of age in the aughts: Reality shows.
While I would never call myself a reality TV junkie, it really bugs me when people make blanket statements like, "I hate reality TV," or, "Reality TV is the bane of my existence." The genre has grown so much in the past decade that it has become just like scripted television, in that there's good and there's bad. Even though we're splitting this up into two lists, "Reality," and "Trashy Reality," you won't see a single show that starts with, "
Who Wants to Marry" on either list.
This list is dedicated not to the guilty pleasures, but to the shows that you wouldn't be embarrassed for your neighbors to know you watch: the
classy reality, if you will. So without further ado, here is TV Squad's list of the best reality shows of the decade.
Continue reading Best TV of the '00s: Reality Series
Posted Nov 23rd 2009 9:03AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd
I haven't been as interested in
The Real Housewives of Orange County this season, and now I'm about to check out permanently. My favorite wife has left the show.
Jeana Keough said an on screen "adios" to the Real Housewives of Orange County. She's not actually moving, but she's off the show by choice.
Jeana Keough has always impressed me as the smartest, most normal and down-to-earth housewife of the bunch. She had a completely insane marriage to Matt Keough, an ex-Major League Baseball pitcher for the Oakland A's, but she worked to keep it together. Her kids were a handful.
They were all grown up and in high school or post-high school life, but Jeana was supportive and interested and tried to be a positive role model. In her finale, she was able to show her kids pursuing their lives and bringing her pride. I think Jeana's "pal" Vicki Gunvalson wishes her children were as loving to her as Jeana's are to her.
Continue reading Jeana says goodbye to Real Housewives of Orange County
Posted Nov 19th 2009 2:30PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Top Chef
Okay, take the idea of
Shark Tank (or
Dragon's Den if you're a BBC America fan), mix it with the
Top Chef folks, offer a great grand prize and hope for the best. That's the recipe behind
NBC's new food competition show, United Plates of America. The network is turning to the Magical Elves from
Top Chef -- no, seriously, that's the production company's name -- to succeed in the food field where NBC has flopped in the past. Remember
The Chopping Block? Remember Rocco DiSpirito's
The Restaurant? NBC has more luck with the dieters on
The Biggest Loser.
This go-round is not about a single restaurant. It's about a chain of restaurants. To me, that's a questionable goal. Most successful chains start off with one great restaurant and then take off. This concept is go big or go home. Maybe it's more complicated, but it doesn't sound that way.
Continue reading NBC cooks up a new food reality show with a big prize
Posted Nov 7th 2009 5:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Celebreality
Reportedly, before
Michael Jackson died suddenly in June, his brothers – and other family members – were putting together a reality show for A&E. After all, celebrity reality shows have a certain appeal, especially train wrecks like
Being Bobby Brown or
Hey, Paula. Not that the Jacksons were thinking that way. I'm sure they envision something classy and edifying.
Since Michael's death, the interest in this miniseries has escalated, much like the interest in all things Jackson. Will the brothers talk about Michael? How much? Will Michael's children be included in the show? All that and more will be answered when
The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty debuts on A&E December 13, at 9 p.m. The plan is for two hour-long episodes to kick off the series.
Continue reading The Jackson Family reality show debuts in December
Posted Nov 4th 2009 7:29PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Animation, South Park
Even though the show has been on forever, I still enjoy my weekly dose of the new
South Parks. But lately, they seem to be running out of targets or have narrowed their focus too much on one particular evil: reality television.
The season opener featured a rather nasty swipe at Disney's Jonas Brothers. The recent "Dead Celebrities" chortle-fest took a much needed pot shot at
Ghost Hunters, aka, "the gayest f#*$ing show on television." And last week launched an all out attack on Discovery's
Whale Wars and
Deadliest Catch, particularly against
Whale Wars star Paul Watson.
The show has always been a bitch to write and making every episode a satirical masterpiece is impossible without suffering a full-on breakdown. But should the show lay off reality TV and take some bolder shots at reality, which as we all know are two completely different things?
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 6:01PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, Casting
Attention, attention! This is not a joke. It's not a spoof or a gag.
Kathy Griffin will host a dance show for ABC. That's right, the funny lady of Bravo's
My Life on the D-List, has said yes to hosting
Let's Dance, a new celebrity reality show in which stars compete with one another by re-creating classic routines from pop culture. That means someone is going to try and do Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" dance from
Motown's 25th Anniversary Special, don't you think?
I am not a
Dancing With the Stars fan, but this show sounds like something I'd be interested in watching for a couple of reason. Number one is Kathy Griffin. I think she's hilarious. She also loves celebrities, so I could see her really getting into this show and being the perfect built-in zingmeister. She'll say whatever comes to her mind, and -- fortunately -- that's usually pretty funny.
Continue reading Kathy Griffin dances her way into new ABC series
Posted Oct 29th 2009 12:40AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Top Chef
(S06E10) After last week's restaurant wars, which I found really disappointing, I was hoping for a really tough challenge tonight. As
Hemal guessed, having Natalie Portman as a guest judge did turn this main competition into a vegetarian duel. Oooh, yum. Vegetables. More about the kale and mushrooms after the jump.
Continue reading Review: Top Chef - Meat Natalie
Posted Oct 9th 2009 3:09PM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd
While walking the streets of Manhattan, heading to the office early this morning, one of those giant open-air tour buses came flying by me as I crossed Sixth Avenue. Normally, since I see them everyday, I ignore them. But this one had a giant ad plastered across the side of it for Ed Begley Jr.'s green livin' reality show, and I couldn't help staring at it because it confused the hell outta me. Not because it's an inherently confusing ad, but because the fonts and text create an inherently confusing message.
Now, I'm no ad man, but am I the only one who sees the problem here?
Continue reading The new ad for Ed Begley Jr.'s reality show is confusing
Posted Sep 21st 2009 11:00AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Commercials, Obituaries, Emmys, Reality-Free
I'm not saying that I necessarily think Billy Mays should have won a posthumous Emmy, or even that his show
Pitchmen should have been included in their "The Year in Reality" segment. But leaving him out of the "In Memoriam" segment? You have people from every facet of the television industry, and you leave out the most famous infomercial personality ever. Infomercials are television programming.
Yes, they're annoying at times and yes, they're not as exciting as
Lost or
The Amazing Race, but it's still television. Billy Mays was famous
because of television. And he was famous. Virtually everyone in this country recognizes "Hi, Billy Mays here!" and that almost patented way of
shouting talking he had.
But hell, even if you don't buy any of those arguments, he was one of the stars of
Pitchmen, a successful reality show. You honor reality shows, right? I'm just saying, It seems to me that one of the most famous faces of the modern era
on television, and one of the most powerful men in the commercial industry, could have maybe earned a quick mention upon his passing.
Posted Sep 18th 2009 9:03AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Celebrities
You can breath a sigh of relief now. Each and every one of
The Real Housewives of New York City are coming back for Season 3. There, don't you feel better? After speculation that
Bethenny was going off to do her own show and a rumor that Kelly wasn't invited back, Bravo has wrangled Jill Zarin, Ramona Singer, Alex McCord, Kelly Killoren Bensimon and Countess LuAnn de Lesseps for another installment of the
Real Housewives.
Continue reading Hallelujah, The Real Housewives of New York are all coming back!
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