TVSquad

I usually associate Real World cast members with drunken barfights, threeways, and tearful meltdowns--but politics? That's a first. Kevin Powell, former Real World reality star, is running for Congress in Brooklyn's 10th District. Old-timers like myself remember Kevin from the show's very first season, back when the cast members weren't equal parts hot and crazy.

Powell's post-reality career has set him apart from the typical fame-seeking MTV celebs. According to his campaign website, he's written seven books and is a successful lecturer and activist. That certainly beats stints on The Surreal Life and the Real World/Road Rules Challenge.

From the 1950s through the 1980s, reality television programming was a rarity on the schedules of the Big Three networks. It was more of a novelty that piqued the interest of the viewers for a few months or a few seasons, then was relegated back into the shadows while scripted shows dominated the airwaves. It wasn't until the very end of the 1980s, when FOX premiered COPS, that reality-based programming became a prime-time staple.

It stayed that way for several years. Then, just like that, it all changed, thanks to one show that premiered in 1992. With a simple program on a fairly new cable channel, reality programming went from television rarity to huge success. So much so that, in a few short years, it spawned various direct copies and variations of its concept on both the over-the-air and cable networks. By the early 21st century the airwaves were filled with more reality programming than scripted works, garnering the ire and the joy of many a long-time television viewer.

And, it all began on a network primarily known for its music videos and Pauly Shore.

A couple of months ago, I interviewed Lifetime president of entertainment Susanne Daniels for TV Week, asking her about Project Runway jumping from Bravo to her network.

"We know for certain that Heidi (Klum) and Tim (Gunn) are returning. We would love to see the judges back, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia...but we're working on that," she said.

She went on to say that the show will look and feel very much like it did on Bravo; it will be airing in the same time slot, the same day of the week. And she secured Kors and Garcia, so the four important Project Runway principals all will be in place.

Now comes word that in an effort to keep Project Runway as much a hit on Lifetime as it's been on Bravo, Lifetime is bringing in the veteran production team Bunim-Murray to take over as showrunners.

I'm one of the many people who laments the "channel drift" that has affected MTV. A network that started out as, well, "music television" has clearly become "anything but music television." There's even a graph now on GraphJam the depicts how The Real World caused the downfall of MTV. The graph shows how the airtime for music videos has decreased as The Real World grew in popularity. Perhaps it should also measure how the cast of The Real World became more attractive and subsequently less intelligent.

The graph posits that by 2010 music videos will be nonexistent on the channel. Also, interesting is the rise of what the graph calls simply "other crap" that coincides with the rise of shows like The Real World and Road Rules. I assume "other crap" refers to shows like The Hills, My Super Sweet Sixteen, and Made -- shows that have replaced music videos in primetime (and replaced music videos with their incessant reruns in daytime).

Screener Hell is an semi-regular feature in which lead blogger Keith McDuffee tries to fry my brain with the worst TV has to offer.

(S02E01/S02E02) Do you have any idea how bad a show you have to be to include several scenes of gratuitous nudity and still be boring!? I love nudity. The more unnecessary the nudity, the better. My favorite kind of nudity is that mid-'90s Cinemax nudity where the main character, despite her ongoing undercover investigation into the exotic world of high-class prostitution, decides to take a shower for 20 minutes for no good reason at all. I'll watch pretty much any kind of claptrap if it includes that kind of nudity.

But not this show. Not Foursome. There is no amount of tanned, taut Californian wannabe-actress flesh that could get me to watch another minute of this show. Please, don't think this is because I'm maturing; the show is just that bad...

MTV, high of off the success of its twentieth season The Real World: Hollywood, has greenlighted yet another season of the hit show to be filmed back in New York. The Real World: Brooklyn will begin shooting this summer and air in early 2009. The network will continue the one-hour format they began with The Real World: Hollywood; they've ordered twelve episodes from Bunim-Murray productions.

MTV is already touting Brooklyn as the return to the "original" Real World (not the version of the show where MTV casts hot-but-less-evolved people). Also, they are playing up the return to New York. But hasn't this been done before? I believe it was season ten and it was actually called The Real World: Back to New York. "The Brooklyn season, like the Hollywood season, will focus on what people loved about The Real World when it launched in 1992 genuine people, meaningful conflict and powerful stories. We're thrilled that MTV is allowing The Real World to turn 21.," says Jon Murray, The Real World Co-Creator and Chairman & President of Bunim-Murray Productions.

What do you think? Are you over The Real World?

A day hasn't gone by where we haven't received some sort of tip or email asking us, the TV Squad, how to get on [insert reality show here]. Unfortunately no, Simon Cowell does not work for us, and Donald Trump isn't my BFF, so we really can't help all that much.

The folks at RealityWanted.com often send us a list of new and existing reality shows that are looking for new, er, talent, and they've given us permission to make mention of them here. We'll try to make this a regular feature as often as we get a new list.

This time we have The Bachelor, The Pick Up Artist, Teen Dream and other new shows.

A day hasn't gone by where we haven't received some sort of tip or email asking us, the TV Squad, how to get on [insert reality show here]. Unfortunately no, Simon Cowell does not work for us, and Donald Trump isn't my BFF, so we really can't help all that much.

The folks at RealityWanted.com often send us a list of new and existing reality shows that are looking for new, er, talent, and they've given us permission to make mention of them here. We'll try to make this a regular feature as often as we get a new list.

This time we have MTV's Spring Break, The Real World, Wife Swap, Splitsville and several new shows.

Here are seven people who used their reality TV notoriety to their advantage. They have found success in other TV genres, film, or entrepreneurial pursuits. Some just found more fame in the genre that put them on thee map.

7. Colleen Haskell (Survivor): Colleen was in the first season of Survivor (Borneo) and while she didn't outwit, outplay and outlast the other cast members, she did make a good run of her fifteen minutes. She finished sixth in her season but was such a genuine and fair player that when her torch was extinguished Richard Hatch called her a "wonderful person." Using her American-apple-pie-pretty-girl-next-door appearance and attitude, she parlayed her reality TV fame into more roles in both television and film. She did a Blistex commercial and had a guest spot on That 70's Show. Most notably, however, she starred alongside Rob Schneider in The Animal (2001). Pretty good for a Catholic school girl from a small town in Maryland.

Ye gods. Leave it to pop culture maven Whitney Matheson to point out an anniversary that passed without much notice, and make every Gen X'er feel ancient at the same time: Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the debut of The Real World.

On May 21, 1992, MTV showed the first episode of what at the time was a daring premise: put seven young adults in a New York loft and have the cameras follow them around as they learn how to get along with each other. When I think back on the first season -- it was one of the few reality shows that I watched on a regular basis, up until about the New Orleans season -- it's amazing to me how different it was than what TRW is now: the roommates ranged in age from the late teens to the late twenties, and a couple of them, like journalist Kevin Powell, actually had real jobs.

I'm really trying to cut down on my reality show watching. Most of them are either ridiculous, irritating, or soul-crushing, so I only stick with a few of them (Survivor, Hell's Kitchen, some of the documentary-type shows, like Airline and Little People, Big World). But that doesn't mean I don't have a few ideas I'd like to see implemented on the shows:

1. Survivor: Enough with the warm weather, island settings. Why not give us a season in a cold climate? Some place where the contestants would have to wear jackets, make hot coffee, struggle with cold temps and maybe some snow? Sure, the hot-chicks-in-bikinis factor would go way down, but they can always give a hot tub as a prize in one of the challenges.