TVSquad

It's an exciting time to be a B-, ,C- or D-List celebrity. NBC has just renewed the Celebrity Apprentice for another season set for next spring. Ratings have been pretty good for the current run, airing on Sundays with such A-List celebrities as Khloe Kardashian, Tom Green and the Dice Man. It's surprisingly entertaining television, and it's fun seeing Donald Trump interacting with these big names. Of course what it really is is just more of that celebreality voyeurism crap on which VH1 built an empire.

I watched The Celebrity Apprentice last night. Did you? While I thought the last non-celeb season of The Apprentice was a dismal grasping-at-straws season and the show should be put out of its misery, I once again got hooked during the first celebrity season.

I have my reasons I must watch. Yes, I wondered if Joan Rivers' face can actually show any signs of movement after all of her plastic surgery (it doesn't). Her mouth smiles, but that's about it. Nonetheless, Joan can be so outrageous and spontaneous that she'll crack me up anyway (and my face actually can move with expressions). Having her, Dennis Rodman, Andrew Dice Clay, Clint Black, and some of the others is enough to get me hooked on the show even before the season started. Oh, that doesn't mean I like them all. But I do like my just desserts and Clay got his cupcakes last night.

Yesterday, NBC revealed the cast for the second edition of Celebrity Apprentice, an announcement that had been made in October but somehow kept under wraps by the press until now. How did that happen? Well, my guess is that the press got a look at the names of the "celebrities" on the list and determined that they weren't leak-worthy.

I mean, really ... Dennis Rodman? Dice Clay? Tom Green? Joan and Melissa Rivers? A Kardashian sister that isn't Kim? No wonder why the only people who leaked the news were Letterman and Conan; they cast is barely even worthy of late-night monologue scorn.

Apparently not much, according to this list on Wikipedia, which is part of a larger list of infamous SNL moments. Now, this being Wikipedia, it's hard to say if all the incidents listed are true; in fact, Wikipedia themselves have flagged the entry for not adequately citing sources. But, from what I've read about the history of the show, most of these incidents actually happened.

Anyway, the list carries the most infamous transgressions, like Sinead O'Connor's tearing of the Pope's picture, Martin Lawrence's raunchy monologue, and Elvis Costello playing "Radio Radio" when Lorne Michaels specifically told him not to. But, sometimes, all you have to do is go off script, as Adrien Brody and Charles Grodin found out, to garner a lifetime ban. Or just come unprepared, as Louise Lasser found out. Interestingly enough, Andrew Dice Clay isn't on the list, even though he did a monologue that was probably even more raunchy than Lawrence's. I think the Wikipedia readers just missed that one.

[via digg and Zimbio.com]

For the past several months, cameras have been secretly recording the behind-the-scenes goings-on at The Jerry Springer Show for a new VH1 reality series. Tentatively-titled The Springer Hustle, the show focuses on the producers who bring all that messed-up humanity to the screen.

This raises all kinds of questions for me. Did you know that Jerry Springer still had a TV show? I thought he was busy running for office or something. More importantly, can you make a reality show about a show that pretends to examine reality and uses "real" people but is largely staged much in the way, say, professional wrestling is staged? And, since we all know that reality programming is also hyper-edited, written and sometimes staged, will my head explode when I try to decode what's real, what's fake, who's pre-op, who's post-op and who's my baby's daddy? I'm already confused.

Fortunately, this isn't VH1's only new offering. You can also expect to see Andrew Dice Clay and Tom Sizemore vehicles. So much to look forward to in 2007.

I'm getting so tired doing stories about all these reality shows. So very, very tired...

VH-1 has not only renewed Hogan Knows Best and Celebrity Eye Candy (I didn't even know there was a show called Celebrity Eye Candy), but they have also given the go-ahead to several new shows. Andrew Dice Clay will have a reality show that documents his big comeback. And Celebrity Paranormal Project will send celebs to get paranormal evidence in very scary places.

Are they kidding about that one? Seriously, is that a joke?

Three other shows coming: The Wendy Williams Experience will be a behind the scenes look at her radio show; The Fabulous Life Presents: Really Rich Real Estate will show what it's like working at one of the best known real estate agencies in L.A. Expect lots of footage of celeb homes you love but can't possibly afford; and a reality show that will follow Tom Sizemore around.