Survivor

Supreme Court won’t hear Hatch’s appeal

Survivor winner Richard Hatch will remain in prison for another year, as the United States Supreme Court decided not to hear his appeal.

His “appeal was already denied by a federal appeals court in Boston and was among more than a thousand rejected last week by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court did not explain its reasoning,” the AP reports.

Michael Minns, Richard’s attorney, said “He’s disappointed with the decision. He’s been worried about his family and taking care of them the entire time.”

Richard has claimed, implausibly, that he caught crew members giving food to participants, and a producer promised CBS would pay taxes on his winnings if he stayed quiet. In February, he lost his appeal to the U.S. District Court of Appeals on the grounds that he did not bring that up during trial; the court said that “[t]he failure of Hatch to present any evidence of such conversations when invited by the court strongly suggested that no actual promises were made, and no such ‘deal’ actually existed.”

Making the Band 4

MTV extends Making the Band 4 season

MTV will air “bonus episodes” of Making the Band 4 that the network says “will pick-up where the last one left off.” In other words, the finale, during which Aubrey and D. Woods were kicked out of the band, wasn’t actually the end after all.

MTV executive Tony DiSanto said in a press release, “With the cliffhanger ending on this season of ‘Making the Band,’ we just knew the saga had to continue. There is so much more story to tell, amazing music and great drama to come.”

As a result, the press release reveals “MTV is extending the drama into 2009 with bonus episodes” that “will continue with the remaining members of Danity Kane and their label mates Day26 and Donnie Klang as they all embark on the next phases of their Bad Boy careers.”

While that “into” seems as though they’ll be extending this season during 2008 and continuing into 2009, the press release’s title says the new episodes are scheduled “for early 2009.” In other words, it’s like The Hills’ artificially extended season.

Making the Band 3

Making the Band 4

Aubrey O’ Day, D. Woods out of Danity Kane

Aubrey O’Day and D. Woods, two of Danity Kane’s five members, are out of the group. That was revealed during the live season finale of Making the Band 4, for which Diddy/Puff didn’t bother to show up, but instead participated via satellite. D. Woods didn’t show up at all, but was kicked out of the group thanks to her association with Aubrey, whose attitude rubbed Diddy the wrong way.

The revelation that there are now just three members in Danity Kane follows last week’s cliffhanger, which seemed like it could just be a ratings-grabbing stunt, but which seems to have been genuine—although some still think there will be a reconciliation.

Diddy said, “I got love for Aubrey. … I don’t have any beef with her. I just want to work with the young lady that I signed, not the person that fame has made her.” At one point, Aubrey, referring to the “blog sites” and others, said she almost walked out of the live show because “I’m so sick of having to defend myself as a woman.” She said she had no regrets. Diddy told her, “Your attitude is going to have you in a dark and lonely place.”

There’s one thing they both agreed on: Barack Obama, who they both encouraged viewers to vote for.

There will—surprise, surprise—be a fourth season of Making the Band 4, although since version four started with the creation of Day26, and its third season followed that group on tour with Donnie Klang and third-iteration creation Danity Kane, who the hell knows what season four of version four will be.

Project Runway 5

Bravo’s final Project Runway episode airs tonight

More likely than not, Bravo will air its last new Project Runway episode ever tonight. It’s the finale of Project Runway 5, and even if NBC Universal wins its lawsuit to keep the show from moving to Lifetime, the series is unlikely to return to Bravo, perhaps even moving to NBC.

Thus, it’s a significant hour of television—not as much for the competition, but because the show literally defined Bravo as a network far more than its breakout series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy ever did. It will also be the last season of the show to be produced by Magical Elves, the production company that created a new aesthetic for reality television with its format for the series.

As the final sewing needle in the show’s repeatedly punched eye, that last new episode will air opposite the final presidential debate, and Barack Obama and John McCain’s last face-off was watched by more than 63 million people (across all networks), so it’s more likely than ever before that this finale won’t break Bravo records.

It’s the sadly perfect end to a season that has been the weakest of the five, and that Bravo treated like shit: moving it to an earlier timeslot, revealing most of the challenges and guest judges early, and not promoting it until just a couple days before the debut.

Bravo also didn’t air a pre-finale reunion, and no post-finale reunion is scheduled, but the guys at Project Rungay constructed their own reunion, which is far more hilarious than a real one would have been, and has the added bonus of lacking Kenley’s voice.

Charm School

VH1 Love shows producer: “we keep doing the same show, we’re just changing the title”

Sunday night’s debut of Charm School represented, by my count, the 11th show in the series that started with Flavor of Love—and of course, that started with The Surreal Life, and then spawned Strange Love. Upcoming are a third Rock of Love, and later this month, Real Chance at Love. That’s more than a dozen shows now, and there’s no indication it’ll stop any time soon.

The two men responsible for both resuscitating VH1 and unleashing this plague upon the earth, Cris Abrego and Mark Cronin, talked to VH1 about their series, and Cronin said that it’s impossible to have too many spin-offs. “No such thing. I keep saying we keep doing the same show, we’re just changing the title. Sometimes we change the rules. Sometimes we change the prize. Sometimes it’s Flav, sometimes it’s $100,000. But either way: same show.”

Cronin also said that copying their shows and using the same people is necessary. Although they kicked off the “celebreality” craze with The Surreal Life, he said that “it got so big that we can’t even play in that game. The celebrities are on, like, Dancing With the Stars, and they get six figures to appear on that show. It’s become such a big industry now that whatever the early fun of it was is kind of gone now. The next step Cris and I have taken is that we’re now in the celebrity-making business.”

Their strategy is simple. “When we find a great character, if we can find a continuing story with that character, we go with it. If we find someone the audience loves, we find a way to bring them back to continue the storyline. It’s like a soap opera,” Cronin said.

The original genesis of the shwos came from considering what The Bachelor does not do. “It’s like, what if the Bachelor was actually a big character? The Bachelors tend not to be big characters. They tend to be nice, eligible men. Hunks, maybe, but that’s not character. A good character is someone who says funny stuff and who has a weird, whacked-out lifestyle. So, really, we wondered, ‘What if the bachelor were a crazy lunatic?’”

American Idol 8

Simon Cowell’s $45 million salary leads to “jealousy”

Earlier this year, Forbes reported that Simon Cowell makes $72 million a year, of which $45 million is for each season of American Idol.

The show’s former executive producer Nigel Lythgoe severely underestimated Cowell’s salary when he told Australia’s Courier-Mail, “I think Simon is now earning something like $36 million a year from FOX alone but they can afford to pay him that because at one point we heard (FOX) were getting something like $900,000 and $1 million per 30 seconds in advertising revenue.”

Even using that inaccurately low number, Lythgoe said Cowell’s pay is a point of contention. “(Jackson’s and Abdul’s) salary has never been advertised and Simon has been in Forbes which is why I am talking about it. But there is always jealousy in every job. Why is he getting more than the other two judges? Because it is believed that he brings more to the table. Also, he has actually handled his negotiations quite brilliantly,” Lythgoe said.

Paula is particularly upset, according to an anonymous source allegedly close to Paula Abdul, who told MSNBC’s Courtney Hazlett that “Paula knew that Simon was getting paid more, but she never imagined it was this much more. This could really put her in a bad way. She has a lot of concerns with feeling appreciated. First, they bring in another judge (Kara DioGuardi) and now it’s ridiculously obvious that she’s getting pennies compared to Simon.”

So the only real news here is that Paula doesn’t read Forbes, and is only now realizing that her incomprehensible babble and awkward hand clapping isn’t all that valuable. At least she gets free food out of the deal; Lythgoe told the newspaper, “Whenever we go out to dinner [Simon] is certainly the first one to put his credit card down.”

Making the Band 3

Making the Band 4

Aubrey O’Day, Danity Kane’s fates to be revealed live tonight

The group formed on Making the Band 3, Danity Kane, may be no more after tonight’s live finale of Making the Band 4—or we could all just realize we’ve been played. The fun starts at 9 p.m. ET.

At the conclusion of last week’s episode, Diddy fired Aubrey O’Day from the multi-platinum group after she confronted him about problems with trust and communication. “I don’t work these amount of years to have you talk to me this way. So I don’t want you in the group no more. That’s where I’m at with it. I don’t even want to have to have this conversation. Anybody else who wants to go with her can go with her.”

The group’s break-up has been rumored for well over a year, yet they stayed together. In 2007, there were also rumors that Aubrey was in a relationship with Diddy and was pregnant with his child. In the meantime, Aubrey performed on Broadway in Hairspray, and he other career aspirations created tension in the group.

Asked by the Boston Herald about her status in the group, Aubrey said, “I can’t comment on anything, I’m sorry,” which essentially proves that whatever the outcome, all of this is a huge ratings stunt. In the same interview, by the way, she called herself a “member of a girl band” and “the official party girl of Danity Kane.”

In a breathless press release, MTV asks, “Is Danity Kane still a group? Does Diddy actually ax a DK member?” and says that the special will include “never before seen footage from the dramatic meeting with Diddy and Danity Kane. In the live special viewers and fans will find out if there has really been a cut and if MTV’s favorite girl group stays in-tact.”

Here’s the relevant part of last week’s episode, during which the group discusses their problems and Diddy fires Aubrey: