Photos of the new Big Brother 15 house/set design have been released, and if you were expecting something massively different, you will be massively disappointed.
However, the design apparently relates to a twist, including the lack of nomination chairs (a couch is in their place) and is slightly more sophisticated than before, echoing The Glass House, Mad Men, and It’s a Small World, although that’s kind of an insult to the production designers of those things.
The lounge room is being called the Frequent Flyer Lounge because it relates to an “element of the show,” according to the production designer, Scott Storey, who told the paper that it is “masculine,” “sophisticated” and “grown-up.” Unlike, you know, its inhabitants.
Here’s Julie Chen touring the house and explaining what a typewriter is:
Bachelorette cast member discussed his arrest for domestic violence with Buzzfeed. The story cites the arrest report, which says “They were having a verbal argument and pushed Nelson to the ground causing Nelson’s nose to bleed. Nelson stated that this caused her pain.” She later asked for the restraining order to be dropped.
Storage Wars cast member Brandi Passante won a judgement of $750 against Hunter Moore, the creator of Is Anyone Up; she sued for $2.5 million, claiming he published a pornographic video and photos that purported to be of her.
Survivor Caramoan cast member Erik Reichenbach has written, illustrated, and self-published a graphic novel that’s a satirical version of his time on the show: Starving, For Attention: A Completely Legal Parody. Its described as “a comic look at what happens when human dysfunction is left to run wild, leading one to question the true nature of ‘reality’ in reality television.”
Amazing Race cast member and pro poker player Maria Ho will be followed, along with three other female poker pros, for a new E! reality show called Queens Are Wild; she told Poker Listings, “We’ve been working hard on it and it’s going in a really good direction but you never know until they give you the final green light.”
Some people will experience the July 17 return of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo on a whole new level: nearly 10 million scratch and sniff cards will be distributed in People, Us Weekly, Time Warner Cable stores, and elsewhere so that—and I am not making this sentence up—viewers can “scratch their cards and redneckognize the aromas associated with the Boo Boo gang as they welcome the sights, sounds and smells of summer,” TLC said in a press release.
David and Jackie Siegel, stars of the amazing documentary Queen of Versailles, were interviewed on CNBC about what the interviewer calls the “incredible comeback for your business.” Hilariously, David Siegel, who threatened to leave the country if Barack Obama won, is bragging about the growth of his company, while Jackie’s only talks about having to do without so many nannies and housekeepers.
EW is running a bracket to discover the answer to this urgent question: Who is the Best-Dressed Reality TV Judge?. Voting for round two is now open, featuring face-offs such as RuPaul vs. Demi Lovato and Padma Lakshmi vs. Heidi Klum.
Former Million Dollar Listing cast member Chad Rogers showed off his body in a staged photo at a car wash, and tabloid coverage and says he thinks it’s “hilarious” that the media is paying attention, even though his people sent out a press release saying he “has also been hard at work on his new million dollar physique.”
People in Norway love slow, boring TV shows, such as an 18-hour show following salmon and a 134-hour live broadcast of a ferry going along the coast.
To promote the newly released film This is the End, in which actors play version of themselves facing the apocalypse, MTV released a parody of The Real World that features several actors and cast members from the Portland season. It gets funnier as it goes on, and there’s a hilarious callback to the San Francisco season:
A Survivor all-winners season, which is usually mentioned as a possible format for the CBS show’s final season, has been discussed by producers but might not reunite every winner to play the game. Of course, that is becoming increasingly unlikely because the number of winners is pushing into the mid-20s for a format that usually involves 18 to 20 people.
“We’ve talked about an all-winners season quite a few times and it really comes down the cast. A: Do you have enough winners that will come back and play? Of those winners, are there enough of them that are good characters, because not all winners make for great TV? And then, do you have enough men and women, and then, is there enough diversity in age and all that stuff? And so it takes a lot. But yes, if we knew it was our last season and the network told us ‘this is it,’ I’m sure we would try to do something to go out in a way that would please the audience.”
Perhaps most disturbing is the part about “good characters,” because as we know from the reunions and the repeated casting of people with Hantz DNA, Probst’s version of a good character isn’t the universal definition, and usually includes alpha males rather than sly strategists with female parts.
By the way, the article/podcast teaser also says Probst called in from an “undisclosed filming location” (it’s a new location in the Philippines) and, linking to an article in which Probst talks about family members facing off against each other, insists that “Jeff Probst broke news about the next season of Survivor: Blood vs. Water” on EW’s radio show. Nice try, but no, he did not.
The Cincinnati Enquirer confirmed news first reported by the Philadelphia Daily News, noting that coach Marvin “Lewis has considered both of his experiences with Hard Knocks to be positive. He was the defensive coordinator in Baltimore the first year of the series in 2001 and the head coach here in 2009.” But he still checked with his team first: Cincinnati’s Fox affiliate reports that “several Bengals players were approached by Coach Marvin Lewis with the idea to do the show again.”
Last season included this dramatic footage of Chad Johnson being fired from the Dolphins; he was also on the 2009 season, when he was playing for Cincinnati.
The companies that appear on Shark Tank do so for a price: 5 percent of their business or a 2 percent royalty. That money goes to the shows producers and ABC, and does not depend upon whether or not there’s a deal made.
That’s one of the fascinating revelations in a New York Times article about the impact the show has on businesses, which is generally pretty great, thanks to the power of broadcast television. Thus, the paper reports,
“producers are well aware of the value that seven million viewers, and potential customers, can bring to an early-stage business. It is the reason participants are willing to sign over a small equity share just to appear on the show. The standard appearance contract entitles the show’s producers and ABC to 5 percent of the company or 2 percent of future royalties, regardless of whether a deal materializes with a shark. The show’s producers declined to comment on the contract.”
The piece cites two examples of companies that benefitted from the exposure (VerbalizeIt, Wicked Good Cupcakes), which can sometimes mean not sticking with the deal made on the show.
TNT debuted its new The Rock-hosted reality competition The Hero last week, and it was a fascinatingly bizarre hour: The extreme challenges that were actually challenging and visually interesting. The temptation twists. The definition of a hero. The Rock breaking the fourth wall constantly to ask the audience questions that we weren’t asking ourselves. The complicated game structure that seems reminiscent of The Mole, but with lots and lots of complication.
I’m not quite sure if it is spectacular or a disaster, but I’m intrigued enough to keep watching (episode two airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET). But I don’t know if I can, at least not without muting my television.
That’s because The Hero has the most obnoxious, grating group of contestants I can ever remember populating a cast. Viewers have to select one of them as a hero, really? Maybe if it had been titled The Zero—ZING.
The contestants don’t lack personality, but their expression of it nearly always involves, at best, talking loudly at one another (unless the contestant is Patty, who cried even at the furniture). No one listens, every one shouts, and it’s more abrasive than rubbing a cheese grater up and down fresh road rash.
The editing, producing, and/or coaching may be to blame, too, because that annoying, constant conflict was pretty much all the premiere focused on, save for a moment of levity which the editors used to contrast between what was happening in the one-person hero’s challenge and back at the apartment.
There’s a lot of talk about what makes for a hero, and whether or not being selfish immediately disqualifies one for that status. However, if I was on the show, I simply couldn’t imagine giving up significant amounts of cash so that it could go to one of the strangers who’s clearly an asshole. Isn’t it a lot more heroic to keep that money to help your family or even just you?
Perhaps the cast will mellow out over time, but the preview for the season didn’t seem promising, with clips of verbal brawls and more yelling. It may just be enough to drive one to seek peace, quiet, and sanity by tuning in to Big Brother.
A replacement has been hired for American Idol’s fired producers: Per Blankens, who produced the Swedish version of the show from 2007 to 2011.
FremantleMedia’s Trish Kinane said in a press release that he “is a creative and experienced executive” who “is extremely passionate about Idol and I’m very excited about his ideas and vision for keeping Idol creatively vibrant. He brings the talent and energy needed to keep American Idol strong.”
In the press release, Per said, “The Idol franchise is a worldwide phenomenon and I’m honored to be a part of the most popular of the franchises, American Idol. I can’t wait to get started as auditions for the new season are just a few weeks away.”
Mike Fleiss says that Bachelor Padwas cancelled this summer intentionally, because he wanted to “give it a break” because there weren’t enough stars to be on the show.
He told EW’s Dalton Ross, “I thought it might be good to give it a break for a little while — let the fans starve for it a little bit so that next summer when it comes back…”
That’s a little-known TV strategy: cancel your show to encourage viewers to tune in when you un-cancel it.
But that is Fleiss’ intention: “I have a good feeling it will be back next summer. I really wanted to give it a break because I did not feel like we had enough superstars to populate the pad.”
Gee, what could be causing there to be a lack of return-worthy superstars on The Bachelor and Bachelorette? It’s not like they’ve been casting one-note people just for shock value.
Of course, not having a cast does seem like legitimate reason for not airing it, never mind that ratings were down more than 25 percent last summer compared to the previous summer.
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