reality blurred + archives + June 24 to June 30, 2007

week of June 24, 2007

Pirate Master's ratings improve, but it will move to Tuesdays in July
There's good news for one of Mark Burnett's poorly performing summer reality series: Pirate Master's ratings improved last Thursday. It had an increase of "27...
Big Brother 8 will be "more ubiquitous and interactive"
This summer's big Big Brother 8 twist has yet to be revealed, but a CBS network executive and the show's executive producer have revealed that...
Audition cities announced for American Idol 7
Auditions for American Idol 7 will begin in just over a month, a week earlier than usual, and the show will visit some newer, smaller...
Mark Burnett developing a martial arts competition
What Mark Burnett did for boxing on The Contender, he now will do for martial arts. He's working "with mixed martial arts company ProElite Inc....

Shaq's Big Challenge debuts on ABC tonight
Shaquille O'Neal helps kids lose weight on ABC's new six-episode reality series Shaq's Big Challenge, which debuts tonight at 9 p.m. ET. Of the six...
Harold says Top Chef producers threatened, forced him to do all-star challenge
Top Chef winner Harold Dieterle says he was forced to participate in the season three all-star cook-off by producers, who threatened to take legal action...
Kelly Clarkson's third album My December released today
Kelly Clarkson, the original American Idol winner, releases her third album today. My December, which she called "more intense" than her previous records, and said...
Trishelle says she's only slept with three Real World cast members
Real World Las Vegas cast member Trishelle Cannatella, who's not exactly known for being chaste, says she has only slept with three fellow MTV reality...
Apolo will appear at five Dancing with the Stars tour stops, joining the four other celebs
The winner of Dancing with the Stars 4, Apolo Anton Ohno, will join the show's summer tour, which started today. However, he'll only make five...
Big Brother cast list is "completely made up," casting director says
Because three months of Big Brother every year is not enough time to waste on the show, fans of the show are busy going crazy...

America's Got Talent 2 is the week's top-rated show; Hell's Kitchen beaten by a sit-com repeat
With summer officially here, viewers have fled, leaving "tepid ratings" behind, the AP reports. That explains why NBC was actually in first place last week:...
Top Chef producers "don't pay the guest judges," Tom Colicchio says
Head Top Chef 3 judge Tom Colicchio says that the show's guest judges are not compensated for their time or potential suffering through bad food....
VH1 shot a pilot for America The Ugly with The Agency's Becky
VH1 has produced a pilot episode for a new reality series called America the Ugly. The series is "said to be inspired, in a roundabout...
On the Lot loses another 100,000 viewers
I find On the Lot's ratings decline to be endlessly amusing. It's not that I necessarily want the show to fail--I loved its first week--but...

Hey Paula debuts tonight on Bravo
The new docudrama series that follows Paula Abdul in her day-to-day life debuts tonight on Bravo at 10 p.m. ET, with two back-to-back episodes. Hey...
Big Brother 8's cast revealed; "America's Player" will get cash for doing viewer-chosen tasks
One week before its premiere, Big Brother 8 has announced its cast and its twists, which don't sound all that twisty. The 14-person "cast will...
Paris Hilton says Simple Life 6 tapes "in the next couple months"
Any hope that Paris Hilton's post-jail reformation would lead to the death of her pathetically fake reality show The Simple Life has been lost. In...
Houseguests are enemies, rivals; America's Player is one mole-like contestant
More details have emerged about the upcoming cast-related twists on Big Brother 8, and the newly redecorated house. CBS' official press release about the new...

Canadian Idol producer says it's "disgraceful" that Toronto singers get voted off
The producer of Canadian Idol has lashed out at Canadians who don't vote for singers from Toronto. After three singers from Toronto were eliminated Wednesday,...
Summer reality TV reading: Tim Gunn's Guide to Style, Lost and Found, Reality: the Novel, The Homeless Channel
If you're searching for summer or beach reading, three (relatively) new books offer the chance to take a bit of reality TV with you away...
Reality Cares' charity event, reality tv convention both take place this weekend
Two events this weekend on opposite sides of the country compete to draw reality stars, the people who want to see them in person, and...
"Workaholic" Ryan Seacrest is "the well-scrubbed embodiment of the PG-rated American pop mainstream"
Ryan Seacrest, host of American Idol and so much more, "is ubiquitous and as instantly recognisable as the president -- and, in some quarters, almost...
Paula Abdul's loopy TV interviews blamed on exhaustion, insomnia, the flu, audio problems
The first half-hour episode of Hey Paula introduced us to both Fun Paula and Diva Paula, but the second episode--which was not screened for critics--reintroduced...