reality blurred + archives + December 18 to December 24, 2011

week of December 18, 2011

History Channel's Pawn Stars, reality TV make it the fifth-most popular cable channel
The History Channel's reality shows have propelled the network to become the fifth-most popular network on cable, behind only USA, Disney, TNT, and ESPN; last...
Salani, Manono are the tribes that will live together on Survivor One World
Survivor One World was confirmed as the 24th season of the show during Survivor South Pacific's live reunion, as host Jeff Probst confirmed details of...

Ozzy, Coach, Cochran, Brandon, and that other Hantz dominate, but Sophie wins Survivor
Sophie Clarke won six of the Survivor South Pacific jury members' votes and thus the $1 million prize, beating Benjamin "Coach" Wade and Albert Destrade,...

A younger, female judge will be added to America's Got Talent as part of its makeover
America's Got Talent added Howard Stern as a judge and will also add a fourth judge, according to executive producer Simon Cowell, who said the...
How the Survivor jury voted, and horrifying news about Probst's Hantz vs. Hantz idea
The Survivor South Pacific jury's votes have been revealed by its members, and all but three voted for winner Sophie Clarke. Meanwhile, Brandon Hantz has...
Next Great Baker's Wesley Durden killed himself in October
A cast member on TLC's Next Great Baker killed himself in October, but the show, hosted by Cake Boss Buddy Valastro, only revealed Wesley Durden,...

Lowe's accepts petitions delivered by Christian clergy but continues to stand with bigots
Multiple petitions with over 200,000 signatures asking Lowe's to reverse its decision to pander to bigots and pull advertising from TLC's All-American Muslim were delivered...

How to fix Work of Art: replace the judges with auctions conducted by Simon de Pury
Bravo's reality competition Work of Art should work better than most talent-based competitions. That's because, unlike Top Chef, we can watch the construction from something...
X Factor mercifully ends as Steve Jones candidly discusses whether he'll have a job next season
The X Factor, a show that's been hyped for years, ends its first season tonight. Compared to Fox's typical fall programing, the show has succeeded...
Survivor winners and players ranked by objective data, and the results are surprising
All 23 Survivor winners have been ranked based on objective data about their performance on their seasons, including jury votes, and Survivor Palau's Tom Westman...

X Factor ends with the result everyone predicted, making the last few months even more useless
The X Factor ended last night, finally, with Melanie Amaro beating Josh Krajcik, and third-place Chris Rene to win the show's unbelievable $5 million prize....