Road Rules cast member and MTV Challenge veteran Abram Boise was arrested for peeing on a car, and in his jail cell, defecated and smeared his own feces on the cell’s walls. He was, in case you didn’t already guess, drunk. The Worcester Telegram and Gazette reports that he “was arrested and charged with urinating… continue reading
Archives for February 2011
Arnold Shapiro defends Beyond Scared Straight’s programs against criticism
A&E’s Scared Straight concludes its first season next Thursday, having debuted to record ratings in mid-January. Following the show’s debut, there was controversy: two of the three states featured on the show have suspended their programs, and the show and the programs it features have been criticized. The series, which takes at-risk teenagers into prisons… continue reading
American Idol has its top 24, is selling Chris Medina’s single for charity
American Idol 10 has its top 24, which was correctly spoiled by Joe’s Place, although earlier reports by the blog had some innacurate information; 15-year-old Jaycee Badeaux, for example, was cut. As with other reversed changes, the semifinalists are split evenly by sex, even though we originally heard that having the same number of men… continue reading
American Idol’s online voting will be via Facebook only
Fox officially announced American Idol‘s new online voting today, and there’s a catch: Only people with Facebook accounts can vote, and votes will be limited to 50 per person. Executive producer and co-creator Simon Fuller said in the network’s announcement that “Facebook has offered us a secure solution and we are ready to go.” Voting… continue reading
Why Canadians (and non-Americans) can’t apply for Survivor
Although Canadians watch CBS’ version of Survivor, they cannot apply for the show. The cast application actually says, “You must be a United States citizen and live in the United States.” People in other countries might want to apply, too, but there’s something about Canada having to watch our version yet not being able to… continue reading
Blindsides, bathing suits, luxury items, Russell’s bad game play, and Fabio’s pee pool all return to Survivor
The act of “blindsiding” someone has now become so commonplace on Survivor that it’s expected, and thus almost doesn’t work, because it’s not blind if everyone can expect it to happen. But tonight’s vote, when Matt Elrod was sent home from the Ometepe tribe instead of Phillip, definitely qualifies as a blindside. His mouth dropped… continue reading
Peggi Blu, the vocal coach from hell, needs to replace (or at least join) mentor Jimmy Iovine
American Idol raced through its Las Vegas episode, compressing Beatles performances sometimes into mere clips, so it could get to three hours of elimination faster. But the hour started with a glimmer of hope, and her name is Peggi Blu. She easily outshined mentor Jimmy Iovine, who apparently thinks he’s on The Sopranos and can… continue reading
Cee-Lo Green, Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine may become judges for NBC’s The Voice
NBC’s Mark Burnett-produced singing competition The Voice is talking to two musicians, Cee-Lo Green and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, about judging the summer series, and Christina Aguilera may join as the third judge. That’s according to James Hibberd, who reports that “[p]roducers also considered Lenny Kravitz, Roger Daltrey, Mary J. Blige, John Legend and Enrique… continue reading
Christine O’Donnell invited to Dancing with the Stars; other celebs deny casting reports
Former Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell said that she was offered Dancing with the Stars 12 on Monday, just one week before the cast will be officially announced as part of The Bachelor. This season, most of the rumors about potential casting have been shot down by the people who are the subject of them: Brett… continue reading
Why a reality show with no network, producer, format, and/or footage is not a reality show
About 11 years in to the modern era of reality TV, there are a lot of reality shows on the air. There are also many, many more shows being developed at networks and production companies. And there are a lot of series that are no more than an idea in search of actualization and attention–attention… continue reading
Why does American Idol keep undoing changes? (Beatles replaced by more “green mile” drama)
A lot of American Idol 10‘s announced changes have actually not happened, leaving the show with new judges but pretty much the exact same otherwise. The latest change: The new, two-hour Las Vegas challenge episode that airs tomorrow night, featuring contestants being challenged to perform parts of the Cirque du Soleil Beatles show, has been… continue reading
Nigel Lythgoe confirms Idol will have online voting
American Idol‘s executive producer has confirmed that viewers will be able to vote via the Internet this season. In December, a Twitter account accidentally revealed an online voting URL, suggesting that voting online would begin this Thursday, though the season’s structure has been changed since then. told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “We are going to introduce… continue reading
Man’s heart attack saves Amazing Race from its flurry of momentum-destroying twists
The Amazing Race returned last night, and besides bringing back previous teams, the race introduced some new twists. And by new twists, I mean they threw everything they could think of at the teams, all of which managed to dampen the race’s usually unflappable momentum and energy. It seemed to be a response to criticism… continue reading
Most of American Idol’s top 24 (not 20) identified
American Idol arrived at its top 24 last week, in an episode that will be shown Thursday, although Fox’s official listing says the group will be narrowed to 10 men and 10 women on that day. That means the show will have room to manufacture some drama and keep people who think they’re being cut…. continue reading
Why Amazing Race’s Kynt changed his name to Kent
When The Amazing Race 18‘s returning teams were officially announced, the press release identified the male half of the team known as Kent Cothron and Vyxsin Fiala as “Kent Kaliber,” and there was no explanation, so I wondered if he’d changed his name. But he was identified on-screen as Kent during the premiere, and that… continue reading
Amazing Race finally comes to HD along with teams we’ve already seen clearly enough
The Amazing Race‘s 18th season debuts tonight at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, and while its lame all-star twist doesn’t have me excited at all, I can’t wait to watch because we finally get to see the race in high definition. (And I will do my very best to go into episode one with an… continue reading
Watson, the Jeopardy-playing computer, appears on Survivor, Apprentice
After the IBM computer Watson’s victory on Jeopardy last week, Slate produced this satirical video that suggests Watson has had considerably more experience on game shows–and was on several reality TV shows, including Survivor and The Apprentice–before its Jeopardy appearance.
Russell Hantz’s e-mail messages to Jim Early published
Russell Hantz has firmly denied leaking information about his first two seasons of Survivor, but now the person he leaked to has sold e.mail message evidence to TMZ. TMZ published seven e.mail messages from Russell to Jim Early, which were sent between “hantztankering” (the name of Russell’s company) to “thegamesurvivor” (an alias of Jim Early)… continue reading
Behind-the-scenes footage of Muppets annoying Padma: awesome
One of the many highlights of reality television this last week was the Muppets guest judging the quickfire challenge on Top Chef All Stars, and it was particularly entertaining to watch them get on Padma Lakshmi’s nerves. Bravo has released behind-the-scenes footage as they adjust lighting and audio and Padma goes over her lines (from… continue reading
Jeff Probst sang Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” for Survivor cast, and other off-camera stuff
There was so much in episode one of Survivor Redemption Island that it is absolutely worth a second viewing, and a lot of it was just absurd and comic, like the way Phillip was identified as a “Former Federal Agent?”, question mark included. But there was at least one hilariously weird thing that happened off… continue reading