Simon Cowell has confirmed the judges for The X Factor, kind of. Besides himself and previously announced judge L.A. Reid, they are Paula Abdul and Cheryl Cole. If this holds up, it basically means that months of leaks and reports in trade and gossip press have been pointless, because Paula was rumored to judge 18 …
The Celebrity Apprentice was a bit slower than usual last night, perhaps because of the lack of Gary Busey, and perhaps because of an uninspired challenge that involved Donald Trump’s own brand that didn’t give the teams much to do. But it paid off in the boardroom, when NeNe Leakes turned on La Toya Jackson …
We have two episodes and three hours left on The Amazing Race 18, and I’m ready to break up with the show. But I will give it three more hours and hope that it redeems itself. But last night’s episode was more of the same: obnoxious product placement instead of actual content at the beginning, …
Animal Planet should be commended for the ambition of Taking on Tyson: a beautifully shot series about Mike Tyson’s actual, real-life love for pigeons. Unfortunately, the series was boring, sometimes excruciatingly so, never mind repetitive, and its six hours should have been condensed into one 90-minute documentary. The fact that this quasi-review is being published …
Bravo is not producing versions of The Real Housewives in Arizona or Las Vegas, but although Andy Cohen said the network is “done” creating spin-offs, he has backed away from that. But Cohen wrote on Twitter, “Bravo is not shooting or casting for Vegas or Arizona Housewives. It is not true and we have no …
HBO debuted its film about the creation of An American Family, but the series’ producer has called the film’s plot fiction–and as usual, reality is more interesting and complicated. While the performances in Cinema Verite were strong, and the actors looked surprisingly like their real-life counterparts, I was somewhat disappointed by the film, which was …
Besides captivating and shocking the viewing public, An American Family inspired The Real World almost 20 years later, and gave birth to what we now know of as reality TV.
God is busy on reality shows lately. Besides all of his work to keep Matt on Survivor Redemption Island against Matt’s will, God is now deciding whether Jennifer Lopez will return to American Idol for its 11th season next year. That’s because, unlike Steven Tyler, she is only signed for one year, and she’s now …
Six years ago, Bethenny Frankel first came to our attention as a contestant on Martha Stewart’s version of The Apprentice. Three years ago, she first showed up as a cast member on The Real Housewives, which both she and Bravo each almost rejected. Today, Bethenny has taken her fame from the Bravo series and turned …
On Survivor Redemption Island, Matt and Mike may have won the first three-way duel, making its loser, Dave, the first member of the jury, and Julie may have been voted off, but the episode was entirely about Phillip, the former federal agent whose spiral into odd behavior reached a new low tonight, when he turned …
The reality series starring a bunch of unlikeable reality stars has been revealed, and despite the fact that it stars Danielle Staub, Jake Pavelka, and Heidi Montag, it is not about reviled reality TV show villains. Instead, those cast members will be opening a restaurant in West Hollywood together for VH1’s Famous Food, a show …
Paul McDonald’s exit last week on American Idol marked the first exit of a male from the finals this season, unless you count Casey Abrams, who was saved by the judges. But considering that and the fact that a woman hasn’t won in three seasons, the show’s producers are considering adjusting the vote somehow to …
Tim Hetherington, who filmed the Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo, was killed today while photographing the conflict in Libya. He was 41. He had been actively posting to Twitter, and yesterday, wrote, “In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO.” Human Rights Watch’s Peter N. Bouckaert told Vanity Fair, “Tim …
Reports that Brad Womack and Emily Maynard have broken up have persisted since their season of The Bachelor ended, and they revealed that they’d nearly broke up. Now, a new report says they broke up earlier this month, but ABC is contractually forcing Emily to not discuss that, thus keeping intact the illusion of love …
Last month, eight of the 10 shows with the most product placement were reality TV shows. This is unsurprising, but it is surprising is that the product placement in the shows with the most brand mentions were actually less obvious than shows with significantly fewer instances of product-whoring. American Idol had 208 brand mentions, while …
