A&E’s smash hit Duck Dynasty returned last night for its third season and destroyed its competition, both on cable and broadcast TV. The network said that it is now “the #1 nonfiction series on cable in 2013” and the “season three premiere grew by 132% in total viewers, 117% in adults 25-54 and 127% in… continue reading
Archives for February 2013
Top Chef: terrific winner; terrible, suspense-free finale; weak season
Top Chef Seattle became a bizarre combination of Hell’s Kitchen, Iron Chef, and American Idol for its finale, concluding its “back to basics” season by crowning its second female winner after a misguided, suspense-free live competition. First, I’m thrilled Kristen Kish won, defeating Brooke Williamson, although Brooke would have been a deserving winner, too. Kristen… continue reading
Is this Survivor’s worst-cast season ever?
Last night’s Survivor was one of the most grating episodes I can remember, and even worse, its obnoxiousness quotient remained unchanged after Tribal Council. There was just very little pleasantness, and worse, the unpleasantness was the exact same thing we’ve seen for two weeks now: Reynold acting like an entitled, pompous ass, telling the rest… continue reading
Sea Shepherd declared “pirates” days after boats collide in Southern Ocean
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has declared Sea Shepherd “pirates” and ordered them to stay away from Japanese whaling vessels two days after a Sea Shepherd boat collided with Japanese boats. Sea Shepherd had been previously ordered by that court to stay 500 yards from Japanese vessels. The court reversed a lower court’s decision… continue reading
Canada’s Big Brother debuts: good luck, Canadians
At long last, Canada gets its own Big Brother tonight. Having been forced to suffer through the U.S. version for the past 12 years, Canada finally gets a chance to loathe its own citizens and producers as Slice debuts its version that will consume hours and hours of breatheless viewing yet leave its viewers with… continue reading
Reality TV tries to stop poaching of rhinos and elephants
Two nonfiction programs, a documentary and a three-part series, focus on saving endangered animals in Africa: Animal Planet’s Battleground: Rhino Wars and PBS’ broadcast of the National Geographic special Battle for the Elephants. Tonight’s one-hour special is based on an article in National Geographic magazine, “Blood Ivory” by Bryan Christy, which looks at how religiosity… continue reading
Dancing with the Who? Really? cast announced
The cast of Dancing with the Stars has been announced, and it’s the usual mix of “who?” (Disney Channel star) and “really?” (Andy Dick). Most interesting is that just 11 cast members were announced today, and the show usually has 12 or 13; Reality Steve is insisting that Bachelor star Sean Lowe will be the… continue reading
Finding Bigfoot’s biggest surprise
Two cast members from Animal Planet’s Finding Bigfoot answered questions and signed autographs for the more than 100 people who’d come to see them at Stetson University last night, where I teach. I’d talked with the cast at a press event last summer, and when they mentioned they enjoyed talking with student groups, I suggested… continue reading
Oscar-winning documentary short funded on Kickstarter, feature inspired by 1997 article
Oscar-winning documentary short Inocente raised more than $50,000 via Kickstarter to help finish the film, while the Oscar-winning feature-length documentary Searching for Sugar Man was inspired by a 1997 magazine article. Craig Strydom’s article for Directions magazine told the story of his search for Sixto Rodriguez, a folk musician who disappeared from the public eye… continue reading
Reality TV camera operator, director John Driftmier killed in plane crash
John Driftmier, who worked as a director of photography and director on reality shows such as Discovery Canada’s Dangerous Flights, was killed Sunday along with the pilot of a plane when it crashed in Kenya. He was 30. Discovery Canada’s president and GM Paul Lewis said in a statement, “The Canadian production community has lost… continue reading
The Biggest Loser is the biggest thing on loser NBC
NBC’s ratings failure during February sweeps are detailed in a New York Times article that is best summed up in this one sentence: “no episode of any show on NBC in February came within one million viewers of a show on PBS: Downton Abbey.” NBC is doing so terribly that it was well behind Univision,… continue reading
The best Hoarders parodies
Hoarders is off the air–possibly forever–but its legacy lives on in many, many parodies that have been created over the three and a half years since it debuted. Most fail to capture the essence of the series, or even to demonstrate that its creators paid attention when watching (the therapist never appears on camera before… continue reading
Kim Kardashian quitting reality TV? CBS fires Mark Burnett’s The Job’; Big Brother pregnancy
Apocalypse alert: Kim Kardashian said she’ll quit after season nine of Keeping up with the Kardashians because “I’m ready to be a little less open about some things, like my relationships. I’m realizing everyone doesn’t need to know everything.” However, she later kind of backtracked in a blog post, though she didn’t deny saying it… continue reading
Mel B will judge NBC’s summer mess America’s Got Talent
Mel B, aka Scary Spice, will join the judging panel of NBC’s America’s Got Talent this summer, sitting alongside Howie Mandel and Howard Stern, who announced he’d return late last year. Mel B previously judged The X Factor in Australia, competed on the US’ Dancing with the Stars, and hosted Australia’s version of the dance… continue reading
Survivor: bulging tight pants edition
While last season of Survivor was an excellent example of how seasons featuring returnees can work well, last night’s episode of Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs. Favorites II: The Return of Malcolm was an excellent example of the potential problems. Despite this being an episode with just one challenge, there was very little character development from… continue reading
“Explosive,” “volatile,” “psychological, sexual warfare”: The Real World Portland
MTV today announced the cast of The Real World Portland, which has been known since last fall, and both trailers and a press release make it clear that the show is continuing to be cable TV’s preeminent cocktail of alcohol, sex, and violence. Perhaps the only new thing is that the cast includes a dog,… continue reading
Neil Patrick Harris in for 10-day Celebrity Survivor, Jeff Probst looking for “truly great cast”
Actor Neil Patrick Harris is in for a celebrity season of Survivor, and now Jeff Probst is actively challenging other celebrities to sign on, convinced that CBS will say yes if they can assemble a strong cast. (I think a celebrity season is a great idea.) Probst floated this idea a year ago, though then… continue reading
Proof Restaurant Stakeout uses actors to play servers
There isn’t really a need to prove that Food Network’s awful reality series Restaurant Stakeout is a fraud: it oozes inauthenticity in every frame, and people featured on the show have described how fake it is. But here is hard evidence of its fakeness: a casting notice “seeking male or female to play waiter at… continue reading
Joe Schmo is as good as the original, despite having too much anxiety
Nostalgia is dangerous in reality television. So much of our relationship to great shows over the past 13 years–or 21 years–has been because a show has been new and surprising, and hit all the right notes for that moment. That was definitely the case with The Joe Schmo Show, which had a brilliant first season… continue reading
Why you should be watching Inside Combat Rescue
National Geographic Channel’s Inside Combat Rescue is the next great cable documentary-style reality series. I’m confident saying that even just one of its first of six episodes, which debuted last night (it airs Mondays at 10). From the incredible cinematography to the illustration of the reality of our military’s work in Afghanistan, this is an… continue reading