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reality check

Eric Idle rejects DWTS; Top Chef renewal; Honey Boo Boo cash surprise; Anderson Cooper hates Bachelor; baby game show

by Andy Dehnart 15 Feb. 2013 | 5:08 pm

  • Say what you will about Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and its cast members–I certainly have–but June Shannon and her husband are really smart about what they’ve done with their new fortune: locked it in trust funds for their kids who can’t access it until they’re 21, so they live off of Sugar Bear’s salary, just as they did pre-fame.
  • Eric Idle rejected Dancing with the Stars and mocked the show for asking him: “When they get to me have they become desperate?”
  • I Love Jenni, the reality show on mun2 featuring pop singer Jenni Rivera, will return for a third season despite her death; the show will include episodes filmed before she died and the aftermath of her death.
  • ABC has ordered eight episodes of a series called Bet On Your Baby, which is exactly as disturbing as it sounds: “a new primetime game show in which parents try to predict their child’s next move in an effort to win money for their child’s future education.”
  • Top Chef was renewed for an 11th season and it’s now casting.
  • Andersoon Cooper hates The Bachelor, saying it’s “fake” and suggesting some of the bachelors may be closeted gay men.
  • Doomsday Preppers featured a quasi-Bachelor episode with a prepper dating women to find out which one of them he wanted to store in his relationship bunker. Watch the clip in which he discusses his “underground fortress” with a date.
  • A gay porn site featuring “broke” “straight” men is going reality TV. Fleshbot reports it “is producing a mainstream television show that operates similarly to Big Brother, though judging by its name, we assume hot gay sex will be rampant if not required.” However, its trailer went online last summer, and there’s no word about what “mainstream” TV network might air such a show. You can apparently still apply even if you’re not broke, gay, or straight; you just have to be 21 to 28.
  • A new web series called The GoGo Life describes itself as “the life of the Dj, the life of the GoGo Dancer, and the life of electronic dance music.”
  • In a profile of Ryan Seacrest Productions’ CEO, Adam Sher, he threatens that we may someday get shows staring the Kardashian women’s future kids.
  • Teen birth rates are at an all-time low, and the most recent data shows that they “fell 8 percent in a single year, from 2010 to 2011.” Guess what else happened that year? Teen Mom started airing on MTV (though technically it began in December of 2009). Coincidence?
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    about Andy Dehnart

    Andy Dehnart’s writing and criticism about television, culture, and media has appeared on NPR and in Vulture, Pacific Standard, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications. He has covered reality television for more than 18 years, and created reality blurred in 2000.

    A member of the Television Critics Association who serves on its board of directors, Andy, 41, also directs the journalism program at Stetson University in Florida, where he teaches creative nonfiction and journalism. He has an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing and literature from Bennington College. Learn more about reality blurred and Andy.

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    about reality blurred

    reality blurred is your guide to the world of reality TV and unscripted entertainment, with reality show reviews, news, and analysis. It was created in 2000 by Andy Dehnart. He's still writing and publishing it today.

    reality blurred is regularly updated with highlights from the world of reality TV: news and analysis; behind-the-scenes reports; interviews with reality TV show cast members and producers; and recaps and reviews of these reality TV shows, including Survivor, Big Brother, The Great British Baking Show, Shark Tank, The Amazing Race, The Bachelor, Project Runway, Dancing with the Stars, Top Chef, and many more.

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