NeNe Leakes is leaving The Real Housewives of Atlanta, saying she has another prime-time TV show in the works. She’s been on the Bravo series for seven seasons and was the only original cast member still on RHOA. During that time, she did The Celebrity Apprentice and Dancing with the Stars, and was also on… continue reading
Archives for June 2015
NBC finally fires Donald Trump over his racist pandering
The Celebrity Apprentice star Donald Trump has been actually fired by NBC for his racist pandering. While there will be no more Apprentice with Trump, the show will go on. Earlier, Univision also effectively fired him by cancelling the Trump-owned Miss USA pageant. Specifically, he was dumped over his comments calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” during… continue reading
Survivor China’s Jean-Robert wins $784,828
Jean-Robert Bellande, a Survivor China contestant who was the eighth person voted out and a member of the jury, won $784,828 at the World Series of Poker’s Players Championship on Friday, coming in second. That’s significantly better than Survivor‘s second-place prize of $100,000. Jean-Robert lost at the final table to Mike Gorodinsky, who won $1.27 million…. continue reading
How The Last Alaskans stayed real
“It was a big risk for us. We just had to hope, but we really wanted to try to tell authentic stories.” That’s Animal Planet Media executive Keith Hoffman, talking about the network’s series The Last Alaskans, which is the most surprising and most spectacular reality television show I’ve seen in quite some time. It’s… continue reading
BB Takeover falls flat; Big Brother dominates, but 1 million bailed
Big Brother 17 was the most-watched Wednesday evening show and had what CBS said was “its largest audience for a premiere since July 12, 2012.” Yet a number of viewers stopped watching in the middle of the premiere. Perhaps that can be explained with what happened on Thursday, when the show introduced its first BB… continue reading
Life Below Zero’s Sue Aikens on the crash, her injuries, and more
Life Below Zero‘s 11th episode last week ended with Sue Aiken flying off her snowmachine, literally. It turns to the left, flips, and she flies through the air and tumbles into snow. Thursday’s season finale of the National Geographic Channel reality series deals with the aftermath, though the episode jumps ahead in time quickly. I… continue reading
A very familiar start for our 98 days of Big Brother entrapment
Imagine you arrived at party and the host greeted you with a warm welcome, and then threw a handful of confetti at you. As it fell to the floor, you looked around and realized: that’s it. That was the party. That’s how I felt after watching Big Brother 17‘s premiere, which quickly felt uninspired. It’s… continue reading
Howard Stern says he’s leaving America’s Got Talent
Howard Stern said this morning that he’s leaving America’s Got Talent, the NBC show he’s judged since season seven in 2012. He revealed that on his radio show, saying he’ll be doing another TV show of some kind. On the show this morning, @HowardStern pretty much definitively said he’s not going to do AGT next… continue reading
Confessions of a Big Brother live feed watcher
In this edition of The Confessional, the long-time Big Brother feed-watcher behind Hamsterwatch discusses why she does what she does alongside the “great big club of like-minded voyeurs.” The 17th season of Big Brother USA starts tonight, and the live 24/7 feeds that set it apart from all other shows begin tomorrow. For many, watching… continue reading
Big Brother winner Dan Gheesling has a lot to teach you
Dan Gheesling won Big Brother 10 with the first-ever unanimous vote, and he came in second on Big Brother 14. And now he can help you do what he did: go from normal person to high-profile reality show cast member. I recently spent time talking with Dan about his web site and business, How to… continue reading
The 11 teams on The Amazing Race 27
After the public start of The Amazing Race this morning, CBS announced the 11 teams that are currently racing around the world. If you’d like Amazing Race 27 spoilers as the teams travel, follow the sleuths at Reality Fan Forum. The show seems to have abandoned the blind date twist from last season (for now),… continue reading
There were three medical evacuations on Survivor 32
Three people were medically evacuated from Survivor 32, the season of the CBS show that filmed this spring and will air next spring. (Season 31, Survivor Second Chance, is currently filming.) That’s according to executive producer Mark Burnett, who said that during The Hollywood Reporter’s Emmy roundtable. In a question about contestants are ever pushed… continue reading
BattleBots smashes its way back to TV and into my heart
It took nine minutes for the metal to start flying on ABC’s revival of BattleBots, but once it did, it was as awesome as I remember. In a battle that appeared terribly mismatched, a brightly painted lawnmower blade against what seemed like a more sophisticated robot, the destruction started immediately, as the lawnmower, IceWave, tore through… continue reading
Amazing Race 27 teams revealed at start line Monday morning
The Amazing Race will have its second public start Monday morning, as the 27th season begins in southern California. The new season will begin at 8 a.m. ET at the Venice Beach graffiti art wall, when the teams take off–probably for LAX–and when The Amazing Race 27 spoilers begin. The show invited fans to show… continue reading
The shocking way I Wanna Marry Harry manipulated its cast
Last year’s failed Fox series I Wanna Marry Harry pretended that the star of its Bachelor-like competition was British royalty. While it’s not surprising that such a tired, dumb premise failed to draw viewers, what happened during production of the series is truly shocking. It’s manipulation of epic proportions. The series’ winner, Kimberly Birch, told… continue reading
The long history of transgender people on reality TV shows
On Tuesday, we learned that one of the cast members of Big Brother 17 is a transgender woman. This seemed groundbreaking both for broadcast reality TV and for the CBS show, which has a relatively narrow casting profile (i.e. it nearly always casts the exact same types of people). But the truth is: there have… continue reading
Weekly twists and guests is Big Brother’s new twist: BB Takeover
Big Brother 17 announced its twist today, and the twist is that the show will have weekly twists and “weekly surprise guests” to introduce those twists. The show is calling this “BB Takeover.” Here’s how CBS describes it: “This summer’s ‘BB Takeover’ twist will feature a surprise guest each week who will appear on the… continue reading
Why three restaurant owners took a risk and changed food reality TV
When Bravo debuted Top Chef, it altered the landscape of food television, showing that true culinary skills could be showcased and challenged in a competitive reality TV environment. More than a decade later, another non-food-focused network has changed food reality television again: CNBC, which is in the middle of airing Consumed: The Real Restaurant Business,… continue reading
Trump may be out of Apprentice thanks to his latest run for attention
Donald Trump announced today that he’s running for attention once again, and NBC suggested the network will stick with The Celebrity Apprentice even if Trump isn’t involved. You may recall that we’ve been through this before. Full orange-faced as usual, Trump announced he’s running for president as a Republican, saying, “We are going to make… continue reading
Married at First Sight producers’ statement on Jessica, Ryan D., and rumors
The producers of Married at First Sight have released their first comment about the order of protection and death threats that appear to have ended Ryan DeNino and Jessica Castro’s relationship. When I first wrote about this, I asked Kinetic Content specific questions, and am still working to get answers on those specifics. (I also asked A&E for comment… continue reading