Billionaire Tim Draper, the founder of Draper University and one of the stars of ABC Family’s Startup U, is offering $1 million to charity if 1 million people watch the show this week. Draper wrote on Facebook: Tell all your friends to watch StartupU Tuesday at 10:00 on ABC Family. I will give away $1 million to charities… continue reading
Archives for August 2015
In Alaska, President Obama will film an episode of an NBC reality series
While he’s in Alaska for the next three days, President Barack Obama will film an episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls that will air later this year. This is the first time a sitting United States president will appear as a participant on a reality series, and comes six years after he told kids… continue reading
Todrick Hall returns to TV, showing how his viral videos come to life
Five years ago, Todrick Hall was a finalist on American Idol who made it to the top 16 before being eliminated. Since then, many of the videos he writes, choreographs, and performs in have been watched well over 10 million times—including his safety information video for Virgin America, which features performances and work by a… continue reading
How a TV show may disrupt elephant poaching
What do a 2012 viral video, ivory carvings, terrorism, and investigative journalism have in common? They all come together in Warlords of Ivory, the first episode of the relaunch of National Geographic’s Explorer. In the one-hour episode, which premieres Sunday at 8 p.m. ET, National Geographic magazine chief correspondent and special investigations unit founder Bryan… continue reading
The first-ever Shweekend arrives, but how did Shark Week do?
Shark Week 2015 encores this weekend with Discovery Channel’s first-ever Shweekend. It’s three new specials—MythBusters vs. Jaws (Saturday at 9), Shark Alley: Legend of Dynamite (Saturday at 10), and Air Jaws: Walking With Great Whites (Sunday at 9)—plus repeats and marathons all day long. But how did Shark Week do earlier this summer? Did the… continue reading
This is not your childhood’s National Geographic Explorer
As a child of the 1980s, The National Geographic Explorer theme song by Elmer Bernstein (listen here) is burned into my mind. The show debuted in 1985, and I cannot clearly recall any of the specific shows, nor did I remember that it actually aired on Nickelodeon at first, but that was a channel I… continue reading
The average age of a Survivor player, and how that’s changed
A few weeks ago, I analyzed the ages of all Big Brother houseguests over 17 seasons, to see if CBS’ summer reality competition was getting younger. Now, it’s time to do the same for contestants on Survivor, which has aired two seasons a year since 2000. reality blurred Survivor age correspondent Clark Wilcox ran the… continue reading
A constantly updated list of the Dancing with the Stars 21 cast
Dancing with the Stars 21‘s celebrity cast is being trickled out on Good Morning America this week, and via publications that either have exclusives or are actually reporting. Most of the pros have been already been revealed. Most notable so far are two names E! has reported: Chaka Khan, the Grammy-award winning singer and songwriter,… continue reading
This is the funniest/scariest make-up in Face Off history
A very interesting Face Off challenge led to the most disastrously comic makeups that I can remember. Pairs of artists randomly chose a gate, and created both the gatekeeper and the creature being guarded by the gatekeeper. (The foundation challenge—creating characters using Rorschach inkblots as inspiration—was also inspired.) Jason described his gatekeeper character as “a… continue reading
The mystery of Alison Sweeney’s exit as Biggest Loser host
Alison Sweeney, who has hosted of NBC’s The Biggest Loser since season four, is leaving the show after eight years of watching that fake scale. (Sweeney replaced Caroline Rhea, who hosted seasons one to three.) NBC’s brief statement, delivered via its tabloid newsmagazine Access Hollywood, said only: “After an incredible run together, Alison Sweeney will… continue reading
All the Survivor Cambodia Second Chance details, twists, and tribes
Details about Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance‘s twists and cast flooded on to the Internet today, a month ahead of the series’ debut, as CBS lifted its embargo for the people who were on location back in May and who do not work for EW. Most of the details come from host and executive producer Jeff… continue reading
Below Deck Captain Lee Rosbach on how real Bravo’s show is
Most of Bravo’s programming has become versions of The Real Housewives, with rich people acting like assholes for our entertainment, and its series Below Deck is no exception. It’s The Real Housewives on a yacht, with the same requisite drama. But there are two major differences: One is that this is an actual yacht and the cast… continue reading
Survivor immunity idols, now with less hiding, more confusion
Survivor Second Chance will introduce two major changes to hidden immunity idols: they will no longer be hidden, and they will all look different. Instead, the idols will be in public locations at challenges, though clues will still be hidden at camp to point out the idols’ locations. Jeff Probst revealed this twist on location… continue reading
Camp Cutthroat’s “secret” filming location was used by this Fox show
At the start of the Cutthroat Kitchen spinoff Camp Cutthroat, Alton Brown, wearing a red beret and shorts, stood in front of the first three returning chefs. “You cutthroat veterans are some of the first outsiders to set feet inside those gates,” he told them. That was not quite true, because those gates previously belonged to… continue reading
Julie Chen reveals who CBS wanted to host Big Brother, and much more
Julie Chen is the one part of Big Brother that has remained the same since season one. Everything else—the game, the house, the producers, the contestants, the sidekicks (oh, Dr. Drew)—has changed. She’s the familiar glue that holds this dysfunctional show together. Julie has, yes, evolved, though not into early Jeff Probst (asking the real… continue reading
Len Goodman out of Dancing with the Stars 21, won’t be replaced
Head judge Len Goodman is out of Dancing with the Stars for its 21st season, and there will not be a permanent replacement for him in the ballroom. Julianna Hough will return for her third season as a judge, so the show will be back to three permanent judges. That’s certainly enough, especially when they have… continue reading
A preview of Ghost Hunters’ 10th season premiere
Ghost Hunters returns to Syfy on Wednesday for the debut of its 10th season, and reality blurred has a first look at one of the investigations/ghosts/thing that might be a ghost/not actually a ghost. The first of the 18 locations TAPS will visit this season is a Kentucky distillery that produces 101 proof bourbon, among… continue reading
Social media mogul Frankie Grande’s followers didn’t follow him to TV
Renowned “social media mogul” Frankie Grande’s one-off special WORST.POST.EVER with Frankie Grande—even the stylized title is annoying!—debuted on Oxygen Tuesday night, and it bombed. 180,000 people watched the half-hour special, according to Nielsen numbers. Those aren’t quite the worst ratings ever, but they are also not good. The show that preceded it, Bad Girls Club,… continue reading
Preview Alone’s finale, as two men battle the elements and themselves
Only two people remain in a competition for $500,000, but this is not Big Brother: it is History’s Alone, which concludes its first season tonight. Thus the competitors aren’t interacting with each other or even with camera crews; as the title suggests, they are entirely alone. That prize is rather large for a reality series, especially… continue reading
Who are the puppeteers behind AGT’s Ira the puppet and his mom?
Only 450 votes helped to save a puppet act on America’s Got Talent: Ira and his mother Miriam Fennelbloom were saved by the Dunkin Donuts Google search live vote, which is actually a thing. America’s Got Talent has committed to Ira and Miriam as puppets; even their intro packages are shot as if Ira and… continue reading