Reality TV show reviews

A review of ABC’s Shark Tank season one, which improves on the UK’s Dragon’s Den with its thrilling negotiations, but still needs a better name.

Bravo’s streak of docudramas about people we love to loathe continues with NYC Prep, a series that follows several prep school kids that doesn’t have much going on except the exploration of one character’s sexuality. Still, it’s perfectly enjoyable, especially as a summer show. The series is basically a teenage version of The Real Housewives …

A high-tension thriller in which activists fight against whalers and their own inexperience.

Recently, Animal Planet borrowed from Bravo’s industry-specific reality competition playbook and debuted Groomer Has It, in which dog groomers face off. It airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET, perhaps because it’s more likely viewers will be drunk while watching it, and that really would improve the show. It’s really a mess, and lands just this …

Tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET, MTV debuts The Paper, a reality series that follows the staff of The Circuit, the student newspaper at the country’s largest high school, Cypress Bay High School in Broward County, Fla. As a former high school journalist and editor, I was psyched when MTV first announced the series, and was …

The two-hour finale of VH1’s Celebrity Rehab officially debuts tonight at 9 p.m. ET, when the celebrities go on an Outward Bound experience together before leaving rehab. A mini-marathon precedes that, starting at 6. I’ve found the show to be exceptionally compelling–and the best new reality show of 2008. The problem is that because there’s …

Project Runway 2 concludes tonight at 10 p.m. ET, when either Chloe, Daniel, or Santino will win the competition, perhaps only to turn down the show’s prize just like last season’s winner. As the episode begins, we’ll see how each designer handles the last-minute challenge they were given: to design and construct one more piece …