The star of A&E’s Billy the Exterminator, William Bretherton, and his wife, Mary, were arrested Friday for possession of synthetic marijuana. They bonded out of jail following their arrest. The Shreveport Times reports that they were charged “with one count each of possession of a Schedule I Controlled Dangerous Substance (synthetic marijuana) and possession of… continue reading
Russell Hantz’s A&E series delayed, moved to Saturdays
The debut of Flipped Off, Russell Hantz’s A&E series about house-flipping, has been delayed until later this month, and the show will now air on Saturday nights. It was supposed to debut today, in the Monday at 10 p.m. timeslot usually held by Intervention, where A&E is instead airing a repeat of Beyond Scared Straight…. continue reading
Flipped Off, Russell Hantz’s A&E show, has a debut date
A&E’s Russell Hantz house-flipping series has a new name, Flipped Off, and debut date: April 9. And it also has cast members other than Russell, including his brother, Shawn, and “beautiful and savvy real estate agent, Kristen, … who isn’t afraid to slap some sense into the Hantz brothers when their egos get in the… continue reading
A&E sells its soul by giving Russell Hantz his own house-flipping series
A&E, the network that has brought us exceptional, high-quality reality television such as Hoarders and Teach: Tony Danza, has sold out by giving Survivor pest Russell Hantz his own show about house flipping that even has a title that’s a bad knock-off of Bravo’s Flipping Out. Flipped “follows ‘Survivor’ Russell Hantz, a ‘flipper’ himself, along… continue reading
Arnold Shapiro defends Beyond Scared Straight’s programs against criticism
A&E’s Scared Straight concludes its first season next Thursday, having debuted to record ratings in mid-January. Following the show’s debut, there was controversy: two of the three states featured on the show have suspended their programs, and the show and the programs it features have been criticized. The series, which takes at-risk teenagers into prisons… continue reading
Beyond Scared Straight’s screaming inmates draw a record number of viewers
A&E and Arnold Shapiro’s new reality series Beyond Scared Straight, which follows kids kids got in trouble as they go prison to get the shit scared out of them by actual inmates, became the network’s most-watched new series ever. It’s based on the Oscar-winning 1973 documentary. An average of 3.7 million people tuned in on… continue reading
Ryan Buell leaving Paranormal State beacuse “we need some freedom to be and to grow”
The A&E reality series Paranormal State will lose its star and subject after five seasons of following Ryan Buell and his Pennsylvania State University Paranormal Research Society after Ryan announced he was quitting the show. However, the future of the series is unclear; an A&E representative told me that there is no official word yet… continue reading
Addicts who Relapse will be focus of new A&E series from Intervention producers
A&E has ordered another series focusing on addicts: Relapse, which focuses on coaches who work with addicts to help them through relapses. It’s produced by Intervention‘s producers but isn’t a spin-off, though it certainly is thematically related to that show and to Hoarders, which also focuses on mentally ill people getting help. In its announcement,… continue reading
A&E pulls The Hasselhoffs as Americans tell the UK: you can have David Hasselhoff
After airing just two half-hour episodes, A&E has pulled The Hasselhoffs off the air, after getting evidence that we are no longer crazy for David Hasselhoff. He was voted off Dancing with the Stars first, shocking producers but no one else; he hasn’t been missed on America’s Got Talent, where Howie Mandel fits in perfectly;… continue reading
A&E burning off Tony Danza’s Teach after it loses viewers
A&E is burning off the remaining four episodes of Teach: Tony Danza by doubling down this week and next, and thus ending the series next Friday night instead of in mid-November. That’s because the show has lost viewers over its run. The Futon Critic reports that the series debuted with “a modest 937,000 viewers (and… continue reading
Paranormal State returns after its star came out as bisexual
A&E Paranormal State, one of the roughly 215,933 ghost hunting reality series currently on cable, returns for its fifth season Sunday. The series follows the Pennsylvania State University Paranormal Research Society, and its founder and series star Ryan Buell recently came out as bisexual in his book. In Paranormal State: My Journey into the Unknown,… continue reading
Tony Danza’s A&E series Teach is the opposite of the joke we expected it would be
When I first heard about A&E’s plan to air a reality series starring Who’s the Boss star and The Contender 4 host Tony Danza that followed him as he taught high school English for a year, I was skeptical and suggested it might be a colossal joke. As it turns out, Teach, which debuts tonight… continue reading
A&E’s Intervention has a 71% success rate
Of the addicts who have appeared on A&E’s Intervention, 71 percent are still sober: 130 out of 161, The Daily Beast reports, which calls that rate “astonishingly high.” That’s attributed in part to the fact that the show’s “researchers spend an average of two weeks compiling a psychological profile of the addict that’s then reviewed… continue reading
Detroit mayor bans reality TV crews after girl’s death
Detroit’s mayor has banned reality TV crews from following its police after a crew filmed a raid that killed a child. Mayor Dave Bing’s spokesperson Karen Dumas told the Detroit News that having them there “gives the wrong appearance … We don’t want to convolute the process.” However, she said local media will be able… continue reading
A&E’s The First 48 filmed raid that killed 7-year-old girl
The police raid that resulted in the death of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones in Detroit last weekend was filmed by a crew for A&E’s reality series The First 48. The show “was filming during the incident” and “is cooperating with police in the probe, and investigators have examined the footage taken by the crew at the… continue reading
Sex slave lawsuit filed against Steven Seagal stops taping A&E’s Steven Seagal Lawman
Because of a lawsuit alleging Steven Seagal held an employee against her will as a “sex toy” and sexually assaulted her, production has been stopped on a second season of A&E’s Steven Seagal Lawman, which follows the actor in his job as a reserve deputy sheriff and earned record ratings for the network. Jefferson Parish… continue reading
Corey Haim dead of an overdose; starred in A&E series Two Coreys with Corey Feldman
Actor Corey Haim, who starred in 1980s films and a 2007 A&E reality series, “died at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday of an apparent accidental overdose, police said,” according to KTLA. He was 38. Along with his friend Corey Feldman, Haim was part of the quasi-scripted reality series The Two Coreys, which aired two seasons in 2007… continue reading
David Hasselhoff will be a “stage dad” on his new A&E series
David Hasselhoff quit as a judge on America’s Got Talent for his own A&E reality series, which was officially announced late yesterday. A&E says the series “will take a behind-the-scenes look into the life of ‘The Hoff’ focusing on his multiple entertainment and business endeavors, as well as his most important role as a single… continue reading
Steven Seagal Lawman, Hoarders set debut ratings records for A&E; time for a crossover?
Last night, A&E debuted Steven Seagal Lawman–the law is so much a part of who he is, his title doesn’t even need a colon–and 3.5 million viewers watched, making it “the most-watched original series launch in the network’s history among all key demos,” A&E said in a press release. The first two half-hour episodes, with… continue reading
A&E previewing Steven Seagal: Lawman online tonight; “this is not Hollywood; it’s for real”
The most anticipated celebrity-doing-a-job-that-seems-wildly-inappropriate-yet-somehow-perfect series has to be A&E’s Steven Seagal: Lawman, although he faces heavy competition from Tony Danza teaching high school English for his A&E series. Anyway, the network is previewing Seagal’s series tonight online, competing with prime-time TV on the east coast by showing the first episode two weeks before its Dec…. continue reading