MetaFilter posts tagged with realityTV

To strive, to seek, to find and NOT to yield!

njbradburn — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 07:03:04 -0800

Blago to face "fun and comedic challenges" in a reluctant celeb reality show Thank God for Rod Blagojevich. The Energizer buny of political buffoonery. This must have been what he was referring to when he quoted Tennyson in that press conference. Cuz it surely didn't make sense then.

15 Minutes of Infamy

ericb — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 10:52:29 -0800

After appearing last month on the ABC reality television show 'Wife Swap,' "San Francisco resident Stephen Fowler was forced to resign from the boards of two nonprofits, allegedly received e-mailed death threats and stood on the sidelines as his wife, Renee Stephens, issued a public statement condemning his behavior and asking him to get 'professional help.'...Thanks to online TV and easy access to private information, Fowler's 15 minutes of fame have snowballed beyond his control." "What has generated such wrath is Fowler's condescending treatment of Gayla Long, a mother of four from rural Missouri....In wince-producing remarks, Fowler, who is British, wrote off middle America with such pronouncements as 'Your two languages seem to be bad English and redneck.'" Video highlights - 1, 2. Fowler has since apologized publicly on his wife's blog for his behavior.

StephenFowlerSucks.com ABC News report. Fox News report. Yahoo!TV -- Husbands Behaving Badly. 'Wife Swap' Long\Stephens-Fowler Full Episode: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

WONDERGLEN!

Navelgazer — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:32:51 -0800

Enter the wonderful world of Wonderglen Productions

Jon & Kate Plus 8: raising twins and sextuplets on reality TV

jaimev — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:45:19 -0800

You're a couple in your 20s, with twin girls. Desiring to have just one more child, your fertility treatments result in sextuplets. You are the Gosselin family and your reality TV show is about to start a 4th season. You have your admirers and of course, cri tics.

they're more like can openers than iron chefs

heeeraldo — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:47:37 -0800

"Iron Chef America is more bogus than even I had imagined." Iron Chef America is a strange beast. The trans-Pacific knockoff of a beloved and quirky Japanese cooking game show (wikipedia) didn't have a very successful first attempt at localization. The current incarnation seems to have ironed out many of the original kinks, even though it seemed like something wasn't quite right. previously discussed on MeFi: 1, 2, 3 (also mentioned above), and 4. [via Serious Eats]

I don't care if you cry and cut, but you better cry and cut.

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:18:16 -0800

The Near-Fame Experience: A fascinating interview with former contestants of Bravo reality television shows Project Runway and Top Chef, presenting the fickle nature of fame and how it can come at significant professional and personal cost, if at all.

Fauxhawk or faux character?

MythMaker — Thu, 24 May 2007 17:27:03 -0800

Was American Idol's Sanjaya a fraud? Graduate art student Bill Vendall claims that he created the American Idol character "Sanjaya" as an art project. He claims the character is "a symbol for the self referencing nature of progressive evolution." This is being debated around the internets.

Win In China!

Burhanistan — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 08:32:21 -0800

Win in China! A "reality" TV show in China where young would be entrepreneurs compete for a large pile of startup cash to actualize their business ideas. Not everyone is happy about the glorification of capitalism, of course, and one losing contestant may have committed suicide, but overall reaction in China to the show seems positive. Video clips here (also a full length article by the Atlantic if you have a paid subscription).

War on Everything

augustweed — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:53:00 -0800

The Chasers reveal the irrelevant of many surveillance cameras and the ignorance of many Americans by declaring War on Everything.

Is Tyra A Workplace Tyrant?

jonp72 — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 09:07:47 -0800

America's Next Top Picket Line Writers from America's Next Top Model have gone on strike after the Writers Guild of America West began a campaign to unionize reality TV. How many strikes do you know have their own MySpace page, Television without Pity interview, and a model "working it" on the picket line? Ironically, a previous 1988 writers' strike encouraged the current boom in reality TV, as this article argues.

Meow Meow Meow Meow [ad infinitum]

milquetoast — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 16:23:03 -0800

Ten contestants. Ten days. They all grew up in shelters -- but one of them will claw his or her way to the top. It's the Meow Mix House, where ten cats will vie to become Meow Mix's Feline Vice President of Research and Development. (And, win or lose, they will all be adopted by families.) The webcams. [ article || via ]

Sex, check. Drugs, check. What, no rock & roll?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 15:39:38 -0800

Today in the Netherlands, public broadcaster BNN aired the first episode of sex- and drug-themed television show "Spuiten en Slikken"; the punning title translates to either "Shoot Up & Pop (Pills)" or "Squirt & Swallow". [more inside]

Amelie Nothomb's "Sulphuric Acid"

matteo — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 10:24:53 -0800

Novelist posits Shoah as reality TV show. In her new book titled ’Sulphuric Acid’ published in France, the successful Belgian author Amelie Nothomb describes a “concentration camp reality show”. It's the story of a reality show called “Concentration”. There are ’candidates’ which are arrested in roundups, tattooed and guarded before they are executed one by one following a vote by the spectators.

Blogger Twins on The Amazing Race

riffola — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 16:13:27 -0800

Blogger Twins, and fellow MeFi members, camworld and mrbarrett, want to take part on TAR9. Help them get noticed by the casting directors of The Amazing Race, currently undergoing casting call review.

"You're a clown, not a crimefighter!"

Kattullus — Tue, 17 May 2005 00:20:37 -0800

The Best Shows on TV. Fake reality tv. Clips from an upcoming series on VH1.

Reality (TV) meets Art.

grapefruitmoon — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 16:59:06 -0800

Artstar is the latest in "reality" television. Eight artists compete for a solo gallery show put on by Deitch projects. Let's call it "Who Wants to Be America's Next Top Artist." (NYT link)

I'm a survivor I aint gon/ give up

Sijeka — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 14:49:47 -0800

Let me on survivor!!! Oh the lack of justice! Canadians make up 10% of the Survivor audience and yet the show doesn't want to allow canadians to be on the show. This young courageous man wants to change the rules, and he thinks he qualifies to be a good survivor. Because after all 'Canadians live in igloos 50% of the year, so we're perfect for outdoor survival reality-tv shows '. So he's on a crusade to be the first canadian citizen on the show, and ask people to sign his petition.

Debating for Ratings

drywall — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 14:53:55 -0800

Debating for Ratings [yet another flash movie] Do-good media reform group answers the questions no one asked: What if the media set the rules of the debates? What if campaign coverage took the same form as Big Media's favorite low-cost, high-profit programming — reality TV?

Can Spam Save the World?

sixdifferentways — Tue, 20 Apr 2004 15:28:07 -0800

Can Spam Save the World? Mark Cuban, broadcast.com billionaire, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and Donald Trump wannabe (though he says he's not) is set to host a new "reality" show called The Benefactor. The winner gets $1 million bucks. This guy, who bought the terribly optimistic cubansmillion.com domain, claims he has a "well thought-out" 4-step plan to use the money to save the world. It sounds to me like it was conceived by the underwear gnomes. He fails to explain just how sending 50 million spam emails a day "generates 250 million dollars annually for charitable causes . ($5 in annual earnings per member enrolled.)" I'd be interested in hearing what others with experience in email marketing think. A viable idea or just crackpot self-promotion?

Is that a cape in your closet?

Stuart_R — Mon, 19 Apr 2004 09:28:25 -0800

Batman and Robin have been spotted on the streets of Whitley england, saving damsels in distress, scaring wrongdoers and even chasing naked men from football fields. Other self-made superheroes making news range from the amusing to the disturbing. Even MTV and Stan Lee are jumping into the fray with a casting call for a reality TV show where contestants will compete against each other in a show designed to develop their superhero characters and test their mettle as defenders of justice.

A DESCRIPTION FROM THE LIVE PORTION OF THE SHOW

riffola — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 09:41:14 -0800

And the apprentice is: Kwame Jackson! Trump fired Bill for how he ran a tournament at Trump National Golf Club and hired Kwame for the way he put together a Jessica Simpson concert at the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. USA Today makes an ooopsie.

Bachelors

juicyraoul — Thu, 25 Mar 2004 06:00:42 -0800

The Joe Bug Bachelor might not be as handsome as the real Bachelor but he has a much better selection of women (well .. other thank Jacko).

From the White House to the Big Brother House

wendell — Tue, 23 Mar 2004 20:54:54 -0800

Political Survivor? The Candidate's Apprentice? Who Wants to Be a President? Yep, it's a new "Reality" show: American Candidate (from the people who brought you "The Reagans" when CBS wouldn't).
It's a golden opportunity for anyone who missed the deadline to get on the New Hampshire Primary ballot... I think every politically-minded MeFite should apply to be a contestant/candidate. (And meet the candidates who've made the first cut so far.) I'm gonna do it, and I intend to elevate the level of rhetoric by calling my opponents dandiprat dogberries, slubberdegallions, doddypolls, fop doodles and flibbertigibbets.

World Idol

dagny — Thu, 01 Jan 2004 12:03:27 -0800

Kurt Nilsen wins World Idol. Gap-toothed and described by judges as "with the looks of a hobbit," the Norwegian plumber with the voice of an angel proves that there's hope for all of us to become popstars. True talent triumphs!

Season One DVD to be most popular ever

XQUZYPHYR — Wed, 05 Nov 2003 09:23:16 -0800

From the "Bound to Happen Sooner or Later" department: Mary Carey to host reality TV show in which 28 women will complete for the grand prize of a one-year contract in adult video.