reality blurred

Auto-Tuned Courtney: the most entertainment this season of The Bachelor has delivered

Andy Dehnart — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:43:22 -0500

The Bachelor unconscionable treatment of Casey on Monday's episode overshadowed that this season has given us some entertainment, even if it has seemed dreadfully boring as that twit Ben Flajnik bores us on hi way to finding shallow love. As it turns out, all the season needed was Courtney's baby-talking one-liners, a soundtrack, and Auto-Tune.

When you combine those three things, you get this surprisingly addictive music video, which is made even better by the representation of Ben (whose dialogue isn't actually his, I don't think). It was created by an anonymous YouTube user who has gifted it to the world.

Just try to get "I got the rose" out of your head after watching this:

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about The Bachelor 16
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

Seattle may host Top Chef, if the city pays enough ($200-300K)

Andy Dehnart — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:30:49 -0500

After being considered for years, Seattle is on the verge of being selected as the next host of Bravo's Top Chef, although another city is in contention, and it will cost the city $200,000 to $300,000. The other finalist is possibly Portland, Seattle Met suggests.

"They really want to be here, but they need to feel the love," Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau President Tom Norwalk told MyNorthwest.com, and by that he means, if the producers get paid enough. Really.

He said hosting the show "will take a sizable chunk of money from the leisure tourism promotion budget to really compete and be on an equal footing with another city," which is between $200,000 and $300,000, about what San Antonio paid. That's justifiable, according to the convention bureau's marketing director. "So basically, we would get 12 one-hour advertisements for our city," Ali Daniels told the site.

Producers are actively soliciting chefs for the next season, and MyNorthwest says that the selection of a city "ultimately comes down to which city is willing to pay producers enough to cover a significant amount of their production costs."

Knowing what Texas paid $600,000 for has certainly impacted my viewing of Top Chef Texas, or at least made me more aware of the more subtle product placement in between the super-obvious in-episode advertising.

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about Top Chef 10
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

American Idol's desperation leads to a life or death cliffhanger, cut off by some DVRs

Andy Dehnart — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:55:08 -0500

For weeks now, American Idol has been teasing a contestant's fall from the stage. And during Wednesday night's first Hollywood week episode, that continued, with Ryan Seacrest's voice-over suggesting this could be life or death for the teenage auditioner. How spectacular! Let's anxiously wait to see if a kid died or not! Injury equals ratings! Clap clap clap!

But in a double dose of failure, the episode ended with 16-year-old's Symone Black fall--making it another cliffhanger. Yes, that's how respectful the show is of viewers: not at all. They don't give a shit about your time as long as you tune in, and that's as insulting as it is predictable.

In perhaps some perfect irony, that took place just at or after 9 p.m. My DVR cut off during her performance. Others reported the same thing on Twitter and elsewhere. I'm not sure if that was another ratings-grabbing strategy or just an accident. The final moments are on YouTube, and show her stumbling before falling off the stage, where a crew member almost seems to catch her. Dramatic music accompanies shots of people gathering around her and other people looking horrified as executive producer Nigel Lythgoe calls for a medic.

After that aired, Nigel tweeted, "I know you're all going crazy. You'll have to wait until tomorrow. That's why I'm a mean producer." And, as I replied, why they're losing viewers. He even joked, "It's not a "cliffhanger." She didn't hang, she fell."

Oh! How funny! A joke! Get it?! She fell off completely! Bravo, Nigel, and Bravo Fox! You know how to produce television and make jokes no one else! Yay!

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about American Idol 11
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

Face Off will return for a third season this summer

Andy Dehnart — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:06:53 -0500

SyFy's terrific Hollywood effects makeup competition series Face Off will return for its third season this summer, the network announced Tuesday.

Its second is currently airing, and while it hasn't changed much since season one, it remains consistently entertaining, and ratings are increasing compared to the first season. (Past episodes are online.) Like most competition shows, it overuses team and partner challenges, but at least here it's usually evident who exactly was responsible for parts of the makeup.

I'm also a huge fan of the show's music, particularly the orchestration that runs underneath the judging, apparently composed by The Elements. It's definitely the best runway/judging music since Project Runway. Watch to see the incredible work, and listen to that killer score:

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about Face Off
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

Fox fired Paula Abdul, calls X Factor season one "an audition" (ha!); mystery Idol changes coming

Andy Dehnart — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:17:19 -0500

Fox was responsible for firing Paula Abdul, Nicole Sherzinger, and Steve Jones from The X Factor, Simon Cowell said today. And the network's reality TV executive Mike Darnell called The X Factor "an audition act" for the show, which is the funniest thing I've read all day. He also discusses changes coming to American Idol this season.

Simon Cowell told Extra that the changes are coming because of his pre-season ratings prediction; otherwise, he insisted, "If I hadn't said that, everybody would be saying the show was a huge success." Simon talked to Fox "at the beginning of the year-- and we were told it had to happen straight away," he said, referring to the firings. As to Paula, he said, "I would've liked to have kept her. She was very gracious and I said that to her. She understands it's business; it's never personal."

Darnell told EW that firing "Paula was an interesting call," and happened after "a dynamic conversation about what's the nature of the group going to be. And I think we decided to pull the Band-Aid off as quickly as possible."

"Season one was basically an audition act. Simon got one big new star out of it -- L.A. Reid, and that was great casting. There's going to be a natural reassessment," Darnell said. Besides laughing at the first part, I'd disagree with the second; I don't think L.A. Reid is much of a star at all.

He also promised that "lots of different changes in the show," but said that he disagreed that the show was "inauthentic": "That's the kind of stuff that pundits talk about that doesn't mean anything to the audience. It was a very consistent audience for that show. The audience that stuck with the show loved it."

It might not mean anything to dumb audience members, but some of us know the difference between fake drama and real-life drama, and that difference matters.

As to American Idol, he praised "the fun and funny auditions," and said, "if Idol ever becomes a second- or third-place show, it still has a much bigger impact and value than most other shows because it accounts for so many more hours. Obviously all shows come down, but to still be at this level is amazing, and we're really grateful for that."

Darnell also said there are "some changes coming to the show this year that no one knows about yet, [though] they're more modest than last year. What you try to do generally is if you have a year of big changes, you try to let those settle for at least another year. Change can help, or it can kill you if it's the wrong change. You never want to change the core of the show, no matter what the competition is doing, because that's what people come back for."

That's an excellent point, but I think that's also the problem: the core of Idol is getting stale, though it's clearly not inedible yet for many viewers.

Interestingly, that directly contradicts what Nigel Lythgoe told reporters during a conference call yesterday, which is that the only change is a new location in Las Vegas. "Why on Earth would we start looking at other things to put in there?" he said. Nigel also insisted that the ratings decline isn't a big deal. "We have survived for 11 years and whatever bad press we are getting about these ratings -- God! the rest of the world would love these ratings."

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about X Factor
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

Bachelor, Chris Harrison humiliate Casey to squeeze some life out of Ben's season

Andy Dehnart — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:24:10 -0500

The Bachelor can be consistently entertaining, despite its failure as a show to live up to its promise, and even despite the obviously contrived set-ups and contexts ("we're deserted on an island with producers and cameras!"). But sometimes its producers' and network's desperation--for ratings or attention or just to use their power to humiliate and destroy--leads it to cross a line. That happened last night as the show paused on permanently paused Ben Flajnik's getting-what's-coming-to-him quest for love to humiliate a contestant. Chris Harrison was tasked with that job, and as always, performed marvelously, because he's a soulless asshat.

Remember last summer when Chris said that it would have "completely affect[ed] her journey" if he or the producers said something about Bentley lying to Ashley, so they just couldn't do intervene, despite all the footage they had of Bentley making it clear he wasn't there for love?

Well they changed their mind. How surprising, considering it offers a new chance for drama. And of course this disturbingly sexist show would choose to expose a woman and not a man, not that their behavior is even close to equivalent. Chris told People, "I felt like I didn't go far enough in talking to [Ashley] about Bentley. Yeah, I warned her and I took some steps. But I don't think I went far enough."

So what did Chris have to rush in and warn Ben about, to protect his fragile heart? It was not, sadly, to tell him what the little bottles marked "shampoo" are for in Ben's hotel room showers. No, he had to warn Ben that a woman who was courting him might have have lingering feelings for an ex-boyfriend. Because as well all know, once you break up with someone, your feelings for them evaporate forever and never resurface, ever.

So Chris Harrison interrupted the women to pull Casey S. out for her public hanging, giving the producers awkward crying and tears to use for this episode (and relentless teasers for this episode) while adding some drama to an otherwise flat season.

"It was brought to my attention by three different people back in the United States that you're in love with somebody else, and not in love with Ben," Chris told Casey, mentioning her boyfriend, who she insisted was her ex. "We talked to Michael ... and from Michael's perspective, he said you guys are still in a relationship," Chris said, as if this warranted an undercover investigation. "That's not true," Casey said repeatedly, eventually explaining that her ex didn't want to get married but she does, and "I still have hope that he'll change."

So, Chris frogmarched her up to see Ben, who made a pouty face. "I think that I'm not completely over him," Casey told Ben, but added, "I don't really think he's holding me that much back." It sounded like something pretty reasonable and maybe complicated, and nothing at all like Bentley's horrific deception. Ben told her, basically, to get the hell out so he'd have one less person to possibly stand in the way as he stared at Courtney's breasts.

Casey was upset and cried, and in the hallway--get this!--Chris hugged her and said, "I'm sorry." I cannot believe the balls on that disingenuous prick. "You didn't come on here to deceive anybody. You want to find love. Everybody wants that," he said.

I hope they got the ratings and attention they wanted out of that humiliation, which was entirely unnecessary, since she barely registered before last night's episode anyway. And now they can continue featuring Courtney's baby talk and her successful emotional manipulation of clueless Ben, with the only redeeming part being that he deserves someone as empty as her. If only The Bachelor's producers and host could be similarly punished.

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about The Bachelor 16
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

Intervention camera operator, who naked woman spit chicken on, answers questions

Andy Dehnart — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:14:13 -0500

An Emmy-nominated Intervention camera operator for A&E's is answering questions on Reddit, offering insight into filming a show about addicts who are often using on camera.

Chris Baron, who has also worked on Hoarders and other shows (such as the awesome and sadly short-lived Showdog Moms & Dads), said he's the one who a naked addict spit chicken on before fighting with another person (watch that scene).

Answering questions on Reddit, he's discussed being affected by drugs that are present, and said that the show disguises security as production assistants: "We do have security occasionally if we know that there people or situations that we find ourselves in are going to be particularly dangerous. We just make them out to be production assistants, not to draw any attention to them."

He also revealed that treatment centers offer rehab for free in exchange for the exposure, and added that sometimes, production discovers the family members and addict are working together try to get free treatment, and although those episodes are cancelled, production still works with them to get treatment.

Chris calls Intervention "the truest cinema verite documentary show that I have worked on," and said he has put his camera down during an OD and suicide attempt by the subjects he's documenting.

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about Intervention
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

The Voice gets insanely high post-Super Bowl ratings

Andy Dehnart — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:39:42 -0500

With 111.3 million viewers, the Super Bowl was the most-watched television show ever, and NBC's post-game debut of The Voice benefitted significantly from that: it had 37.6 million viewers and an insane 16.3 rating among adults 18 to 49, which made it the highest-rated non-sports show on any network in six years.

NBC also announced that it was "NBC's highest-rated entertainment telecast overall in both adults 18-49 and total viewers since the series finale of 'Friends' on May 6, 2004." Perhaps most significantly, more people watched it than watched last year's post-Super Bowl offering, Glee: 47 percent more people ages 18 to 49, and 40 percent more viewers.

Of course, the real test comes tonight, and in the weeks to come, to see how many of those viewers The Voice can keep.

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about The Voice 2
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

Too many ads drag out a strong start to The Voice's second season

Andy Dehnart — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:19:05 -0500

After the Super Bowl ended with some hard-to-top drama and suspense, The Voice's second season began somewhat abruptly, about 10 minutes before its scheduled start. Its blind auditions were as entertaining as ever, except that they came in-between a barrage of ads that seemed excessive even after having just watched the Super Bowl. After nearly every audition, the show went to a commercial break, and although some speculated that was going to pad the episode to make it end at its scheduled time, it ended after an hour that felt like two because of all the ad breaks. Big, greedy mistake on NBC's part, I think.

The format still feels fresh, and one thing that struck me as I watched is how much more weight it has for a performer to see the four coaches spin around--or not--than it is to do the American Idol/X Factor-style "let's vote" system. For one, the outcome of those votes is usually obvious, and thus it's an exercise in time-wasting. But even hearing no from three or four judges seems less harsh than staring at the backs of their chairs through an entire song.

The show doesn't hide that it casts people with experience, and actively seeks them out, so the talent was pretty strong overall, even for those who were rejected, although most of them appeared via a montage. The coaches' banter, however, may start to get on my nerves. I didn't mind it last season because, while it occasionally seemed forced, it was mostly playful and obvious that all four of them actually like each other and were having fun together, which makes all the difference. But if they try to ramp it up this year, especially the Adam Levine versus Christina Aguilera thing, I'm going to get impatient.

Speaking of X-Tina, as she calls herself (she actually said "Team X Tina," which I cannot remember her doing before), the final performer was Tony Lucca, a cast member on the Disney Channel's New Mickey Mouse Club, which also starred Christina Aguilera (and a number of other our current stars, such as Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears).

Hilariously and super-awkwardly, although Christina spun around with the other judges, she did not recognize him, giving him a generic and forced compliment. The cameras followed her backstage and she suddenly was acknowledging that they were on the show together, which I'd bet resulted from a producer or someone telling her--or perhaps it finally clicked.

She went into the green room and acted as if she remembered him all along and upped the awkwardness by saying, in front of his kid and wife, "Britney had the biggest crush on you." It's that combination of talent plus unexpected entertainment that will keep me watching The Voice.

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about The Voice 2
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

Beyonce judging X Factor rumor: more evidence that Simon Cowell and his ego still don't understand

Andy Dehnart — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:58:57 -0500

Fox's X Factor fired three of the five cast members, Paula Abdul, Nicole Scherzinger, and Steve Jones, signaling that Fox and executive producer Simon Cowell are serious about changing the show. But blaming the show's faults on them--especially by replacing one of them with Beyonce, as a report suggests could happen--may just be another example of Simon Cowell's out-of-control ego.

The reasons for the firings were obvious: The show was pretty much a disaster, alternately boring and over-produced, with too much of the fake stuff that once made American Idol insufferable. Critics and journalists didn't really seem to like it, although they certainly had to do the requisite pandering for page views. The X Factor also fell short of Cowell's lofty expectations, and was far from a show that truly broke through the pop culture zeitgeist; as HitFix's Dan Fienberg observed on Twitter, "FOX has gotten people -- 5 or 10, at least -- talking about a show nobody talked about when it was on."

However, it did get solid ratings for Fox, debuting as the number-one new reality show in the fall. Fox detailed it successes in a press release. A lot of shows would kill for an average of more than 12 million viewers a night.

So why change it? I ask that seriously, even though I could barely maintain my interest and would rather drink donkey semen every night than watch another season of Simon and L.A. Reid pretending to fight with each other.

New judges could bring some buzz to the show as it goes into its second season. Simon Cowell can make smart decisions--such as the hiring of Howard Stern to judge AGT--but this show is his baby, the one he bailed from Idol to do. His ego prevented the show from being a smash hit, even though Fox's marketing department did an exceptional job of creating hype for the show in the year leading up to it, because he just assumed people would show up for him and Paula and hype and a cool set. There's a real chance that the changes could further alienate the audience and ratings could drop.

Hiring a big name may just be another example of Simon thinking, once again, that a name--like his--is all a show really needs. Last week, in a story that gets the show's name wrong in the headline, Media Take Out reported that "Simon Cowell has offered Beyonce $500M," $100 million for five seasons; an alleged "insider" said, "He wants a big name female star on the panel. Mariah [Carey] is good, but she's not that hot today. He wants Beyonce because that would immediately give him the bounce needed to beat American Idol."

Let's assume that's true for a second: it's insane. There's no way her presence on the show would generate a proportional return for that cash. Even if it's not true, we're undoubtedly going to get relatively big judges to replace Paula and Nicole, and be subjected to months and months of rumors about who they might be.

But the problem is that the star power of the judges was not The X Factor's major flaw. Sure, a big name might lead some people to check out the show, and perhaps Beyonce would be a better judge than Nicole Scherzinger (although in fairness, a cardboard cutout would do a better job judging than Nicole). The show's foundation is its problem, and a big part of that is not going away, because Simon Cowell is its creator and executive producer.

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about X Factor 2
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

NBC's Voice promo during the Super Bowl: easily one of the best ads of the night

Andy Dehnart — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:36:37 -0500

The ads that aired during the Super Bowl tonight were mostly misses, I think, from the Teleflora ad that insisted giving flowers results in receiving oral sex to the Fiat ad with faux semen, aired on the network that wouldn't air a reality show with real semen. But I digress.

Some of the ads were good, but NBC's promo department really hit a home run--er, got a touchdown--with this spot for The Voice. It's perfection from start to finish.

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about The Voice 2
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

Contender boxer Jeff Fraza killed by train

Andy Dehnart — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:39:34 -0500

The Contender season one and two cast member and boxer Jeff "Hell Raza" Fraza was killed early Saturday morning when he was hit by a commuter train in Haverhill, Mass. He was 34.

His former girlfriend and mother of his son, Sylvia Pastrana, told the Boston Herald, "I was just told that he was walking the tracks, heading back home, and he's done that many times before." She said "he was fine and he was in good spirits."

The Eagle Tribune reports that he "had to put his boxing career on hold" because of Crohn's disease.

Fraza returned for the second season, which moved from NBC to ESPN, after leaving the competition because of chicken pox during the episode in which Najai Turpin was eliminated; Turpin killed himself after returning home.

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about The Contender
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

The Voice debuts post-Super Bowl as American Idol continues to fall

Andy Dehnart — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:00:19 -0500

NBC's The Voice returns for its second season after the Super Bowl this Sunday, and the big test for the show is whether it can sustain both the interest that sweet timeslot will provide and overcome the general fatigue from music talent competitions that both X Factor and American Idol have contributed to by, well, sucking.

American Idol continues to lose viewers, dropping significantly compared to both last year and last week on Wednesday night, and on Thursday, now consistently losing to The Big Bang Theory, with more total viewers and more viewers 18 to 49.

It will be interesting to see if The Voice will do further damage to American Idol, or if the reverse will be true, especially with all the promotion it will get Sunday. The competition is intense, which explains why, on Ellen DeGeneres' show today, Adam Levine responded to Randy Jackson's insecurity-laced comments by saying "shame on Randy."

On Sunday, join me for live thoughts on both The Voice and, before that, Super Bowl commentary, which should be particularly great because I know nothing about football, probably because when I played I was always in the outfield. All of this will happen on the Twitter, of course. Follow me!

Follow @realityblurred

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about The Voice 2
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

Trump endorses Romney, convinced we'll follow him blindly, when the opposite is true

Andy Dehnart — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:57:39 -0500

Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney yesterday, a brave, unexpected choice, considering how Romney just easily won Florida. The endorsement has already inspired an ad comparing Trump and Romney's firings. Upon his endorsement, Trump said that people love to follow him, including viewers of The Apprentice, but in fact, the opposite is true.

"I bring a lot of people with me. If you look at my Twitter, if you look at my anything, if you look at my ratings, period, we bring a lot of people, not because people like me, but they are with what I'm saying," Trump said while endorsing Romeny in Las Vegas, according to the Los Angeles Times.

This is classic Trump. He's so full of himself that he mistakes our attention for endorsement, even though facts say otherwise. A January Washington Post-Pew poll found that 8 percent of people are more likely to vote for someone Trump endorses, while 26 percent "said that a Trump endorsement would actually make them less likely to vote for his choice," according to the Washington Post. Republican strategist and George W. Bush and John McCain adviser Mark McKinnon told the paper, "He brings zero votes, zero credibility and zero impact — [Trump] actually has a negative impact. At a time when Romney needs legitimacy, the head clown steps in and welcomes him to the circus."

As I've said before, Donald Trump's delusion is one of the best parts of The Celebrity Apprentice; what makes him insufferable in real life makes exceptional television, although it's too bad his real life bullshit causes some people to skip a pretty outstanding TV show.

Update: For evidence of Trump's opportunism and/or shifting ideologies and/or indecisiveness, check out his voter registration history at The Smoking Gun.

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about The Celebrity Apprentice 5
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

Top Chef gets a 10th season to hopefully find its way out of its formulaic rut; Kitchen Nightmares renewed

Andy Dehnart — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:53:41 -0500

Bravo has renewed Top Chef for a 10th season, despite the pretty disappointing season that's currently airing. The 10th season is currently casting and will tape in May for broadcast later this year. In quasi-related food reality TV news, Fox's Gordon Ramsay vehicle Kitchen Nightmares has been renewed for a fifth season.

As to Bravo's show, it's hard to believe that just a year ago one of its best seasons ever, Top Chef All-Stars, was airing, only to be followed by a dumbed-down Top Chef Masters, absurdly formulaic Top Chef Just Desserts, and a pretty weak Top Chef Texas that did manage to air one of the show's best episodes ever.

In The Daily Beast yesterday, Jace Lacob detailed why the show "has never felt quite so irrelevant and predictable", and points out that they're rarely allowed to just cook.

That's exactly it, and what made the Charlize Theron episode so awesome: each chef was able to create a one dish by themselves. That's it. No phony team drama, no making 600 portions for 500 guests while standing in a swimming pool in 110-degree heat. Just showcasting their skills as a chef under intense pressure. Imagine that!

I think a lot of network executives and reality show producers are under the impression that a show must continue to top itself and get ever-crazier to keep viewers' attention. Things do need to change, but good casting can solve most of that, and incremental changes to the formula can keep things fresh, as Survivor has proven, even with its occasional missteps. Stick to what you do best and viewers will show up and stick around.

» comment on this story
» read the latest news about Top Chef 10
» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.