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reality blurred
Babysitting reality TV's bastard child every day, with news and analysis about the best and worst of reality television
- Kara DioGuardi out of American Idol because "now is the best time to leave"
As expected and reported back in late July, Kara DioGuardi is out as a judge on American Idol after two seasons. In a statement released to by Fox, she said, "I felt like I won the lottery when I joined American Idol two years ago, but I feel like now is the best time to leave Idol. I am very proud to have been associated with American Idol -- it has truly been an amazing
- Next week: Labor Day brings reality TV marathons, and some fall shows debut
Labor Day weekend has arrived with a bunch of reality TV marathons. Although a few shows debut new seasons this week, it won't be the official start of the fall TV season until it arrives in mid-Sept. It'd be nice if fall weather showed up, too. The Past: last week's most-read stories Big Brother 11's Michele is on Playboy's sex-on-TV reality show FoursomeSurvivor contract, rule book are back onlineSurvivor contestant contract: the waivers, agreements that
- Dancing with the Stars cast all paid the same: $345,000 if they last 10 weeks
The collection of C-list celebrities, reality stars, and Bristol Palin that comprises the Dancing with the Stars cast will all be paid the same amount if they last through the entire competition: $345,000. Among the people who turned that down were Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Sylvester Stallone, Ann Coulter, Condoleezza Rice, Erin Brockovich, Richard Branson, Tim Allen, and Suzanne Somers, while Joel McHale, Drew Carey, and Kirstie Alley have also said no previously--though the show
- Ragan out but Big Brother gets real drama from Matt smugly confessing wife lie
At the start of Big Brother 12's penultimate Thursday episode, Ragan said, "I am not just going to roll over and die. I'm going to find a way to guarantee another week in the house." Make that the jury house, because he was evicted. I'll give him credit, though: He tried. And even though he later excused everyone and even their shitty game play, he did make the best arguments he could, and even framed
- Does Tim Gunn's outrage mean that Project Runway is better this season?
I confess: the one minute and nine seconds of Project Runway 8 below is the only part of this season that I've seen. I gave up during last season, and couldn't imagine coming back for extended 90-minute episodes. However, friends and others who still watch tell me this season is a vast improvement over the last two, which were Lifetime and Bunim-Murray's first two attempts at taking over Bravo's and Magical Elves' signature series, the
- I Love New York's Heat on Foursome with BB's Michele, who "give[s] the best head ever"
Playboy TV has posted a new trailer for Foursome featuring Big Brother 11's Michele Noonan. Her name may be spelled wrong, but that's her, saying, "I give the best head ever." (More on her appearance here.) The trailer shows that her episode also includes Heat, aka Jason Rosell, a cast member on I Love New York and I Love Money. He says, "Treat me like the whore that I am and I'm going to treat
- Big Brother will be preempted, delayed tonight by football for many people
Big Brother 12's lack of drama will be delayed for many people across the country, while others will see the show on a different channel. While people in bulky costumes slamming into each other and competing as if winning actually matters might typically be confused with the reality competition, I can assure you it's something different, even with all the ass-slapping. That's because of final pre-season NFL football games tonight, which reality blurred TSG and
- Top Chef all-stars filming in New York, probably for a full all-star season
The next season of Top Chef may be a full all-star season, as contestants from the previous seven seasons are currently filming in New York City. They include Spike Mendelsohn, Marcel Vigneron, Richard Blais, Fabio Viviani, Carla Hall, Angelo Sosa, Tiffany Derry, Michael Isabella, Dale Talde, Tiffani Faison, and Stephen Asprinio. Could this just be another all-star special like the show did at the start of season three? Eater NY was told that "this is
- Big Brother houseguests actively resist playing the game, clean house instead
Big Brother's singing clam and sock puppets made to look like the houseguests should have one giant mouth hug to viewers. Instead, they came off as a barely reconfigured challenge from last season and a bit that lasted only a few minutes and was almost ignored by some of the houseguests, like Enzo, whose puppet moved its mouth once for every three or four sentences he spoke. There were good moments here: I laughed out
- Discovery networks protester shot and killed after taking three people hostage
A man who'd previous protested Discovery's programming held three people hostage at Discovery Communications' headquarters outside of Washington, D.C., was shot to death by police this afternoon. The hostages were safe but an explosive device on the gunman discharged when he was shot. James Jay Lee entered the building, which houses the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC, and the other Discovery networks, at about 1 p.m. armed with explosives and a gun. After almost four
- Amazing Race 17 cast announced
The Amazing Race 17 11-team, highly telegenic cast has been announced, including the previously revealed beauty queens, although CBS only identifies one of three beauty queens by her pageant experience. The network notes that the new teams include "Home Shopping hosts, newly dating couples, an Internet entertainer, Ivy League a cappella singers and a birth mother/daughter Team who were recently reunited after the mother gave her newborn daughter up for adoption over 20 years ago."
- Big Brother's higher ratings attributed to "rootable," "fun," not "completely hatable" cast
Big Brother ratings are up 6 percent from last summer and the show is regularly getting its highest demo ratings in years, which is evidence that there's nothing else on TV--or that people like us are sticking around because we are desperately hoping something interesting will happen to validate all of the time we've wasted since early July. But the increase in viewers has validated the producers' decisions, particularly in regard to casting, which is
- Thom Beers calls Deadliest Catch's Emmy loss to "boring" Ken Burns doc "an abomination"
Deadliest Catch executive producer Thom Beers has never been shy about the nonfiction and reality TV Emmy categories, which last year he told me were "ridiculous," and he's echoed that this year. "To be honest, I was totally crushed" that Deadliest Catch lost to Ken Burns' documentary about national parks, he told Fancast. "Once again, I lost to a PBS series! I don't know what the hell my show is even doing in a category
- Survivor contract, rule book are back online
After a challenge from CBS, the Survivor cast contract, which includes the show's rule book, are back online on reality blurred. In late July, almost eight weeks after I first published my analysis of an annotated version of the contract cast members sign, a CBS lawyer in New York sent a DMCA takedown notice to Scribd, the document hosting service I used to present the files in an easy-to-use reader that was embedded in my
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