Tonight at 9/8CT, E! debuts its newest reality series Botched, featuring board-certified plastic surgeons Dr. Paul Nassif (Dr. 90210, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) and Dr. Terry Dubrow (The Swan). The show features the detailed stories of patients who longed for the image of perfection through plastic surgery and ended up in a real-life nightmare, with Dr. Nassif and Dr. Dubrow coming to their rescue.
I spoke with Dr. Nassif who mentioned that this show will not be like Dr. 90210, which also aired on E!. He says that Dr. 90210 was based more off of the doctors’ “reality” while Botched shows the difficult realities of the patients. “We’re giving them that one last chance for some normality or to be normal in their life,” he explains.
Dr. Nassif says it’s fantastic working with Dr. Dubrow on Botched since they’ve been friends for over 15 years, and explains that, “He does more of the body and I do the face. I think together as a team we have a great dynamic because he’s a little bit more of the joker and I’m a little bit more serious.”Dr. Nassif notes that 65-percent of his surgeries are reconstructive and says he wants viewers to take away one important message from watching the show: If you’ve had bad plastic surgery it shouldn’t scare you from trying to fix it with the right doctor.
Dr. Nassif says he doesn’t tamper with the natural look of his clients’ faces. “Sometimes a patient will come in and already have something perfect on their face, but they think it’s horrible, and they think it’s big, and it’s unattractive,” he says, adding that when a patient like this wants to change something that’s already perfect, he tells them no. For Dr. Nassif and his fellow doctors, “to do something that’s actually going to cause damage to their tissues, there’s no way in the world we’re going to do that.”
In tonight’s premiere episode, the doctors make a house call to Justin Jedica, 33, a self-described “human doll” who designs his own implants.
“I’m not a fan of that at all,” says Dr, Nassif. “I do revision surgery, so that’s not my cup of tea. But it’s a very interesting world.” He describes the fascination with becoming a human doll as more body modification than anything else — which brings up the subject of why already attractive people seek out plastic surgery in the first place. Dr. Nassif’s diagnosis is that many people have body dysmorphic disorder or other psychological issues that they haven’t addressed, adding that his own patients have to be psychologically healthy before he’ll operate on them. “Our goal is not to operate on anybody who is seeking perfection, because you’re only going to make things worse,” he explains.
Upcoming episodes also feature former supermodel Janice Dickinson, who is trying to update her 30-year-old breast implants. With paparazzi constantly pointing out her imperfections, she’s in desperate need of Dr. Dubrow’s help. but her unwillingness to cooperate with Dr. Dubrow and her ongoing battle with sobriety make her one of his most difficult patients yet. Internet famous when her video of butt implants gone wrong went viral, Renee seeks the doctors help when she can no longer endure the pain and suffering from the free-floating silicone implants. And while celebrities are a popular reason why people go under the knife, Toby Sheldon takes it to the extreme when he spends over $100,000 to look like his idol, Justin Bieber. Toby needs a few more operations to complete the transformation, reducing his forehead and shaving down his jawline, and it’s up to the doctors if they’ll help him.
While Dr. Nassif enjoys being able to show the world what he does in Botched, there’s nothing he loves more than hearing the thanks he gets from his patients. “I love it,” he says. “They might start crying, especially the first week when you take off the cast or the dressings. That’s what makes it worth it is when you have the gratitude and you that you helped someone change their life!”
Botched premieres Tuesday, June 24 at 9pm on E! then moves to Sundays at 10pm following Keeping Up with the Kardashians beginning June 29. You can also see Dr. Nassif’s work on his websites, rhinoplastyspecialist.com or spaldingplasticsurgery.com.
Photos/video © 2014 NBCUniversal