Reality TV

Dear CW, I’m concerned. I hear you’re casting a show about “attractive, young REAL cowboys and/or farmers for a major network TV Show similar to The Bachelor. Think Matthew McConaughey … a man’s man … but still very attractive!” If you can pull this off, good on you! But having grown up in a farming community myself, I’m a little confused. I’m pretty sure that guys that look like Matthew McConaughey don’t show up all that often. Or, ever. And really, would you want them to? Well, maybe … Sincerely, Sarah P.S. If you need help casting … I’m available. […]

Little birdies — tiny, petite, size zero birdies — are chirping that Chicago native Jaslene Gonzales is going to be named America’s Next Top Model. Could it be that one of the competition’s biggest underdogs (you know she was thisclose to making it into the Cycle 7 cast) is going to win the grand prize (Say it with me, now: “A modeling contract with Elite Model Management, a six-page spread and cover of Seventeen magazine and a $100,000 contract with Cover Girl cosmetics”)? After the disappointing result of last night’s The Amazing Race: All Stars (Eric and Danielle? Really? They’re […]

When I heard the fantastic news about Scott Baio’s pending reality dating show Scott Baio Is 45 … And Single, a quick Google took me to an even more fantastic article from Radar Magazine. Chachi was promoting his 2005 stint on Arrested Development, but it’s his definitive answer to the “Would you ever be on The Surreal Life?” question that’s the real kicker. “No. I just think it’s very indulgent, self-serving. It’s just not what I want to do with my life. I don’t want to be that guy. I don’t have to be that guy. I know this is […]

I didn’t want to watch Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll. I even blogged about the premiere and how awful it was, what with Robin Antin’s scary lips and the Dolls’ messed up message. Then, I watched it again. And again. And somewhere along the way, I fell in love with a little underdog named Chelsea. She used to be overweight! She’s “not a trained dancer!” She looks great with big, blunt bangs! As Asia, Melissa R. and even too-big-to-be-a-Doll* Anastacia danced circles around Chelsea, she worked her ass off, and I kept my fingers crossed that […]

Rest easy, America. Simon Cowell is not a heartless meanie! See? Even the children love him! In a FOX conference call today, executive producer Ken Warwick explained — and explained again … and again — that despite appearances in last night’s broadcast, the often blase judge did not (did you get that? DID NOT!) roll his eyes at a remark made by contestant Chris Richardson regarding this week’s tragedy at Virginia Tech University. “Simon didn’t hear him!” Warwick repeatedly exclaimed. Turns out, Simon was reacting to Richardson’s justification of his nasally performance as a conscious, recognizable singing style — a […]

MSNBC is premiering a reality series?! I’m SHOCKED! I’m OUTRAGED! Reality TV on a NEWS network?! OK, OK, who am I kidding? Being the reluctant reality junkie that I am, there was never really a question of whether or not I’d watch another show about The Beautiful People. Going in to episode 1 of Models NYC, which premieres with a special sneak peek this Saturday, April 14 (regular episodes air Mondays beginning April 16), I had high expectations. After all, I’m still nursing the pain of losing VH1’s erratic, dramatic bitch-fest The Agency. MSNBC, I decided, had to bring something […]

Baby Phat mogul Kimora Lee Simmons is getting her own show on Style Network. Scheduled to premiere this summer, the series will “peek inside the hip-hop halls” of her fashion empire, take us inside her personal life with her daughters (ex-husband Russell Simmons got no mention in Style’s press release), and promises “to open a lot of women’s eyes to the possibilities life has to offer.” No doubt, we’ll get a crash course in the former talk show host and model’s “fabulosity.” On MTV, what happens in Vegas … happens in Vegas again. The network has announced that, in addition […]

The highlight of last night’s two-hour Dancing With the Stars marathon wasn’t the repeat performance of Joey Fatone and Kym Johnson’s passionate paso doble, or the Big & Rich mini-concert, or even cohost Samantha Harris’s announcement of her pregnancy, if you can believe it. Getting the biggest reaction in the ballroom during the latest results show was, in fact, a surprise appearance by Season 2 winner Drew Lachey, who joined the pros for a ho-down to the country duo’s “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy). Fortunately, Fatone, Apolo Anton Ohno and Ian Ziering are good enough that the Drew visit […]

Normally, I can’t stomach dating shows like The Bachelor, Joe Millionaire, Outback Jack or the awful Who Wants To Marry a Millionaire. All that oohing, ahhing and adoration from supposedly intelligent and accomplished women – over a guy they met an hour ago – turned my stomach. But this time around, the combination of Doctor/Triathlete/Philanthropist/Lieutenant McDreamy Andy Baldwin and the pack of alternately hilarious and relatable women of The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman has sucked me right in. Let’s recap: At last week’s drunken meet-and-greet, 25 lovely ladies in varying levels of evening gown undress fawned over “Andy! Andy! […]