About two weeks ago, several former contestants on NBC weight-loss competition The Biggest Loser spoke to the NY Post, publicly accusing trainers, show staff, and the show’s resident physician, Dr. Robert Huizenga of a variety of questionable behaviors. Now “Dr. H” is firing back with a lawsuit against both the Post and one of the former “losers.” [More]
reality tv
3 Reasons Why ‘House Hunters’ Will Likely Outlast The Apocalypse
By 1.25.16
Centuries from now, when the only beings roaming the scorched earth are heavily irradiated ghouls and super mutants, all great literature, music, and art will be lost but somewhere a gaggle of radroaches will be gathered around a TV watching reruns of HGTV’s House Hunters. [More]
What Happened After TV Show ‘Pimp My Ride’ Pimped People’s Rides?
By 2.27.15
While no one can take away the joy of watching someone’s jalopy get turned into a gleaming pile of doodads and gadgets in bright colors that just so happened to also have wheels, the internet has been abuzz about reports that MTV’s early ‘aughts “reality” TV show Pimp My Ride wasn’t exactly the fairy tale you see on the screen. [More]
100 Finalists Left To Compete For 24 One-Way Tickets To Mars
By 2.16.15
It’s been almost two years since Mars One started taking applications for people who wanted a free one-way ticket to the red planet, in order to set up an inflatable habitat and settle off-world forever and ever. Out of the 202,586 applicants, the non-profit group of scientists and entrepreneurs says the finalists competing for 24 total spots have been winnowed down to a (lucky?) group of 50 men and 50 women. And again, of course the whole thing is going to be a reality TV show. [More]
Amy’s Baking Company Owner Calls For End To Reddit
By 11.8.13
It’s been several months since we wrote about the zany owners of Scottsdale, Arizona’s Amy’s Baking Company, the little restaurant that became world-famous after a now-infamous episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Nearly six months after claiming that Yelpers were threatening her life, Amy is now calling for an end to Reddit. [More]
Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi On Product Placement: “It’s Hard To Make That Sh!t Sound Natural”
By 6.25.13
The recent comedy flop The Internship took a lot of flack, and deservedly so, for being a feature-length ad for Google masquerading as a movie. But compared to some product-placement-packed reality TV shows, that film looks like a fiercely independent labor of love. [More]
Owners Of Amy’s Baking Company Say Yelpers Are Endangering Their Lives
By 5.20.13
After their appearance on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares catapulted them from being the cranky owners of a Scottsdale, AZ, restaurant to worldwide infamy, the owners of Amy’s Baking Company haven’t really been talking to the media, except to occasionally shout at the cameras that they can’t talk to the media. Then this morning Amy and husband Samy sat down for a local radio interview with another person who has Gordon to thank for her few minutes of fame. [More]
Amy’s Baking Company To Re-Open May 21, Hires Damage-Control Publicist
By 5.16.13 — Updated: 5.17.13
The saga of previously anonymous Amy’s Baking Company of Scottsdale, AZ, continues, with the eatery — which came out of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares looking like a heretofore undocumented circle of Hell — scheduling a “Grand Re-Opening” next Tuesday night and hiring a publicist known more for damage control than for shilling restaurants. [More]
How Not To React To Internet Criticism: The Epic Facebook Meltdown Of Amy’s Baking Company
By 5.14.13 — Updated: 5.16.13
It appears that the owners of Amy’s Baking Company in Arizona expected an appearance on celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares” program to vindicate them. They believed that they serve quality food, that they have been unfairly slandered by the entire Internet. Maybe they had never seen the reality program, which features last-ditch efforts to save failing restaurants run by people who are delusional or incompetent…and frequently both. [More]
Hantavirus Case Linked To Home Cleaned Out On TLC's 'Hoarders' TV Show
By 9.10.12
First of all, whoever is volunteering to help clean out homes on TLC’s Hoarders: Buried Alive, you are a better person than most of us, because sorting through piles of stuff/garbage/cats/whathaveyou can’t always be a fun time. Especially for at least one person who has reportedly contracted hantavirus — the same disease that has killed three people who visited Yosemite National Park — after filming a recent episode of the reality TV show in Texas. [More]
What A Repo Men Reality Show Teaches You About Finances
By 1.16.12
Reality TV isn’t particularly known for its educational properties, but you can find some useful lessons if you look hard enough. For instance, a show about tow truck operators who repossess vehicles can teach a personal finance blogger how to handle her money. [More]
Extreme Makeover Subject Accused Of Lying About Kids' Illness
By 5.16.11
A family with purportedly sick kids featured on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition may have been exaggerating about their medical hardships, according to doctors who have tested and examined the kids. [More]
Reality TV "Brat" Sues ABC For $100 Million
By 3.25.10
Alicia Guastaferro, 18 year-old teen beauty queen, is pretty much crass consumerism made flesh, and the figurative lovechild of Disney and Forever 21. To support her beauty pageant lifestyle, her parents lavish her with $100,000 in clothes every year, do her homework for her, and keep up a Christmas tree year-round and give her a new present every day. But what happens when she goes on Wife Swap, and her new mom is a feminist Quaker preacher? Whoa! Explosions! Tears! Now Alicia is suing ABC for $100 million, contending they framed scenes to “maximize her public embarrassment.” Um, duh, that’s what reality TV is. Or did your parents also watch your television for you as well? [More]
