Watching Reality TV

I know, it’s quite the newsflash, isn’t it? Apparently, the fans of “American Idol”, the ones who vote each week on their favorites, are completely, 100% tone deaf. How do I know this, you ask? Because last night they voted out Brandon Rogers over Sanjaya Malakar. And no one seems more surprised than Sanjaya that he’s still in the game. See, even he knows he’s in way over his head. And across America, the non-voters (like myself, for shame) let out a corrective groan at the realization that we’ll have to watch Sanjaya limp through yet another song next week. It’s getting painful to watch, ya’ll. Yes, yes, Brandon is no Chris Sligh or Blake Lewis and he did forget large portions of the words to his song on Tuesday. But did he really deserve to be sent home before Sanjaya? Methinks not. Since I’m pretty sure Sanjaya is getting the pre-teen vote, I’m calling upon all parents of pre-teen girls to ban their daughters from the telephone next week. Please, for the good of the country and the good of “American Idol”. I beg of you.

American Idol, Sanjaya Malakar, Brandon Rogers, results show

The fourth season of “Dancing with the Stars” starts on Monday, March 19th on ABC. Last season was such a sensation with Mario Lopez and the infamous Emmitt Smith, it’s natural to wonder if this season will measure up. Will Billy Ray Cyrus wow us with his moves and will Heather Mills’ prosthetic leg fly off mid-dance? (The latter being something that people are genuinely interested in and I’m telling you, people are placing BETS.) The show has moved from it’s usual Tuesday night to a Monday night airing. Wisely so, as ABC isn’t about to put it’s big reality draw up against the monster that is “American Idol” (however, the results shows will air on Tuesdays). We’re left to wonder if “Dancing” will suffer the fourth-season slump that many of it’s predecessors have suffered. By now, the bloom is off the rose and it’s time for the show to really prove itself as having staying power.

And, the bigger question, can these stars dance? If you hope on over to this MSNBC article, you’ll see some profiles of each of the celebrities and any advantages or disadvantages they might having going into the competition. My favorite was this about Joey Fatone:

It seems odd that Joey Fatone still lists his profession as “NSync Star,� since the band made its last album in 2001. Nevertheless, the “former teen idol and/or boy-band member� spot has to be filled by someone, and even if you’re “the less cute one,� it might as well be you. While Fatone probably can’t get Justin Timberlake to hoot for him in the audience, don’t be surprised if you see Lance Bass. Nostalgia acts in general and boy-band members in particular have strong track records, so don’t count Fatone out.

Are you planning to tune in this season? Is there any celebrity that you’re going to be rooting for? Do you think Heather Mills’ leg will fall off?

Dancing with the Stars, Heather Mills, Joey Fatone, Billy Ray Cyrus

Vincent Pastore, of HBO’s “The Sopranos” fame, has had second thoughts. He was announced as one of the contestants for season four of “Dancing with the Stars” (premiering on March 19 on ABC), but now he’s dropped out as a contestant. His reasoning? His health status. Pastore simply didn’t feel he was up to the physical challenge of the competition after one week of training.

“When I initially committed to joining Dancing with the Stars, I didn’t realize just how physically demanding it would be for me,” Pastore said in a statement released by ABC. “Unable to put forth my best effort, I felt it appropriate to step aside and give someone else the opportunity.”

The show’s producers don’t have someone to replace Pastore yet, but the announcement is expected soon. And this isn’t the first time a contestant has had to be replaced at the last minute.

Prior to its second season, rapper Romeo had to drop-out of the competition due to a basketball injury. He was replaced by his father, rapper Master P.

I’ll admit my first thought when I heard he was withdrawing was because he saw the contestant roster and was horrified by the “D-list-ness” of it all. This season seems to utterly be without big names, with Heather Mills (that’s the ex-Mrs. McCartney to you all) being the biggest draw. “Dancing with the Stars“, indeed.

I know this isn’t the “American Idol” blog, but I can’t just ignore the fact that last night a reality tv star won the highest and most prestigious award Hollywood has to offer. Just a few years ago, she was yet another contestant on “American Idol”, and not a very successful one at that. The judges weren’t impressed with her, and neither was America and she was sent packing. But her foot was in the door and that was all she needed to land the part of a lifetime in the film “Dreamgirls”. The rest, as we might say, is history. She’s won award after award and last night she grabbed an Oscar. Good for her. On the red carpet, Ryan Seacrest had a reunion with her. He showed her a taped video of Simon saying that he was rooting for her and was happy for her. Which was nice of him. Must have been hard to eat all that crow though.

I enjoy seeing reality stars make it in the “big” world. Elisabeth Hasslebeck has done pretty well for herself on “The View”. I can’t include Rob and Amber here, as their success hasn’t happened yet outside of the realm of reality tv. Hopefully we’ll see more of these examples in the future. Stay tuned tomorrow for my recap of last night’s “Amazing Race”. (Yes, I forgot to DVR it… again.)

As if you could have forgotten, “Survivor: Fiji” premieres tonight on CBS at 8pm. Check your local listings for exact times and channels. I’ll admit to being a little psyched about the new season. It looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun, with some new twists to keep us all intrigued.

I found an article this morning on the Reality TV World website about the “lost” 20th castaway from this season of “Survivor”. Her name is Michelle McNulty, and she discusses why she felt she had to leave the show at the last minute before filming began. Her reason: panic attacks. She thought she had her issues with claustrophobia under control for the show, but with mere hours before filming was to begin, she found out that she very much did NOT have them under control. She discussions with the producers and the show psychologist (how awesome is it that they have to have a show psychologist?) and they tried to get her to stay. But the decision was ultimately hers and she feels she made the best choice for herself. Naturally, she’s disappointed that she gave up a chance to be on the biggest reality tv show on the planet. But she’s proud of herself for making the right decision too. So good for her!

To see how the producers scrambled to deal with the gap she left behind, tune into tonights premiere!

Rob and Amber Mariano are perhaps reality tv’s most famous and notorious couple. Both appeared in seperate seasons of “Survivor”, before going on to “Survivor: All Stars” where they fell in love. Then we were treated to watching their relationship grow on “The Amazing Race”. And who could forget “Rob and Amber Get Married”? Good times, good times. Now, we have even more Rob and Amber to love. Starting next month, the couple will appear in no less than two seperate reality tv shows. There’s “Rob and Amber: Against All Odds”, the show that profiles Rob’s desire to become a professional poker player. And, of course, there is “Amazing Race: All Stars” where we will once again get to see the couple race around the world. And if that weren’t enough for you, the couple is starting to think about having children. As Rob told OK! Weekly, “[We plan to start a family] not, like, tomorrow soon, but pretty soon.” I guess we should be surprised they haven’t had a child already. “I think it’s important when you get married to make you marriage as solid as possible and really enjoy each other before you introduce other family members,” said Amber.

So when the couple does decide to reproduce can we expect a reality special, “Rob and Amber Have a Baby?”

Even Michelle Sorro can spot a stinker when she sees one. On Sunday’s “Apprentice,” Michelle decided she’d had enough with the sensational aspects of this season’s competition and turned in her walking papers. Albeit, she was likely about to be fired anyhow since her team lost the competition. As she told Trump, “I would just like to say that, in light of the circumstance, and the fact that what I signed up for originally is not what I’m dealing with now… living in the backyard, being the losers… I don’t even feel like I want to come back to the boardroom. It’s not worth it to me to go through this, it really isn’t… I would love to resign from the process.”

I can see both sides to this issue. On the one hand, this is no way for formal business people to behave. Living in tents? Seriously? If you’re a serious sort of person and looking at this experience to give you more business experience, I can see where being forced to live in a tent to be a little absurd. You would definitely have the feeling that the experience is being sensationalized for ratings. Which, let’s face it, it is. This is a reality show, after all. And dignity isn’t exactly implied. And quitting when you’re about to be fired is a pretty immature move, but Michelle obviously didn’t see it that way. “Like Mr. Trump said, I can coat this anyway that I want so for me, it doesn’t feel like I’m quitting anything, it feels like I’m staying true to my integrity, saying true to a process that doesn’t work for me naturally.”

I know I, for one, would rather quit than being on Trump’s show but that could just be me.

CBS has finally released the contestant list for “Amazing Race 11″, otherwise known as “Amazing Race: All Stars”. Interestingly enough? Only one team is a former winner of the Amazing Race. Executive producer Betram Van Munster explains, “they’re not necessarily the winners, but character-wise, they’re all-stars in our book.â€? One team didn’t even race together as a team during their season. That would be “Amazing Race 9″’s Eric Sanchez (of Eric and Jeremy fame) and Danielle Turner (of Danielle and Dani), who are currently dating. The rest of the contestants are as follows:

• “Amazing Race 1″ - Kevin O’Connor and Drew Feinberg
• “Amazing Race 1″ - Joe Baldassare and Bill Bartek
• “Amazing Race 2″ - Oswald Mendez and Danny Jimenez
• “Amazing Race 3″ - John Pietazna and Jill Aquilino
• “Amazing Race 3″ - Teri and Ian Pollack
• “Amazing Race 5″ - Charla Faddoul and Mirna Hindoyan
• “Amazing Race 7″ - Uchenna and Joyce
• “Amazing Race 7″ - Rob and Amber Mariano
• “Amazing Race 10″ - David and Mary Conley
• “Amazing Race 10″ - Dustin Seltzer and Kandice Pelletier

Interesting choices here. Some don’t surprise me at all. Some, I wish the producers had reconsidered. I feel like we JUST got rid of Dustin and Kandice, only to have them back on our screens. I’m very glad to see the return of Kevin and Drew. I hope they do well. What are your thoughts? Anyone left off you’d have liked to see? Any of these contestants you detest? (Rob and Amber don’t count.)

Also proving a challenge for the producers: keeping these contestants on their toes! They “had to throw [the teams] curveball after curveball, because they all thought they knew what we were doing again,” Van Munster told USA TODAY. The teams traveled 45,000 miles and the race spanned 28 days. Locations included a desert in northern Chile clear to Antarctica!

The show debuts Feb. 18 at 8 p.m. ET.

Amazing Race, Amazing Race All Stars, Rob and Amber Mariano, cast list, premiere date

This may be considered old news, but with all the holiday hub-bub, I just read it today: There’s a new show debuting on January 11th and it’s starring Rob and Amber Mariano. It is called, according to RealityTVWebsite.com, The Rob and Amber Project. When I first heard that, I thought, “Oh lord help us, it’s going to be a show about them trying to have a child.” Because, honestly, that’s what it sounds like, right? Never fear, it’s not that. Though, it sounds almost as bad; the show will follow the couple as they move to Vegas where Rob wants to become a professional poker player. Amber, predictably, is not so sure about him gambling away their reality tv winnings. Much fun and hilarity should ensue, I’m sure.

If you’re interested (or even if you’re disgusted and want to see how this will all turn out), you can catch this new show set to air on Fox Reality, which happens to be the only cable channel that is dedicated to all reality tv, all the time.

I don’t see why not, but I hadn’t ever thought about it before. If you have not only thought about the sexiness of reality tv stars, but have some specific stars in mind, you might want to head over to Reality Blurred and cast your vote for who you think the sexiest reality stars of 2006 were. Cast your vote for one female and one male star as well as your comments about why you picked those particular contestants. Send in your votes by midnight on Friday, December 15th and you could win a copy of the 2007 Sexiest Men and Women of Reality TV Calendars.

Sounds like a fun time. But if Janelle gets picked AGAIN this year I may have to go hurt someone.

The sixth season of “The Apprentice” will air this January on NBC and in a press release, we learn the identities of the contestants and some of the interesting twists that will occur during the competition. Most notably, the losing team will have to sleep outside in tents and use porta-potties while the winning team gets to enjoy the high life in a posh mansion. Harsh! Of course, since this season takes place in Los Angeles instead of NYC, I don’t expect the weather to be much of a troubling factor. Still, there’s a big difference between porta-potties and jacuzzi tubs.

In the last several seasons, “The Apprentice” has lost my interest, but I may have to tune in this year. Some of the twists sound interesting, and being set in a totally different city will inject some new life into what has become a rather tired show. Some of the contestants sound… intriguing as well. I think I’ll give it a shot.

If you’d like to learn more about the show, about the contestants and some of the surprising twists, check out the official press release.

According to the UPI News Service, season 3 “Dancing with the Stars” competitor and pop artist Willa Ford has gotten engaged to National Hockey League star Mike Modano of the Dallas Stars. The announcement came as she attended the Arby’s Action Sports Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday. According to an interview with People Magazine in November, Ford has been dating Modano off and on for about four and a half years (this was said in response to rumors that she was dating her “Dancing with the Stars” partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

The plan is for the couple to marry after the end of the hockey season. Best of luck, Willa! Let’s hope marriage treats you better than your stint with reality television did!