Posted Feb 14th 2010 1:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Celebreality
This is rich. One of the celebrity judges on Jerry Seinfeld's new reality show,
'The Marriage Ref' will be Madonna. That's right. Madonna. How funny is that? For advice on dancing or pop sings or shocking the public or even cone-shaped bras, Madonna would be the authority to go to. However, is she really the person you'd go to for marital advice?
Still, it's a big time booking for
Seinfeld's new show. She's a star. And when you consider that Alec Baldwin is another choice for marriage judge, the requirement for appearing on the show is not personal success with marital relations. Lately,
Alec Baldwin has been the poster boy for how not to handle joint custody of a child post-divorce!
Continue reading Jerry Seinfeld Gets Madonna for 'The Marriage Ref'
Posted Feb 12th 2010 7:08PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Documentary, Celebreality
Is there more to Kim Kardashian than meets the eye? We're about to find out. The model who's one of the stars of E! channel's
'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' has always been famous for... being famous.
Now she's stepping behind the camera (a bit) as
the producer of a E! half-hour documentary called 'The SPINdustry,' chronicling the world of entertainment public relations. Yes, that sounds like Bravo's 'Kel on Earth,' but that's just a big coincidence. The press release actually makes it sound like Kim's picking up the camera and shooting footage herself.
Kim's involvement as producer of 'The SPINdustry' likely has a lot to do with the fact that it's on E! and the subject of the show is the launch of a new product by Command PR. Comprising Command PR two publicists, Jonathan Cheban and Simon Huck, who are FOK. Friends of Kim. Get it?
Continue reading Kim Kardashian Becoming a Documentary Filmmaker?
Posted Jan 12th 2010 8:06AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Video, Celebreality
Just when you thought we had reached the nadir of mixed TV words with "dramedy" and "celebreality," here comes another word we all have to get used to: "docusoap."
That's how the new TV Land series
Harry Loves Lisa is being described. It stars real-life husband and wife Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna. Regardless of what they call it, you know exactly what it is: a reality show that's going to show the day to day lives of two Hollywood stars, because everyone in the world wants to know what Harry Hamlin eats for breakfast and what Lisa Rinna's dressing room is like. And still the network doesn't show
The Dick Van Dyke Show.
You know what? You can't see
The Dick Van Dyke Show on TV right now, but you can watch every episode at
SlashControl. After the jump, one of my favorites.
Continue reading TV Land picks up something called a "docusoap"
Posted Jan 1st 2010 2:02PM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Celebreality
More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about the cheesiest in reality from the decade. And there was a lot of cheesy going around.
The turn of the millennium was the point when television networks were watching the rise of
Survivor,
The Amazing Race, and
American Idol and thought, "I can do that!" What they didn't realize was that to maintain a high quality level, they still needed a big budget.
Instead of monetary prizes, networks turned to things like love, the experience, and the belief of fifteen minutes of fame to entice people to participate. Slowly with the help of networks like Fox, E!, and VH1, reality shows got more classless and turned trashy. Like a car accident, viewers can't stop watching. The decade has provided a countless number of trashy reality shows and here is TV Squad's favorites of the decade.
Continue reading Best TV of the '00s: Trashy Reality
Posted Dec 30th 2009 2:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Late Night, American Idol, Celebrities, Judges, TV Squad Lists, Celebreality, Jay Leno
More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about a very aught-like phenomenon: the cult of celebrity.
There is no clearer metaphor for the concept of being a celebrity than the Hollywood Walk of Fame. You work hard to chase your dream and achieve a career for yourself by making your name known to the masses of the universe.
Then when you've grabbed that star and become a regular fixture in the flash bulb of the press' cameras, how does the public honor your tireless toil and efforts? They throw you down on a sidewalk and walk all over you.
In the Aughts, however, a new celebrity oozed out of the primordial muck. A celebrity that still suffered the slings and arrows of the tabloid press and a complete loss of the right to privacy, but achieved their stardom by simply cutting out all that pesky hard work and tireless effort nonsense. These are the celebrities who became famous by simply because they were famous.
Continue reading Best TV of the '00s: Celebrities
Posted Dec 22nd 2009 10:01AM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Big Brother (US), Celebreality
It's interesting when one takes the time to look back back at 2009, several scandals that occurred this year were related to television. There were four big reality scandals that occurred in 2009, most of them happening in the second half of the year. They have stayed fresh in pop culture buzz.
This list doesn't count Jon & Kate's drama, all the injuries on
Survivor,
So You Think You Can Dance, and
Dancing with the Stars, Chima's explosion on
Big Brother, or Adam Lambert's sexual preferences. Those events pale in comparison to the five scandals listed.
Continue reading Top Stories of 2009: Reality scandals
Posted Dec 21st 2009 11:00AM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Festivus, Celebreality
On the third day of Festivus, TV gave to me ... three reality disasters!
For every good reality show that emerges, there are several horrid shows green-lit, giving reality television its negative light. I could have gone for days talking about tons of reality shows that were disastrous. Jon and Kate Gosselin became national disasters, but even their show had some merit watching a now single Kate deal with her family.
Here are three of the worst offenders of 2009, from least to most disastrous. Oh, and if you're wondering why a certain VH1 show that had Ryan Jenkins as a contestant isn't on the list, don't worry; we'll get to that later this week.
Continue reading The Twelve Days of Festivus: Three reality disasters
Posted Dec 20th 2009 3:08PM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Survivor, Project Runway, Contestants, Celebreality, Top Chef
A year has passed and there has been a lot of best and worst lists here at
TV Squad. I know tons of reality television shows have grazed my TV so I've compiled a list of the best and worst reality shows of 2009.
Finding the best shows are easy, but it's hard to pare down the worst list. I define "worst" as shows that had potential and never did anything with it. While shows like
I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here and anything involving the words "
Real Housewives" aren't mentioned, they aren't the worst because they started at rock bottom and had nowhere to go. Several of the worst shows I've mentioned could just go through some tweaking and it could have been amazing.
Continue reading Best and Worst TV of 2009: Michael P.'s list
Posted Nov 7th 2009 5:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Celebreality
Reportedly, before
Michael Jackson died suddenly in June, his brothers – and other family members – were putting together a reality show for A&E. After all, celebrity reality shows have a certain appeal, especially train wrecks like
Being Bobby Brown or
Hey, Paula. Not that the Jacksons were thinking that way. I'm sure they envision something classy and edifying.
Since Michael's death, the interest in this miniseries has escalated, much like the interest in all things Jackson. Will the brothers talk about Michael? How much? Will Michael's children be included in the show? All that and more will be answered when
The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty debuts on A&E December 13, at 9 p.m. The plan is for two hour-long episodes to kick off the series.
Continue reading The Jackson Family reality show debuts in December
Posted Oct 21st 2009 12:05PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Celebreality
Reality is not relative when it comes to television. Reality television, my friends, is here to stay. So when I let you know that
GSN will air Carnie Wilson: Unstapled, a new reality show starring the former singer from Wilson Phillips and the host of
The Newlywed Game, you shouldn't be surprised. At least not about another celebrity reality program. The fact that it's going to be on GSN -- that's the Game Show Network -- however, that's a bit of a shocker.
GSN has fallen in love with
Carnie Wilson. Kelly Goode, GSN senior vice president for original programming and development, gushed about CW, saying, "Carnie is incredibly funny and earthy. ... She's a personality the viewers have fallen in love with. And she's a hit on
The Newlywed Game.
Continue reading Carnie Wilson's reality show will be on... GSN?
Posted Sep 22nd 2009 2:26PM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Celebreality
Dear Kevin,
I've recently
read on VH1's blog that you were going to be on
Celebrity Fit Club. I have a problem with this: you are not a celebrity. Sure VH1 may stretch the definition of "Celebrity," but having a resume that includes backup dancer and being on WWE doesn't suffice. I don't care if you were married to Britney Spears; you're not married to your meal ticket anymore.
I've recently
Googled pictures of you and boy did you let yourself go. Maybe you should stop drinking beer. You shouldn't be on
Celebrity Fit Club, you need to be on
The Biggest Loser. Not only does the title fit you better, you need a smack down from Jillian Michaels.
Continue reading An open letter to Kevin Federline
Posted Aug 29th 2009 5:32PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Industry, OpEd, Celebrities, Celebreality
Do you remember the good old days? The innocent times when Lindsay Lohan was an up and coming young movie star. She received critical acclaim for those early roles. She was beautiful and voluptuous (and you know how the kids love that!). Then she got into drugs, drinking, partying, weighing less than 90 pounds, and it all kind of fell apart. Since then, she's cleaned up her act a bit.
Which is great, Lindsay. But
Lindsay Lohan in a reality show? You do know what kind of celebrities appear in realty shows? Do you think Whitney Houston and Britney Spears were at the heights of their careers when they did their amazing stints in reality television?
Speaking of Brit-Brit, LiLo is working with her manager on the project. Hopefully not the same guy that helped develop
Britney & Kevin: Chaotic. The series is intended to follow Lohan as she attempts to get her career back on track.
Continue reading As Lindsay Lohan ponders a reality show, I remember when she had a career
Posted Aug 28th 2009 1:03PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Industry, Ratings, Celebreality
I paraphrased that title, but you'll see what I mean. And it's damage control more than dissatisfaction with what VH1 has become, considering ratings are higher than ever. Still, after the murder/suicide of one of their reality show participants, something had to be said. So Tom Calderone, the president of VH1, told the
LA Times that the
network doesn't want to be known for infinite spin-offs of their
Flavor of Love and
Surreal Life types of shows. Which means skanks and hos.
Which is exactly what they're known for. Before this
Megan Wants a Millionaire/I Love Money debacle, they had no problem with it. Ratings were up, proving that there are people out there who will tune into all those atrocities to the senses.
Continue reading After Ryan Jenkins mess, VH1's president talks of a different direction
Posted Aug 21st 2009 5:08PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Celebreality
I've been following the progress of this for a little while.
A&E has been working with Tony Danza to follow him as he spends a year teaching 10th grade English. Originally set up in Yonkers, New York, the show was shut down after the pilot was shot when the New York school board pulled out of the project. Adrift and without a home for awhile, the team stuck at it until Philadelphia came on board this past Wednesday and agreed to host the show.
This isn't a spoiled celebrity getting up to antics, though; Danza is serious about being a good educator to these kids. Before he got into acting, he procured a degree in education. In other words, this is a real-life documentary about a first-year teacher. He just happens to be Tony Danza.
The teaching profession is one of the most underpaid and under-appreciated professions in this country, so I applaud Danza for stepping into that arena so sincerely. I'm already more interested in his struggles in this arena than I will ever be about the pampered whining rich brats of [insert so many show names here].
Posted Aug 18th 2009 8:30PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Celebrities, Celebreality
Tonight is the series premiere of ABC's new celebrity reality competition
whatever show,
Shaq Vs. But if one guy gets his way, you won't see it.
Author
Todd Gallagher says the idea for the show was stolen from his book
Andy Roddick Beat Me With A Frying Pan. That's not an accusation of assault against the tennis star, the book was about Gallagher challenging people to sporting competitions if they gave him an advantage in some way. Roddick used a frying pan. I haven't read the book but I would love to see him play golf against Tiger Woods, with Woods having to use a giant ladle.
He says that William Morris Endeavor wanted to turn his book into a TV series last year but then went ahead and did it anyway, changing the name to
Shaq Vs. Since the show airs in 30 minutes, I'd say he won't be able to stop it, at least this week.
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