The Reality Shack Blog

Odds ‘n Ends - Friday, May 4th

Author Carrie | 04.05.2007 | Category Odds 'n Ends

Odds ‘n Ends is a weekly roundup of news bites in the world of reality TV, and appears every Friday.

Yar! Pirate Master Cast Revealed

Mark Burnett is bringing another summer show to CBS, and it’s looking rather familiar so far. Pirate Master premieres May 31st, and the cast list has been officially announced.

The cast is evenly split between men and women, and there are an awful lot of bandanas on display so far. As someone in our forums pointed out, it seems that the casting department have tried to give us another Rupert as well. The show is hosted by Cameron Daddo, an Australian actor and musician.
Watch the video on the show’s homepage and tell me that it doesn’t look a lot like Survivor. Go on, I dare ya.

Rob and Amber Set to “Revolutionize” Reality TV

First they lost their respective seasons of Survivor. Then, somehow, Ambuh won Survivor All Stars. They did The Amazing Race … twice. They got married on television. Amber’s written her Guide for Girls and Rob went back to television for Rob to the Rescue and that poker show. Now, prepare yourself for a “revolution” in reality TV.

That’s right. Romber has created a new reality show that’s set to air next spring. We have a little less than a year to steel ourselves for a show hosted by Rob himself. The Courier Times reports that Mariano said the new show, which he will host, will be “bigger than ‘Survivor,’ bigger than ‘Amazing Race.’

“It’s a competition reality show that will last over 100 days on all seven continents of the world,” he added. “First prize is over $10 million.” He then went on to whoop a couple of teenagers in a game of musical chairs. You go, Rob.

The Naked Apprentice

Kristine didn’t win The Apprentice LA, but she’s staying in the media spotlight by posing nude in the June issue of Playboy, which hit the stands today. According to E! Online, Kristine did this to show fellow cancer survivors that they can still be beautiful. Or something.

Kristine was diagnosed with cervical cancer and underwent a radical hysterectomy only six months before appearing on The Apprentice. Now I’m not unsympathetic with Kristine’s struggles, and no encounter with cancer should be trivialized. But if she really did this to raise awareness for cancer survivors, then perhaps she should put her money where her mouth is and donate a healthy chunk of her earnings to the cause. I did, however, get a good laugh over her comments about The Donald being “obsessed” with her body.

Big Brother’s Alison Irwin - An Arena Football Cheerleader

Just a quick “where are they now” tidbit on Alison Irwin, who is also a bit of a reality TV career contestant. After two seasons of Big Brother and a stint on The Amazing Race, she’s now a cheerleader. You can check out her bio and picture right here. I’ll reserve comment on the “plays t-ball with handicapped children” thing, but is anyone surprised that she doesn’t have a favourite book? Me neither.

Tags: pirate masters, mark burnett, survivor, rob mariano, amber brkich, romber, the apprentice, kristine in playboy, donald trump, big brother, alison irwin, reality tv

Odds ‘n Ends - Friday, April 27th

Author Carrie | 27.04.2007 | Category Odds 'n Ends

Odds ‘n Ends is a weekly roundup of news bites in the world of reality TV, and appears every Friday.

Phil Keoghan Brings Reality Show to Canada

Canadians have long been left in the dust when it comes to reality shows. Sure, we’ve got Canadian Idol, Canada’s Next Top Model, and a few odd little copycat shows. But the big names that look for ordinary people that don’t sing or model aren’t really interested in us. That’s about to change.

Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race and owner of the best wardrobe on television, is bringing his reality show No Opportunity Wasted (NOW) to Canada. He’ll be appearing across the country doing book signings and taking applications for the show in May! Check out NoOpportunityWasted.ca for details, and make sure you watch the intro video if only to hear his hot New Zealand accent come out much more than we hear on TAR.

Idol Gives Back - What Happened to Gwen Stefani?

Remember back when Gwen Stefani was the mentor on Idol, and she told the audience that she’d be back for the Idol Gives Back concert? Me too. So a few people were pretty surprised when she didn’t make an appearance. According to TMZ, Stefani’s performance was taped (along with Pink’s), but was edited out of the show due to time constraints.

Perhaps if Ryan Seacrest hadn’t spent so much time talking and they had skipped the ridiculous “bottom two” facade, there would have been time for Gwen. Or, you know, they could have cut that disturbing Celine/Elvis thing. I’m just sayin’.

Posh Spice is a Diva. Wait, No She’s Not.

This past week there were lots of stories about Victoria Beckham, who is shooting a reality TV show with her husband, soccer star David Beckham. The stories claimed that the film crew for the show were complaining that Victoria was, well, a royal bitch.

In a case of what seems to be a major journalistic oops, these statements and stories have been retracted. Apparently filming has yet to begin on the series, and the Beckhams have yet to even meet the film crew. Whoops!

That’s it for today - have a great weekend!

Tags: reality tv, phil keoghan, idol gives back, american idol, victoria beckham, gwen stefani, no opportunity wasted

Odds ‘n Ends - Friday, April 20th

Author Carrie | 20.04.2007 | Category Odds 'n Ends

Odds ‘n Ends is a weekly roundup of news bites in the world of reality TV, and appears every Friday.

America’s Got Talent Confirms New Judge

In addition to swapping Regis for Springer as host of America’s Got Talent, NBC announced yesterday that Sharon Osborne will take over from Brandy as one of the judges. Osborne joins David Hasselhoff and Piers Morgan on the judging panel. Personally I would have rather seen Little Richard as the new judge, since his comments during Celebrity Duets were the only highlights of that show. Then again, if Sharon Osborne is capable of comments like this one, she might be just the thing the show needs. America’s Got Talent premieres Tuesday, May 29th.

The Apprentice Won’t Die

Mark Burnett made some comments this week about what he’ll do if NBC decides not to renew The Apprentice. “If you think I’m going to let ‘The Apprentice’ end, even if it’s not on NBC, that’s not going to happen,” Burnett told Michael Starr of the New York Post’s Starr Report. If NBC doesn’t renew, Burnett and Trump will shop the show elsewhere. Honestly, I can’t see the show not being renewed since they MUST be making money on all of their product placement and advertising deals. Somehow though, the show is bringing in record ratings in the UK, with Sir Alan Sugar as host.

Clyde Drexler - Get Me Off the Show!

We all knew that Clyde Drexler wasn’t going to go any further on Dancing With the Stars after his performance this week. Apparently He knew it as well, and started making excuses before the results were even official. Check out this clip from Tuesday With Ahmad, where Drexler calls in and begs to be voted off the show.

Tags: reality tv, the apprentice, clyde drexler, sharon osbornre, dancing with the stars, mark burnett