Love or hate reality TV, you can't deny its popularity.
Last week, the number-one show in all the land was America's Got Talent. Not just reality show, folks. The top-rated show period.
Multiple airings of So You Think You Can Dance were also widely watched. Take a look at the chart below to see where all ranked:
MTV's Two-A-Days, docu-reality series that chronicles Alabama's Hoover high school football team, might be getting called for a penalty.
Two teachers at Hoover High have claim to know of grade changings and other academic improprieties involving former seniors who have also suited-up for the school's Buccaneers football program, The Birmingham News first reported last Friday according to Sports Illustrated.
As a result, former Northern District of Alabama judge Sam C. Pointer Jr., who served in that capacity for 30 years, will lead an investigation into the allegations as well as other concerns.
"I believe they want to get it done quickly and I welcome an investigation," Hoover High football coach Rush Probst told Sports Illustrated. "It's all a lot ado about nothing. Are there minor issues? Yes. It's just that down here, ours are on the front page because of the success we've enjoyed."
The Buc's success on the field was evident long before MTV descended upon Hoover in the fall of 2005 to film the school's football team, as it had won four straight championships prior to the 2006 season, in which it lost the title game last December.
Only 11 days prior to the start of Hoover's spring football practice, Sports Illustrated reported the school's athletic director Jerry Browning called a meeting with the city's superintendent Andy Craig that apparently had nothing to do with how to regain its winning ways and instead dealt with off-field issues.
"I told Andy of things that were to possibly come out. I felt it was not a matter of if but when and I was not going to cover anything up or hide anything," Browning said and Reality TV World reported. "There was plenty of smoke and conversations that I had held with others voicing concern about misconduct, but there was nothing earth shattering."
While Browning claims he never intended his discussions with Craig to become public, that's exactly what happened when he resigned from his role as Hoover's athletic director on June 18 to take the same position at another school in Montgomery, AL. Browning told Sports Illustrated he decided to leave Hoover "because of professionally philosophical differences and personal reasons as well, a chance to spend more time with my family."
Since then "grade-changing allegations" have begun to emerge, most notably from Forrest Quattlebaum - an 11-year math teacher at Hoover who claimed the final grade he gave one of his football-playing students was changed without his consent to allegedly assist the player in qualifying for college scholarships. In addition, a Hoover assistant superintendent confirmed to Sports Illustrated that another teacher at the high school came to her earlier this year with a concern about "losing a job over another senior football player's grade."
Although it doesn't appear to have a broadcast network yet, Rob Mariano has pulled the wraps off the new reality project he first began teasing in March.
According to Reality TV World, Mariano has announced he will serve as the host of Tontine, a new reality competition show that will award one contestant with "the biggest cash prize in the history of reality television - $10 million."
The oddly named show will follow 15 contestants, each of which is given "a special key" that unlocks a portion of the $10 million grand prize. Over the course of 100 days, the cast will be put through a series of mental and physical challenges with the possession of the keys constantly up for grabs. The series will conclude when only one contestant remains with all 15 keys in his or her possession, allowing him/her to unlock the $10 million prize.
"I can't tell you everything, but I can tell you certain things about it," Mariano said. "It's a competition reality show that will last over 100 days on all seven continents of the world. [It's going to be] bigger than Survivor, bigger than The Amazing Race."
The show's format is based on its namesake - "tontine" - an annuity scheme in which a group of individuals share a common fund, with the money being awarded to the person who survives the longest, or in this case makes it to the end of the competition.
Donald Trump has a natural gift for spinning bad news in his favor. When The Apprentice turned up missing from NBC's fall line-up, he immediately pounced with a statement saying that he wasn't being fired from the show, he was quitting to work on another "major new TV venture."
Trump's Apprentice business partner, reality TV's eminent creative mind Mark Burnett, will have much more trouble untangling himself from the wreckage.
While his biggest franchises - Survivor, The Amazing Race and The Apprentice- effectively revolutionized television and dominated ratings in their early seasons, Burnett's recent endeavors have not yielded the same returns.
This summer, Burnett debuted two new series, On the Lot, on FOX, and Pirate Master, on CBS. The former bowed to an audience of just 8.5 million viewers, which means it lost around 70 percent of the 30 million viewers who were watching the American Idol finale before it.
Meanwhile, Pirate Master, a watered-down Survivor clone, in which greedy gamers stow away at sea for a crack at a million-dollar prize, fared just as badly. Only 7 million viewers tested the waters.
But Burnett's ratings woes aren't the issue as much as what appears to be a dearth of creative ideas. On the Lot started out trying to mimic The Apprentice, then abruptly changed course and started aping American Idol, complete with separate performance-and-results show.
Somewhere in all the confusion, the show's host changed abruptly and one of its judges, director Brett Ratner, vanished without any explanation. Meanwhile, the Pirate Master debut was a confusing muddle. For at least the first 45 minutes, it was impossible to know who was doing what and why. Characters were introduced hastily so they could be rushed through a baffling challenge, then someone whose name you could remember was "cut adrift."
The sad part of Burnett's string of failures is that it suggests that it nails shut the coffin of reality television's golden era. There has always been lots of talk about the negative effect of reality TV and how it has contributed to our fame-obsessed, look-at-me culture. But there hasn't been nearly enough discussion about the fact that at its best, some of the freshest, most exciting television of the past decade has been reality-based.
Who among us can forget where we were the first time we saw Richard Hatch flopping around nude during the first season of Survivor? How many office friendships were irreparably damaged by Jordin Sparks vs. Blake Lewis disagreements during American Idol?
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Forget business school: Donald Trump is apparently ready send some ladies to charm school.
The Donald and Fox are developing Lady or a Tramp, a new reality competition series that would take a group of girls out of their wild and crazy lifestyles and send them to charm school where they'll attempt to become proper women. Sound like Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School?
For good reason, probably. It basically is.
Reportedly, The Apprentice star will serve as Lady or a Tramp's executive producer and could possibly come on air to check on the progress being made by the girls.
Lady or a Tramp is based on Ladette to Lady, a British reailty show in which a group of women are sent to Britain's Eggleston Hall charm school, according to Variety. Trump's American edition will reportedly follow a similar format and test its contestants on how to live like a debutante through a series of challenges, with one girl being "expelled" from the school at the end of each episode.
The show would also show viewers the validity of its contestants' wild and crazy ways by broadcasting "ample footage" of their partying, according to Variety.
MTV is casting for a new series that sounds a lot like Laguna Beach, except it will feature black teenagers who are living or working on Martha's Vineyard this summer.
The notice says that it's MTV's "News & Docs" division that's casting, which might suggest this is not necessarily a full reality series, and could be for something like an episode of True Life. Then again, it does want people who are "hanging with your sorority sisters or frat brothers" or "your prep school friends."
Casting has been going on for about a year now, and MTV casting director Claresa Mandola tells The Martha's Vineyard Times that "as far as I know, the show is still in development and no one knows for sure yet if it will be filming."
The Bluffs "has traditionally been a summer vacation resort for wealthy, successful African Americans, among them politicians, artists, entertainers, and writers," the paper reports. But the casting call doesn't say that it wants artists or writers; it's after frat boys and sorority girls:
Are you a young African-American planning to summer on Martha's Vineyard? MTV News & Docs is casting for a new pilot documentary called "The Bluffs," which gives an up-close and personal glimpse of African-American young adult life on Martha's Vineyard.
Maybe this is your first time to summer on the Vineyard with your prep school friends. Maybe you'll be working on the Island while hanging with your soroity sisters or frat brothers. Maybe you live there. Maybe you're a summer regular.
Whatever the situation or story, MTV wants to hear from you! Any interested persons should contact: Claresa Mandola, Casting Director, at (212) 654-7345 or claresa.mandola@mtvstaff.com.
Returning reality shows continue to rule this summer: Tuesday night's second-season premiere of NBC's America's Got Talent drew the network's top 18-49 rating this summer.
The show averaged a 4.3 rating for its two-hour premiere starting at 9 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, making it by far the night's top-rated show.
It was also the best rating thus far for any summer show debut, though Fox's So You Think You Can Dance also averaged a 4.3 for its third outing last week.
Talent peaked with a 4.5 average from 9:30 to 10:30, then fell slightly in its last half hour.
The reality TV show's debut was up 23 percent from last summer's season finale, which averaged a 3.5 in mid August. It also rose in total viewers compared with the season one finale, up 9 percent from 11.8 million to 12.9 million.
It was the show's best-ever performance in total viewers and the top premiere of the summer.
When Ghost Hunters returns to SCI FI on June 6th at 9 pm (ET/PT), America's favorite paranormal plumbers will be looking for a new Ghost Hunter who will appear in an upcoming episode of the show.
On Wednesday, May 30th from 7 to 10 pm (ET/PT) a special marathon of Jason and Grant's all time favorite episodes will kick off promotion for the Hunt for the Hunter, a national search for the newest member of the Ghost Hunters team.
We have heard that Spencer Pratt is in need of more attention, maybe he'll try out.
Beginning June 6, Ghost Hunter-wannabees can visit www.scifi.com to enter to win the Hunt for the Hunter. Haunted hopefuls are asked to submit an audition video for consideration, similar to the concept behind I Love New York 2 auditions.
Viewers and online users are also encouraged to participate in the hunt by rating the videos. Jason and Grant will choose three finalists from among the top ten highest-rated audition videos.
Three lucky finalists, who will be announced in first fall episode, will prove their mettle when they compete during the most hair-raising of episodes, the annual Ghost Hunters Live telecast on Halloween night. Viewers will be invited to vote for their favorite contender via text and online, but the veteran Ghost Hunters have the final word.
Consider them the Jeff Probst of the show.
Just imagine. Kim Kardashian, and her lovely extended family of nine other kids, living all together on TV. Is there any better formula for ratings success?
Besides releasing a sex tape of yourself and your ex-boyfriend?
In any case, that's the premise (the first part, not the sex tape) of an upcoming reality TV show that will focus on the life and times of Hollywood's infamous Kardashian clan.
Kim, seen here with sisters Kourtney and Klohe, is the former pal of The Simple Life star Paris Hilton. As such, she's never one to shy away from the spotlight.
Sources report that E! is in the running to produce a show about the Kardashians, parented by step-father Bruce Jenner (the father of reality show veteran Brody Jenner) and mother Kris Kardashian.
Both are former divorcees who merged into a mega-family (with kids ranging in age from 9 to 28) that wants to open up to cameras.
No doubt Spencer Pratt will find a way to weasel onto the show.
The network has no comment, but Brody, who starred on both The Princes of Malibu and The Hills, as well as in the love life of former Laguna Beach queen Kristin Cavallari, is surely pumped.
"It's the modern-day Brady Bunch," says an insider. "The show will reveal the crazy dynamics of all of them and their dramas."
So it's like The Real World: Kardashian. Or something.
Too bad the cameras weren't rolling when Kim found out her ex, Ray J, leaked a sex tape featuring the pair. Now that would've been some drama.
NBC may be saying goodbye to The Apprentice - but it's saying hello to some serious dancing.
Record producer and American Idol judge Randy Jackson is executive producing and hosting a new Hip-Hop dance competition reality show titled World Moves, which will premiere on NBC during the upcoming fall season.
During the unscripted series, Jackson and the creators of the World Hip Hop Championship dance competition audition thousands of dance crews from around the world, for a chance to come to Los Angeles to compete for the global championship and to win an international touring contract.
Yes, we're basically talking about a real life You Got Served.
The live television series features five to seven members demonstrating their creativity, athleticism and ability to dance, while capturing the personal drama that unfolds within each of the teams.
World Moves is part of NBC's new 2007-08 primetime line up, which was announced yesterday, as the network hopes to capture a younger demographic with this year's programming lineup.
"Last year we promised a return to the NBC legacy of quality, and in terms of awards, buzz and critical acclaim, that's just what we delivered," said NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly. "We've got the class and next season we're ready to add some mass, with new shows that build on the creative accomplishments of last season and are as broad as they are good.
Combine the energy of these new programs with the bulked-up strength of our existing NBC hits and you've got a lineup that's poised to take us to the next level."
