Popular Reality TV

A&E »     by Andy Dehnart / February 25, 2011, 9:41 AM A&E’s Scared Straight concludes its first season next Thursday, having debuted to record ratings in mid-January. Following the show’s debut, there was controversy: two of the three states featured on the show have suspended their programs, and the show and the programs it features have been criticized. The series, which takes at-risk teenagers into prisons to see the reality of prison life, is fascinating, though after a few episodes, it sometimes feels a bit repetitive, and inmates and officials seem to frequently over-rely on scaring the kids with threats of prison rape. Two Justice Department officials wrote an op ed arguing that research shows “‘scared straight’ is not only ineffective but is potentially harmful.” I talked to its executive producer, Arnold Shapiro, about that criticism, and also to the researcher who examined programs’ effectiveness, and the result is this Daily Beast story, in which Shapiro defends...

Phillip Sheppard’s accusations of racism on Survivor Redemption Island that turned into a fascinating Tribal Council discussion about race freaked out other cast members enough that they went to producers. “We were really scared for our safety…Every day got worse with him,” evicted cast member Julie Wolfe ">told E!’s Drusilla Moorhouse . She said they confronted producers. “We actually did, really. We were really concerned for our safety after that racial fight, because there was that tension, and it came out of the craziness. All the threats, they felt real. We kinda slept with one eye open—we never did really sleep, but we had our eyes open looking for that guy.” However, Julie admits that it may have been unnecessary fear: “I laugh about it now. [But] it was a true concern.” The rest of the interview is a fascinating read ; perhaps most interestingly, Julie says her tribe would have voted Rob out first, too. That may be difficult to believe because Rob basically orchestrat...

A&E »     by Andy Dehnart / January 14, 2011, 12:52 PM A&E and Arnold Shapiro’s new reality series Beyond Scared Straight , which follows kids kids got in trouble as they go prison to get the shit scared out of them by actual inmates, became the network’s most-watched new series ever. It’s based on the Oscar-winning 1973 documentary . An average of 3.7 million people tuned in on Thursday, including 2.2 million ages 18 to 49, “making it the most-watched original series launch in the network’s history among all key demos,” A&E said in a press release. By comparison, Hoarders season finale was watched by 3 million viewers on Monday. The debut repeats Saturday at 8 p.m. ET if you missed it. Here’s a preview: View the original article here