Popular Reality TV

Tough Enough, the rebooted competition series that airs Mondays at 8 on USA , has unexpectedly become one of my favorite shows, thanks to the insane eliminations and the physical, brutal competition. (There was also weird overlap with Survivor .) This is true despite the fact that I do not actually watch wrestling. USA Network has offered three prize packs to reality blurred readers who are fans of wrestling or just want a bunch of swag. It’s a WrestleMania XXVII bag with the RAW: The Best of 2010 DVD and The True Story of WrestleMania DVD , plus a stainless steel WWE water bottle with John Cena on it. The retail value is $149. You can enter once per day until May 12: Just leave a comment below about why you want to win, making sure that whatever service you use to sign in displays your real name and makes it possible to contact you. (If your comments aren’t being approved, check the quick and easy instructions here. ) The fine print: No purchase is necessary. You have to be a U.S. ...

On USA’s awesome Tough Enough last night, a contestant quit the competition, citing wanting to be with her daughter. That contestant is Michelle Deighton, a former Top Model contestant whose three-year-old daughter, Piper, is with Jonny Fairplay, the Survivor contestant, who appeared via speakerphone, identified only as “Jonny.” That’s quite the collision of reality TV worlds. Michelle and Jonny’s daughter is the same kid who was accidentally conceived and who, as a fetus, led Fairplay to ask to be voted out of Survivor Fans vs. Favorites . So that kid has now influenced two reality TV shows on two separate networks, giving it more power than any other three-year-old in the history of reality TV. Echoing Fairplay’s rationale for leaving Survivor, Michelle told host Stone Cold Steve Austin before a training session, “I want my daughter more than a WWE contract.” Later, she told us that being in the WWE is “not what I wanted at all.” Steve Austin, whose bad-ass eliminations involve lot...

Tough Enough returned to TV last week on USA, and among its changes for its fifth season is the addition of a host: WWE’s Stone Cold Steve Austin. You might want to watch tonight at 8 p.m. ET for the challenge that involves sending angry dogs after the contestants, but it’s worth checking out just to see his surprisingly phenomenal, hilarious hosting. This is Stone Cold Steve Austin’s show, period. Yet it is also not about him like the way Donald Trump sometimes makes the show about himself. I actually cannot think of another reality series where the host is so prominent yet also keeps the focus so strongly on the contestants. Steve Austin is walking a line here that even the best in the business, Jeff Probst and Ryan Seacrest, tend to miss sometimes, swinging too far over to one side (being critics and viewer stand-ins) or the other (thinking of themselves as stars who deserve more attention than the contestants). And hosting isn’t easy; just look at Bobby Flay and his re-recorded l...

If you sell handcrafted jewelry, you probably experience times when your jewelry won’t sell despite your best marketing efforts. If you’re dependent on your jewelry as your primary source of income, this can be a very frustrating and even scary experience. No need to panic! It may be time to take a fresh look at your jewelry designs. How to Sell Handcrafted Jewelry When Nothing is Selling The first step to correcting this problem is to step back and take an objective look at what you’re offering your customer.Take a brief time away from your jewelry designs to release any emotional energy that may be blocking your ability to be objective. Sometimes jewelry designers are so emotionally involved with their craft that we can’t see their own work objectively. Take a day or two off and do some things that you really enjoy doing. Take long walks through the woods, take some scenic bicycle rides, have a leisurely lunch and don’t think about selling handcrafted jewelry. Soon you’ll be relaxed...

The series that lets people compete for a pro wrestling contract will return to TV more than six years after being effectively canceled. WWE Tough Enough, which aired three seasons on MTV and then a fourth season as part of SmackDown that featured current WWE champion Mike “The Miz” Mizanin , has been picked up by USA Network. USA said in a press release that it will debut April 4 and “will feature a group of twelve individuals looking for an once-in-a-lifetime shot to become the next WWE Superstar or Diva.” It will be produced by Shed Media, which also does The Real Housewives of New York City . Crossover episode, anyone? View the original article here