Popular Reality TV

OWN »     by Andy Dehnart / March 2, 2011, 8:16 AM The Oprah Winfrey Network’s first competitive reality series, Your OWN Show , ended its low-rated first (and thus probably last) season on Friday night with predictable ending: Oprah refused to pick between the two finalists, Zach Anner and Kristina Kuzmic-Crocco. She didn’t even fake out one of them, she just said, “The truth is that both of you have given your heart, and the truth is that both of you really deserve to have your own show. Kristina, and Zach, I’m going to make that happen. You will both have your own show on the OWN network.” It was anticlimactic, which fit with this derivative and weak series that had watchable moments but never worked for what it was supposed to be. Executive producer Mark Burnett included himself as the final episode’s mentor, but didn’t do much by way of teaching the finalists how to actually produce a show. Instead, he just said ironic things, such as, “it’s going to come down to execution, bec...

American Idol 10’s top 11 finalists will each receive $1,000 per stop on their 47-city tour , so they’ll make $47,000 plus receive a $50 per diem and a share of the merchandise sold. That’s part of the reason why finalists want to make it to the top 10 (or 11 this season), and what Karen Rodriguez and Ashthon Jones are missing out on—besides the name recognition and exposure that comes from not being forgotten. Don’t forget that finalists get paid for their performances all season and earn money for each recording sold on iTunes , $1,000 plus a $1,000 advance against royalties, so they’re making decent money for their work. The tour salary details come from a a TMZ report that says it has the contestants’ contract but doesn’t actually reproduce or even quote from the contract. The story notes that finalists “receive $50 in spending cash for non-concert days” and “are also guaranteed to stay in ‘Marriott/Hyatt style’ hotel accommodations while on the road — and will fly coach between...

American Idol alum Corey Clark’s Twitter battle with a blogger was more entertaining than American Idol 10’s results show, even with a performance by the Black Eyed Peas and a mashup by the finalists of Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way” and “Born to be Wild” that again featured weird audio. Most interesting was that the bottom three—Karen Rodriguez, Naima Adedapo, and Haley Reinhart—are also the three least-popular finalists on Twitter, where the finalists have free reign this year. The number of followers each American Idol finalist has on Twitter has correlated with the contestants’ lack of popularity: The bottom three both this week and last week are those with the fewest number of followers, though it’s not necessarily an accurate predictor of who will go home, as the person with the fewest number of followers, Naima Adedapo, was safe, as Karen Rodriguez, who has just over a thousand more followers, went home. That was true last week, too, when The Wrap compiled a similar list as of M...