Popular Reality TV

Whale Wars »     by Andy Dehnart / January 19, 2012, 6:47 AM The intensity of the confrontation between anti-whaling activists and Japanese whalers continues in the Southern Ocean, where a camera operator for Animal Planet’s documentary reality series Whale Wars was injured. On its web site, Sea Shepherd reports that “American crewmember Brian Race, (25) from New York, was jabbed twice in the face with a bamboo pole receiving lacerations above his right eye and on his nose. Russell Bergh of South Africa, (35) a cameraman for Animal Planet, was struck in the right arm and shoulder with an iron grappling hook thrown from the harpoon vessel resulting in deep bruising. Photographer Guillaume Collet of France, (27) was also struck in the right arm and shoulder by an iron grappling hook resulting in deep bruising.” That happened when, Paul Watson said, Sea Shepherd’s “”small boats were attempting to slow down the Japanese harpoon vessel Yushin Maru No. 2, which is aggressively tailing the ...

Emmanuel Kelly, an Iraqi orphan whose limbs were damaged by chemical warfare, wowed Australia’s X Factor ’s judges with his performance last night, but he was, unbelievably, rejected from both Australia’s Got Talent and X Factor last year. His audition of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” which is below, resulted in a standing ovation but isn’t quite one of those now near-cliche auditions where someone who looks like an unlikely singer and has a disproportionately amazing voice. But what is surprising is that it took him this long to find his way to television because of both his story and his talent. (One of the judges said, “compared to the other people here, regardless of your story, you have a beautiful gift.”) The Telegraph reports that he “auditioned for Australia’s Got Talent last year but did not make it on to the show,” while the AAP reports that he “auditioned for last year’s [X Factor] show but failed to make it through.” View the original article here

Crew members on The Biggest Loser have walked out in an effort to unionize, shutting down production on the show. Deadline reports that “representatives from IATSE, the union that represents most film and TV crew members, showed up on the set of The Biggest Loser [Monday] night and led the crew off the set. As a result, filming on the show was suspended.” The site notes that “representatives from IATSE and Reveille, which produces the series with 3 Ball Prods., have been discussing a potential agreement” but previously, “producers were not aware of such attempts and were surprised by the labor action.” In related news, last week TMZ reported that season 11 contestant “Amy Feitelberg was hiking on Backbone Trail in the Malibu area, when she fell off the trail during a workout for the show.” But that wasn’t true, so TMZ did what all ethical journalists do: deleted their story and pretended it never existed. ( Google doesn’t forget. ) Three days later, the site posted a new story that...