Popular Reality TV

OWN »     by Andy Dehnart / January 31, 2011, 9:42 AM After a month on the air, OWN’s most-popular series is also its best reality show : Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes . And its weak reality competition Your OWN Show has actually lost viewers. The network’s CEO, Christina Norman, told Broadcasting and Cable that the competition has “been declining. So that’s disappointing to us. We believe in that show we think it’s fun and it was a great way for us to showcase the audience in a different way but maybe they don’t want competition reality from us.” I hope she doesn’t make a sweeping judgment like that from a single series; perhaps try airing a competently produced competition series first, and see what happens then. Norman told the AP that while the show “hasn’t really found its audience, and that’s kind of a drag,” it will still give a show to one of its highly unlikeable cast members. “Somebody’s going to win, and somebody’s life is really going to change,” Norman said. On F...

Chopped ended its five-episode all-star season last night, and although the winner received $50,000 for charity, the losers all got nothing—a really disappointing coda to a strong season. (Update: the network is giving an additional $50,000 to charity of the chef who gets the most votes in an online poll. More below.) The series has done nothing but improve since its so-so debut two years ago . This season worked not just because it featured familiar chefs—including the show’s own judges—but because that ramped up the level of intensity, and producers stuck with the winning formula of giving a mix of weird and challenging ingredients to the chefs. Next Iron Chef cast member Nate Appleman won the show, beating runner-up and series judge Aaron Sanchez, whose dry chocolate cake did him in. Next Food Network Star and cast member Michael Proietti went home first, followed by Worst Chefs in America host Anne Burrell. The show constantly emphasized the importance of charity to the chefs,...