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America’s Got Talent ’s fifth winner, Michael Grimm , received only about $200,000 as his prize for winning the show, which advertises its prize as $1 million. That’s because he took the lump sum, instead of getting paid over time, and During the show’s second season, I analyzed the fine print of the show’s $1 million prize in detail , discovering that it was worth about $375,000 after taxes, but that was based on 2007-era assumptions about tax rates. The key is that the prize is not $1 million: it’s $25,000 a year or a lump sum. The Sun-Herald reports that Grimm ultimately received “a little more than $200,000, he said, once the network got its cut of more than 50 percent and he paid taxes on the lump sum he received.” It’s not clear what NBC’s “cut” means, whether he had to pay them something, or if it’s just referring to the reduced value if one opts for the lump sum. Sunday, Grimm’s grandparents moved into a new house; theirs was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and Grimm vowed to...

« Fear Factor Recap: Heights And Bug Drinks! | Home | Is Emily Maynard The Next Bachelorette? » December 20, 2011 08:50 AM by Lisa Princ Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi of MTV’s hit  Jersey Shore is always causing a stir , but when the pint-sized star decided to file a lawsuit over her Snooki related merchandise, she probably never thought she would be hit with a counterclaim. But the company that Snooki originally went after is now slapping the Jersey Shore with a $7 million dollar lawsuit. Read on for more… Last year, Jersey Shore’s Snooki partnered with SRG Ventures to launch a line of Snooki related merchandise, including everything from school supplies to lingerie. In October, Snooki filed a suit against the company to end their contract, claiming that they did not fulfill their obligations – which promised her a certain amount of money and branding partnerships. Ah, it’s all about the money, isn’t it? What Snooki probably did not bargain for though, was a counterclaim against her fo...

Home > Drama > Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror episode 2 ’15 Million Merits’ – spoiler clip and pictures! December 9th, 2011 by Lisa McGarry. 3 Comments For those of you who aren’t all about the X Factor this weekend, we’d recommend that you tune in for the second installment of Charlie Brooker’s new three part drama ‘Black Mirror.’ The first episode was received well, with over 1.9 million viewers tuning in for the premiere, making it Channel 4's biggest drama launch of the year. On Sunday night the team take a look at the all encompassing world of reality TV and celebrity culture and Brooker teased the episode here , saying; It’s set in a dystopian, sarcastic version of the future, in which everyone is compelled to live a life of physical drudgery, and the only real means of escape is by entering a kind of talent show. Rupert Everett stars in the show and takes on a Simon Cowell sort of a role, which if you watch the clip below we think you’ll have to agree, he plays to p...

« Jeff Probst Of Survivor Is Officially Off The Market! | Home December 08, 2011 02:30 PM by Perry Miller Former Dancing with the Stars contestant and current ESPN correspondent, Erin Andrews filed a $10 million invasion of privacy lawsuit this morning. The lawsuit was originally filed last year, but was re-filed this morning to ensure that the statute of limitations would not run out. Erin Andrews claims that in 2008 at the Nashville West End Marriott she was videotaped naked through a peephole in her hotel room, causing her to suffer from anxiety and humiliation.  The suspect, Michael Barrett, has since plead guilty and  been convicted of stalking Erin Andrews and is currently serving 2 1/2 years in federal prison. In the invasion of privacy lawsuit Erin Andrews is suing the Nashville West End Marriott for $6 million for negligence, claiming that they allowed Michael Barrett to find out she was staying there and to book the room next door. She is also suing Michael Barrett for $...

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A former Big Brother houseguest now says he’s worth $10 million, and appeared in last week’s season premiere of Bravo’s Millionaire Matchmaker . Michael Donnellan was the second person evicted from season six in 2005, where he was identified as an artist and was partnered with Kaysar, his neighbor. In his casting video , Michael says his “estimated asset value is over $10 million,” and talks about going from having a job that paid $70,000 or $80,000 a year to having a house in Cape Town, moving to Dubai for work, and buying an Aston Martin. Michael organized a date that led to a fight with Patti Stanger, which ended with her kicking him out of the Millionaire’s Club and him “calling her a whore in Italian,” according to TV Geek Army’s recap . The video of the date is included in the “dates with awkwardness” category on Bravo’s (still awful after all these years) web site, which says it is among “the most cring-worthy dates in Matchmaker history.” But from the clip below, it doesn’t ...

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Big Brother 13 started strong, with ratings that were higher than last summer’s debut, but while the show continues to win its timeslot during the slow summer months, about 1 million viewers have fled the show, perhaps to avoid hearing Rachel’s laugh. But the show easily beat Mark Burnett’s Expedition Impossible , which hit a series low in its ratings Thursday. While 7.71 million viewers watched Big Brother’s July 7 debut, an a 5 percent increase from last summer’s debut, only 6.73 million watched Cassi’s exit Thursday night, according to a CBS press release , which notes that “was the night’s top program in viewers and key demographics, posting across-the-board increases from last week.” That was down from 7.02 million people on Wednesday, but up from the previous live episode, which only had 6.48 million viewers . Again, though, the show keeps winning its timeslot, even though there isn’t much competition in the summer. While the show has a hard-core online audience, the broadcast...

« So You Think You Can Dance: This Week Brings Us Kristin Chenoweth And Axis Dance Crew | Home June 26, 2011 12:00 PM by Lisa Princ Million Dollar Listing on Bravo ‘s season may be over , but the guys are still hard at work. So much so that Josh Flagg may be even be expanding his real estate business to Costa Rica….but what does that mean for the show? Keep reading for more! Million Dollar Listing’s Josh Flagg will be hosting a dance party in Costa Rica for four days in July, but it’s not all just play – he may be expanding his business there! The party, which is being sponsored by Hacienda Matapalo, the best selling Costa Rica Real Estate gated community on Costa Rica’s South Pacific Coast is just part of his reason for heading out there as Josh Flagg said: “In addition to seeing all the wonders Costa Rica has to offer from a vacationer’s perspective, I’m also looking forward to visiting the Hacienda Matapalo property to see if I can bring business there.” The real estate guru an...

It was the most dramatic The Celebrity Apprentice season ever and the least dramatic finale, which ended with Donald Trump giving John Rich the win for no clear reason. Marlee Matlin was not fired, nor did Trump “hire” John Rich, perhaps an acknowledgement of their status as virtual equals, or perhaps just discarding terminology that makes no sense with the celebrity edition of the show. Despite the confetti, it was an oddly flat and abrupt ending to what has been the franchise’s craziest season ever, producing crazy moment after crazy moment , all of which gave us new understanding of the celebrities involved. John Rich’s charity, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, receives $250,000, which brings the season total for fundraising to a TV series record, NBC says, of $3,120,852. Both John Rich and Marlee Matlin visited their charities (she was playing for The Starkey Hearing Foundation) to see their work in action, and also performed a song together, “For the Kids,” which ended wit...

Six years ago, Bethenny Frankel first came to our attention as a contestant on Martha Stewart’s version of The Apprentice. Three years ago, she first showed up as a cast member on The Real Housewives , which both she and Bravo each almost rejected. Today, Bethenny has taken her fame from the Bravo series and turned it into a brand that’s quite so lucrative, her Skinnygirl line of margaritas was just sold for about $120 million. In a feature story, The Hollywood Reporter says that her “approximately $120 million deal gives Beam Global complete ownership of Skinnygirl cocktails and any alcoholic beverage under the Skinnygirl umbrella.” In the story, which is fascinating, Bravo president Frances Berwick said Bethenny was almost not selected: “We had a few reservations … since we don’t take reality stars and put them on the network.” Bethenny says she likewise almost rejected Bravo’s eventual offer, and admits, “I went on the show single-handedly and exclusive for business. I knew it was...

Survivor »     by Andy Dehnart / February 3, 2011, 9:55 AM Like other reality TV show participant contracts, the Survivor cast member contract includes a clause that disclosing information about the show in advance will result in “liquidated damages” of $5 million per incident, which is not, as the contract says, a “penalty.” On Concurring Opinions, George Washington University professor of law Lawrence A. Cunningham analyzes the contract , and concludes that the $5 million in damages may not be enforceable, and CBS would have to prove its actual damages in each incident because of how different each kind of breach is. He writes that the contract’s “linguistic maneuvers are all intended to promote the clause’s validity under ancient contract law doctrine. This enforces party attempts to set damages at compensatory levels when it is hard to determine them but denies effect to those designed to coerce, penalize or prod parties to contracts. The trouble with the CBS clause, however, is ...

reality blurred is a daily digest of reality TV news, gossip, and analysis written, produced, and edited by Andy Dehnart . Learn more about the site . For information about reprinting reality blurred 's content, or for pithy quotes for your newspaper, magazine, TV program, or radio show, contact me . The text on these pages is copyrighted but can be used non-commercially under a Creative Commons license . Anyone is welcome to quote from this site, but please give credit and link back using the handy link and share options. Don't be a plagiarist. Thanks. This site is powered by Movable Type . View the original article here

Survivor host Jeff Probst has bought a famous house for $5 million: it’s Gene Autry’s Studio City estate. Jeff paid $5 million, a good deal since it went on the market at $6.9 million last summer. The Los Angeles Times reports that the 3.68-acre property is a “two-story Monterey-style house of about 8,000 square feet [that] has pegged hardwood floors, a family room with a wet bar, a library/media room with vintage walnut paneling, a breakfast room, five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. Balconies overlook the acreage, which has winding paths and flower gardens. The grounds also include a guesthouse, a swimming pool and an outdoor entertainment area with a fireplace.” If the production gets tired of filming the show in Samoa , it sounds like they could soon use Jeff’s back yard. View the original article here

Bravo »     by Andy Dehnart / February 2, 2011, 12:50 PM Chad Rogers has left Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing , something we first learned last April , but the terms of his departure are so important that his lawyer has threatened a TV critic—even though the critic’s reporting is based on something Bravo’s president said. In addition, his lawyer also claimed “Chad enjoys extremely positive publicity.” The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Rob Owen reported on Monday that “Bravo executive Frances Berwick said his departure was a ‘mutual’ decision,” quoting the word “mutual.” Berwick also told him, “We’d done three seasons with the three of them and it was really time to bring in new blood. We found somebody who’s absolutely great in a complete different way from Chad.” But Chad’s lawyer, Wendy Heller, insisted in a highly ridiculous and aggressively aggrieved cease and desist letter to Owen that claim is “inaccurate and inflammatory information” and added, “This allegation is false, which you ...

Another week, another ridiculously freakin’ awesome episode of Celebrity Apprentice, from Richard Hatch floating the possibility that Jose Canseco pretended his father was dying of cancer (in order to get out of a fundraising task) to NeNe Leakes telling Star Jones how to get paint off her hands (using water in the sink). And that was before the batshit crazy boardroom, when Donald Trump threw out all the rules after revealing that “we’ve never raised this much money in a whole season.” In an art auction challenge, the men raised $626,908 from the art they created, but the women raised $986,000 “for an all-time Apprentice record.” Trump gave $14,000 to bring that to an even $1 million, making the total more than $1.6 million. Trump called it a “very sad situation” because one team had to lose, so the project managers, John Rich and Marlee Matlin, agreed that each team could keep their earnings for their charity. Later, he gave Marlee the option of firing no one on the men’s team becau...

For the second time in two seasons, a cast member on Bravo’s docudrama Million Dollar Listing is coming out as gay. But while Madison Hildebrand started as quasi-straight and eventually discovered his sexuality in about 90 seconds of thinly developed narrative , Josh Flagg’s dating life has never been a part of the show, although his Judaism and other aspects of his personal life have been included. That changes on Tuesday’s episode, which, in a remarkable coincidence, happens to be the same day that Josh’s second book, a memoir that includes discussion of his sexuality, will be released. (He previously wrote A Simple Girl: Stories My Grandmother Told Me , which is about his grandmother, Edith Flagg, easily the best character on the show who has a pretty fascinating story herself.) Last week’s episode hinted at Josh’s coming out when Josh discussed his book with someone who asked if “Colton” knew about certain content in the book. That wasn’t explained on the show—I wouldn’t expect...

Paula Abdul’s Live to Dance did surprisingly well last night: just over 10 million people watched the show, and stayed with it through both hours, unlike Skating with the Stars’ hemorrhaging of its viewers . That’s an impressive number, and while The Biggest Loser had more viewers ages 18 to 49, it wasn’t by much. So yes, although the show sucked horrifically , clearly 10 million people disagree and/or fell asleep during the middle of the show. And I’d really like to know what kept people around. NBC’s The Sing Off wasn’t well-produced, but worked because it had a lot of talent. Live to Dance didn’t have much of anything at all, except translucent stars with different colored lights behind them. View the original article here

Survivor Nicaragua’s move back to Wednesday nights didn’t impact the show’s ratings, but this weak season was reflected in the ratings of the finale, which was the lowest-rated ever, and actually lost more than 3 million viewers between the first and second half-hours. About 17.236 million viewers tuned in during the first half-hour, but in the 8:30 half-our, just 13.895 million people were watching. They stuck around for the rest of the show and the reunion. That’s according to ratings data complied by TV By the Numbers , which notes that among viewers ages 18 to 49, this was “a series finale low, down 7% vs. last Fall’s Survivor: Samoa finale 4.4 adults 18-49 rating. Although because of the football overrun, adjustments are more likely than usual, even a 4.2 rating would tie an all time low for a finale.” But Media Life notes that “it was still easily the top-rated non-football program on a rerun-packed night dominated once again by the NFL,” and the show did well on Wednesday at ...

« Rock of Love: Bret Michaels is Engaged! | Home | American Idol: Preview Kelly Clarkson’s New Song “You Still Won’t Know What It’s Like” » December 22, 2010 08:30:13 by Shayla Perry A guy happens to date and marry (then subsequently divorce) a few younger women, and now, he’s an expert on being a “Sugar Daddy.” At least, that’s what the people over at SugarSugar.com think, and they’re hoping that Kelsey Grammer, ex-husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills ‘ Camille Grammer (aka wife #3), will accept the company’s offer of $1 million dollars to be their spokesman. “To launch, SugarSugar.com is offering Kelsey Grammer $1 million to endorse the online dating service as the official ‘Sugar Daddy Spokesman,’” claims a representative of the company. “With this deal, Grammer is also invited to share his expert ’sugar dating’ expertise in monthly mentor posts on the site’s blog. “In addition to the monetary compensation, SugarSugar.com will also provide Mr. Grammer with a lifetime mem...