Popular Reality TV

Dancing with the Stars announced its cast during a fake press conference tonight following Bachelor Pad, and the show basically has the high-profile cast that it wanted , as it’s a rather recognizable and impressive group, especially for this show. Also, it does not include Jersey Shore ’s Snooki, despite tabloids’ repeated insistence that it would. The cast consists of actor David Arquette; L.A. Lakers player Ron Artest; HLN host Nancy Grace, who’s seeking justice for lil’ Caylee; activist and Becoming Chaz star Chaz Bono, who was formerly known as Chastity Bono; former and about-to-be talk show host Ricki Lake; singer Chynna Phillips, who was part of Wilson Phillips; Queer Eye for the Straight Guy star Carson Kressley, who has gone on to host other reality shows; Italian actor and model Elisabetta Canalis, who may be best known for dating George Clooney until this past June; The Hills star Kristin Cavallari; reality star Rob Kardashian; J.R. Martinez, an actor on All My Children an...

ABC’s Take the Money and Run debuted last week, and is the first worthy successor to ABC’s awesome early 2000s, Anderson Cooper-hosted series The Mole. While ABC reality shows often tend to be glossy, cheesy, and overproduced, like The Bachelor, this show feels fresh, new, and real. It’s an intriguing game, and is basically similar to a single challenge on The Mole: Two people hide a briefcase anywhere in a city, and then two detectives and two interrogators have 48 hours to find it, using GPS and cell phone records, plus information they get via interrogations. The show is produced by Bertram van Munster, Jonathan Littman, and Elise Dognieri, creators and executive producers of The Amazing Race, but while it could be pretty derivative of that show, it stands on its own. ( Watch it online if you’ve missed the first two episodes; I mention the outcomes below.) It’s fascinating to watch the contestants figure out the best way to hide the briefcase and create a trail that throws off th...

This season, So You Think You Can Dance brought back judge Mary Murphy to sit on the panel along with executive producer Nigel Lythgoe and one or two guest judges every week. With reality shows sometimes bringing on celebrities to promote themselves or their projects, they are rarely worthy of much more than a fast-forward button, but the opposite has been true on the Fox dance competition series this summer. The celebrities who’ve been on the panel include Megan Mullally, Debbie Reynolds, Kristin Chenoweth, Carmen Electra, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Neil Patrick Harris, and Lady Gaga. With the notable exception of Carmen Electra, whose awfulness was mitigated because choreographer Travis Wall judged the same week and did exceptionally well (he’d be a fantastic permanent addition to the panel instead of, say, Adam Shankman), they have all been strong judges. They haven’t just been acceptable, either, reaching the low bar people would understandably set for a guest celebrity judge. But eac...