By Emily Mitchell

MTV has just begun its twenty-second season of The Real World. Since 1992, The Real World has brought seven or eight strangers together to live in a house for about four months in various cities across the world, including Paris, Key West, and Chicago.

This season, the location is Cancun. Let the bikinis reign, and the Patron and tears flow.

The show begins with cast introductions. The cast is a plethora of personalities and backgrounds. Let’s begin with a short introduction of each member:

CJ- This 24-year-old hunk of a man is an NFL free agent. A punter, to be exact. And if you couldn’t already tell that this blonde hair, blue-eyed boy was an athlete, the huge championship ring that he sports wherever he goes will surely give you a hint. Classy. He also has a girlfriend back home.

Emilee- She is from Boston and works at Hooters. She is very pretty. She was adopted, like fellow castmates Derek and Jonna.

Ayiiia- In her own words, her name is pronounced like the late R&B star Aliyah, without the “L”. She is 21-years-old, from San Diego, CA. She won a four-month online contest where she was voted onto the show by fans.

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By Lori Acken

Bachelorette fans, if you’re like me, you long ago passed the, “Well, DOES he or DOESN’T he?” thing about ol’ Wes The Silver Tongued Maybe-Not-A Bachelor and his waitin’-at-home alleged girlfriend, and moved right on to “Who the hell is she, and why isn’t she pissed?!”

Well, we finally know who the hell she is. And why she isn’t pissed. And if you’re picturing some sweet little Austin-grown posey in a flowery dress and cowboy boots who, like Jillian, is completely snowed by her man’s tender tunes … well … not so much.

Before she spent three years with Jilli’s favorite eye-and-ear candy, 29-year-old Austin-based spa owner Laurel Kagay also dated Season 11’s infamous commitment-phobe Bachelor Brad Womack, an Austin bar owner, for four years — sending the blogosphere into a frenzy with rumors of everything from daily texts from Womack during filming to a love child borne to Kagay about which neither speaks.

One revelation that’s definitely not conjecture:  the Texas heartbreaker also dated Austin-based businessman Collin Evans, an unsuccessful contender for the heart of Season 3 Bachelorette Jen Schefft.

Personally, I think the girl seems like a hoot … and one savvy bachelorette to boot, since she suh-wears she and Wes are no longer together. Helloooooo, TB producers … ? Just imagine whom her 5 Extra Men could be.

Tags: Reality TV, TV News & Program Updates by buttonknows
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By Mike

Before we get started recapping the action for Week 2, there is some injury news to report. Jennifer Capriati has aggravated a past injury and has dropped out of the competition. Tough luck for her partner, David Charvet, who gets sent home through no fault of his own. The news is good for the last team eliminated, though, because according to rules of the game, they’re back in. That means at least another week of the Terrell Owens and Joanna Krupa tandem. Woo hoo.

The first event this week is the Sand Dash, in which each team runs 100 yards in the sand. The relay format means that each competitor runs approximately 40-70 yards. It’s an elimination style event, with the last-place team being axed each time, which means the ultimate winner will have to run the race six times. Unsurprisingly, T.O. dominates the event, even when Joanna offers little to no help. Wonder what she thinks of her teammate now. The results after the Sand Dash look like this:

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FOX is honoring the memory and celebrating the life of Michael Jackson with an encore showing of the Jackson-themed American Idol performance show, airing tonight from 8-10pm ET/PT. In this episode, this season’s top 13 contestants performed music from Michael Jackson’s songbook, including Lil Rounds singing “The Way You  Make Me Feel,” Adam Lambert singing “Black or White,” Danny Gokey singing “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing),” Scott MacIntyre singing “Keep the Faith,” Michael Sarver singing “You Are Not Alone,” Jasmine Murray singing “I’ll Be There,” Kris Allen singing “Remember the Time,” Allison Iraheta singing “Give In to Me,” Anoop Desai singing  “Beat It,” Jorge Nunez singing “Never Gonna Say Goodbye,” Megan Joy Corkrey singing “Rockin’ Robin,” Matt Giraud singing “Human Nature” and Alexis Grace singing “Dirty Diana.”

This marks the first time in the 8-year run of Idol that an episode has been rebroadcast.

Video: Lil Rounds singing “The Way You Make Me Feel”

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By Stacey Harrison

Last week’s impromptu bit of toplessness stunned the judges, fellow contestants and viewers and garnered over 140,000 viewings on YouTube. Now, Laurie offers an explanation, chalking her wild antics up to desperately trying to find a way to get kicked off the show.

In true Laurie fashion, though, she rambles and changes her point way too often to make you believe she had any idea what she was doing other than trying to shock people. Apparently God was wanting her to be vulnerable, and she was telling herself to be transparent, then she was fed up with the criticism of the judges — especially Kim Alexis, whom she says is a hypocrite for judging other women while being “65 pounds” off her target weight. Then she didn’t think it was fair for someone like her, who does not seek out the media, but is so often found by them, to compete with women who might be getting their only shot at widespread attention. She believed the show already had been rigged for her to emerge the winner.

Thanks, Laurie. That explains it.

That’s not all, though. In separate videos, Laurie goes on to explain how she’s going to live to be 113, how she has seen “what awaits us in another dimension,” and how her antics are really a product of her childlike exuberance.

Should we be laughing at this woman? There might be some genuine mental illness at work here.

Catch the latest, presumably Laurie-free, episode of She’s Got the Look tonight on TV Land.

Tags: Reality TV by sharrison76
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By Mike

Superstars is back! Well, sort of. The competition show premiered as a two-hour special in 1973 and ran on and off (mostly on) until 2003. Past winners have included O.J. Simpson, Mark Gastineau and Jason Sehorn, plus Herschel Walker and Willie Gault, whose battles in the late ’80s first got us hooked on the show. The old format of the show saw pro athletes competing against one another in various events, such as running, rowing, cycling and weightlifting. The new version pairs the sports stars with celebrities and adds a “The” to the title. Other than that, it seems to be the same.

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By Lori Acken

Back in early May, with storm clouds already directly overhead for TLC’s most famous — and lucrative — couple, Jon & Kate Gosselin, I aimed my “Pushing Buttons” column for the July issue of Channel Guide at the wisdom (or lack thereof) in real Moms and Dads inviting TV audiences to be their nosiest of neighbors. Especially when they are raising a family that is unique because of enormous ranks and the inherent enormous challenges.

Because we work some six weeks out from the time the magazine arrives in your homes, as I was writing, the rest of the nosy neighbors were kept terrifically busy guessing what would go down first: Kate would ditch Jon for her silver-fox bodyguard, Jon would dump Kate for a gum-chewin’ teacher, or  TLC would eventually let on that it was all just a little fictionalized stew they cooked up for ratings’ sake. Because let’s face it — the snugglefest that was Father Knows Best went out of fashion a half-century back and we all love to hate Raymond now.

And now, just a few days before that issue and that column arrive in your mailbox, we got the one-two punch that we kinda saw coming: There will no longer be a Jon and Kate at home with the Eight. Not at one time anyway.

For a while, there won’t even be a show. 

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Tags: Family, Reality TV, TV News & Program Updates by buttonknows
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Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer laugh backstage at their concert in Utah.

By Anna Belle

Last night’s Hammertime episode was a full hour instead of two half-hour episodes and it flowed much better. No doubt, in part (hey, I must have some rapper in me) from the film crew and editing, but the subject matter (the Hammer family) and Tracie, CA and other scenery along the way combines for an enjoyable 50 or so minutes.

With the family planning a surprise 47th birthday party for Stanley, he announces that he has a show in Utah that he can’t miss and that he’s taking Booby (Stanley Jr., age 13) with him to dance. Everyone is slightly upset by this, but Jeremiah (age 11) more so, because he is also aspiring to dance and be part of his dad’s crew.

Jamaris, Stanley’s nephew (age 18) is looking for a job and Stanley encourages his stack of cash to grow by giving him a $20. Now I understood that gesture without any problem. It’s kind of like that age-old principle of “breaking luck” or “making that first sale.” So while Jamaris is out pounding the pavement looking for a job, the rest of the family is planning a surprise  birthday party for Stanley’s return.

Before he leaves for Utah, Stanley drops in at Shade 45 San Francisco (Shade 45 is SIRIUS XM’s uncensored, commercial-free hip-hop channel created by Eminem, Shady Records, Interscope Records and SIRIUS) to promote his upcoming show and talk about reuniting with his friend Vanilla Ice (Robbie Van Winkle).

I guess the question of how MC Hammer made it BIG and then lost it all may be the thing most people want to know about now that he has his own reality show, but by no means is he unique or alone in that issue. But what is unique is Stanley’s message, and it is this message that he brings to Shade 45 and the listeners who may be unemployed and losing everything: at the end of the day, holding the family together will be the biggest payoff. Stanley said it best, “Hold on to love and family.” [Read more →]

Tags: Reality TV by ahavlicek
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Stanley Burrell (MC Hammer)

By Anna Belle
You can’t pay me enough to watch those lame reality shows. I wouldn’t be caught dead watching Survivor (but I do play the office pool), and I roll my eyes when my co-workers get all excited over the latest American Idol winner.

But I was glued to my set Sunday to watch back-to-back episodes of Hammertime on A&E and was thankful I DVR’d them so I could watch them again last night.

I’m not sure yet what piqued my interest when I first saw the press release in early February about the “new, original series” following the life of dancer MC Hammer and his family of seven. I had always been fascinated by his dance moves but wasn’t particularly impressed with his music.

But I don’t argue with what gets my juices going so when the “what might you be interested in blogging about” list came out, I signed up for Hammertime and enthusiastically watched it and man was I, 1) happy I did, and 2) really, really impressed.

First off, he’s no Kendra, which I was pleased about (I read somewhere she had to have her tongue surgically removed from the back of her teeth). He IS the father of five, the male figure in his nephew’s life and husband and best friend of 23 years to his wife Stephanie. [Read more →]

Tags: Reality TV by ahavlicek
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By Jeff Pfeiffer

NBC’s The Biggest Loser is launching a 15-city cross-country search to find new contestants for Season 9 of the weight-loss competition series, set to air in early 2010 (Season 8 begins this September). Casting producers are looking for outgoing and charismatic family teams of two (parent/child, siblings, husbands and wives, couples, cousins, in-laws, etc.). Individuals who don’t have a partner can audition on their own. Candidates must be at least 18 years of age, and legal U.S. residents. The casting teams will attempt to see the first 500 people in line, and you will not be allowed to line up prior to three hours before the start of the open call. Bring a non-returnable photo of yourself and your partner.

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Tags: Reality TV, TV News & Program Updates by RabbitEars
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