Forgotten Reality Shows

Remember when Fox ran Paradise Island and the whole point was trying to get self-centered loser couples to cheat on each other on TV? Or How Kourtney Kardashian was on Filthy Rich: Cattle Drive? What other weird reality shitshows have been lost to the dregs of time?

Who Wants To Be A Hilton.

Playing It Straight - Fox show where a woman dated a bunch of guys, some of whom were - shocker!- actually gay. Cheesy but there were some really hot guys.

Mr. Personality - a woman dates a bunch of guys wearing creepy masks. Hosted by Monica Lewinsky.

The Littlest Groom - Nuff Said

When Animals Attack. Fox was really scraping the bottom of the barrel for a long time.

Season 1 of PAradise Hotel is the single greatest reality show of all time. It's available on YouTube. The 2nd season sucked, but the first was a thing of absurdist beauty. The rules constantly change, and the shirtless men don't hurt.

R2 I think Fox also did a gay version of The Bachelor but didn't even air all the episodes. It was after the (relative) success of Boy Meets Boy.

"Rich Girls" was on MTV in the early 2000s with Tommy Hilfiger's daughter and another spoiled rich girl. They just whined and traveled the world spending money they didn't earn.

WB Superstar USA

Clueless singers were ranked higher the more terrible they were, they never heard each other sing until the very end and the show wasn't aired until the competition was over. (I like to think that at least *some* of them were in on the joke though...)

Omar sings "Endless Love"

JoJo sings "Crazy in Love"

From Mark Burnett, the man who brought us Surivor came Pirate Master! An exciting show about something or other to do with hidden treasure, gold dubloons, etc. So unnecessarily convoluted and confusing, I loved it. Of course, weekly losers were forced to "walk the plank" which meant that we sent away from the ship in a row boat.

Joe millionaire, I want to marry Harry, plastic surgery reality show-swans, ladette to lady, platinum weddings

Joe Millionaire was hilariously awful

How come the Apprentice stopped showing regular people (or at least Omorosa and her ilk).

Who Wants To Marry a Multimillionaire

"Kid Nation" where a group of kids of different ages In the show are left unsupervised to create a functioning society in the town, including setting up a government system with minimal adult help and supervision.

Until a few of the younger ones accidentally drank bleach. Oops!

Rock Star, when INXS chose a new lead singer

Utopia...was that last year? What a spectacular failure. So so do stupid and boring.

"Pirate Master" didn't even air all of its episodes in 2007 but burned them off on CBS.com.

Kathy Hilton's show was so horribly bad but fun! Snootily telling people they weren't good enough to "be a Hilton"!

TLC had the shows "In A Fix" and "Clean Sweep" which were "Trading Spaces" coattail riders but they both had a LOT of hot "carpenters" on them.

I LOVED "While You Were Out"! Even Farmer was so cute and I'm heartbroken that he is allegedly straight. He was so gay on the show! And Jason Cameron was very hot, too!

Wasn't Lorenzo Lamas on Are You Hot? And was there fat circling involved?

There's Something About Miriam, 2003 UK reality dating show where all of the male contestants had no idea they were pursuing a "bachelorette" type dating relationship with the gorgeous MTF transgender person, Miriam. Very controversial back in the day.

I was crushed when the Liza and David reality show never happened.

Yes, R20, Lorenzo was a judge on "Are You Hot?"

The one where Jerry Hall was looking for a "kept man"

"Top Design" gave us lizard person Jonathan Adler sneering "See you later, decorator!" at the person kicked off the interior design competition show each week.

"Shear Genuis" gave us Jaclyn Smith hosting a hair dresser competition starring DL fave Tabitha 'Oym taking ovah!' Coffey.

On that Gay Cowboy show, the "straight" winner or runner up finally came out as gay - duh.

The Assistant which was a sorta parody/not really of The Apprentice with Andy Dick in the Trump role.

On TLC there was also this bizarre 2005 show, "Sheer Dallas", with Larry Hagman narrating about various people in Big D, like hair dressers and rodeo gals and other silly "Texan" types.

However, it was fun to watch here in Dallas and see all the places we knew well!

Platinum Hit - featuring Jewel and Kara DioGuardi

Duets starring Kelly Clarkson and Alan Thicke's son (forgot his name)

The a.capella group competition show hosted by Nick Lashay

The Wall (?) music comp hosted by Josh Grobin

"Chasing Farrah" and "Ryan and Tatum: The O'Neals" killed any mystique and attraction I had for Ryan O'Neal.

All three of them were annoying, self-absorbed and emotionally unstable, and made me less interested in seeing how celebrities actually live day-to-day.

Average Joe

Super band with Sebastian Bach

Was there a Joe Millionaire 2?

Yes, I thought Evan Marriott was VERY hot back in 2003.

Alex McLeod, the original hostess of "Trading Spaces" was supposed to host "Joe Millionaire" but they ended up cutting out most of her scenes which she DID film. She's barely in the first and final episode, but she filmed the whole time in France.

Beauty and the Geek

Loved that and Average Joe. People were not as crude back then and I loved those shows.

The Swan, where plain Janes were transformed into "beauty" queens via plastic surgery. Amazed this one actually aired.

Kim K produced a show about PR mavens starring her awful, hateful, closeted, slimy, status climbing bestie, Jonathan Chebin. It had the word Spin in the title. Ugh that guy is so gross, not suitable for TV.

The Swan!!!!

"Joe Schmo" from 2004 - "What is going on????!!!!"

The show that brought us Anderson

The Mole

It was a pretty good show, killed off after 9/11

Some of the clues though to decipher which one in the group was the mole were pretty impossible to figure out.

r39 I was JUST going to write that!!! Loved that show...

R33 reminded me of the Scott Baio reality shows (there were 2) on VH1. My memories of Scott as a nice guy were killed when we saw the real Scott: a dreary, insecure, abusive, right-wing boor. He did himself no favors by being real on TV.

Trading Spouses - ok, not totally forgotten thanks to the GOD WARRIOR, but almost. There were some other episodes almost as crazy as that one. A couple memorable ones were a hillbilly family that had a pine nut farm and this weird hippie family from CA who always went barefoot and slept in the same bed (think they had 2 boys around puberty age). I thought it was vastly superior to Wife Swap because the episodes were long enough that you really got to know these freaks, and the "twist" with the money at the end resulted in some classic reality tv momentslike the God Warrior's meltdown.

NYC Prep - this show was horrifying and hilarious! I binged it on Netflix - I think it might still be there. Wonder where those creeps are nowadays, especially PC.

How Clean Is Your House? - before Hoarders, this was the show that made me feel better about my lazy housekeeping.

I just came here to post "The Joe Schmo Show." Fucking priceless.

I'm blanking on the name, but NBC had a show that seemed like a rip-off of Amazing Race, but it came out around the same time, so I don't think it was an actual rip-off.

Another fan of Average Joe. It was so funny when the hunks showed up and completely took over.

I loved "The Mole" also!!! The winner was very cute, with his bleached tips hair - SO 1999-2001!

"Joe Schmo 2" from a few years ago looked just like my ex-husband when we were first together... Memories...

Jonathan Cheban! There's a champion hanger-on.

The male version of VH1's Charm School: Tool Academy!!!

Anyone remember the PBS reality shows: Manor House, Frontier House and Colonial House?

"Stylista" was a "Project Runway" knock-off with Ann Slowey from Elle magazine as host. She was so insufferable and cloying that she acted like a SNL parody of herself.

"Work of Art" hosted by China Chow, and produced by Sarah Jessica Parker, who was featured throughout every show spouting pretentious New York art world jargon.

The existence of Tool Academy had been wiped from my mind, but dear God, I watched it. There was a guy named Matsuflex.

The USA's "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here" in 2003 which was notable for JLo's second ex-husband Cris Judd being on it, as well as fame whore, Melissa Rivers.

Also Stuttering John from Howard Stern...

And some guy who became a Lady in 2015...

What was the great one with Vitamin C where they had awful singers vying to be an "Idol" but somehow made them think they could sing.

I also loved the one with pretty girls and nerdy guys but it was a bust because I found the nerdy guys extremely hot. Times had changed.

"Lost"

Teams are dropped blindfolded into a "mystery" country. The teams don't know each other, they are paired up for the show. They are given no money until they figure out where they are. Then with minimal resources they must find their way to the Statue of Liberty.

There were two seasons, the first started in Mongolia and the second in Bolivia. Perhaps a victim of the huge success of The Amazing Race, they premiered around the same time.

It wasn't too bad but ratings were dismal. Far far worse has come along since then.

The Amazing Race rip-off is coming back to me... I think it was called "Lost".

Discovery Kids had a Survivor for tweens called "Endurance" that was actually really well done. I watched that even though I wasn't part of the target audience. (I must have been about 30 at the time.)

MTV had Sorority Life, and the inferior Fraternity Life. Both shows were atrocious, but it was fun to watch them getting drunk with friends and ripping the sisters and pledges apart.

Still the best... "Temptation Island"!!!!!

Mad-TV did the best spoofs of it also!

There was also The Fashion Show with Isaac Mizrahi...only thing I remember about it was the Asian guy saying "Oh here go hell come." He will live on in GIF form forever.

And Project Runway Accessory...how that got greenlit I'll never understand.

One spinoff I did like was Top Chef: Desserts.

Yes, they really aired the lifeless "Queer Eye for the Straight Girl"

"Trading Spouses", "Wife Swap" and "Super Nanny" are the only reality shows that I ever watched with any regularity.

Such guilty pleasures!

There was one on a cable network-- exec produced by Ron Howard-- where teams had to escape from weird places, like an abandoned asylum.

True Beauty. Vanessa Minillo and Carson Kressley looking for the most beautiful person without telling the contestants that they are looking for "inner" beauty and tricking the contestants with various temptations (cheating, backstabbing, that sort of thing) that are filmed with hidden cameras. In the second season (yes there was one) Vanessa is kept away from the contestants until they are being eliminated and face the reason why they got booted (because they got caught being "ugly").

"Bug Juice" was a reality show set at camp that aired on the Disney Channel in the late 90s.

I don't think a reality show featuring minors away from their parents would be green-lit today.

PBS's Frontier House was so popular that Oprah and Gayle made a visit. Before arriving, Oprah very famously bellowed, "I ain't gonna be no slave!!"

I also liked Treasure Hunters, which had teams of three trying to collect clues for a final "treasure". It focused more on the clue-solving steps than Amazing Race does, which is more to my liking. Only lasted one season though.

Long before "Survivor" brought Reality TV to our lives (the competition type anyway), there was a show on weekends where guys and girls competed from different colleges, remember? Except EVERY challenge had a sexual undertone to it so it was ahead of its time -- "Girls, you will take this hose and suck up all the jelly from your guy partner's shorts! Ready?!" I would watch it with my mouth dropped.

What was the MTV one where they went to schools and paid cash to get them to do gross stuff? I remember one hideous dykey girl eating a ball of hair (and wax) for $100 and it still makes me ant to vomit.

Santino Rice and the super Femme guy from Project Runway went on a road trip. In one episode they made a gingham dress for some hick woman. So weird and dumb. Does anyone else remember that disaster?

Don't forget the actress version of "American Idol" -- hosted by, drum roll, yes, Miss Faye Dunaway herself.

I watched ALL of these. Now I watch almost no TV. Reality TV was invented for me.

Darva Conger and Rick Rockwell made Early 2000 some of the campiest TV ever!

Don't forget Tila Tequila! With some hot guys and that very cool Lesbian that was so handsome. (Dani?)

Rick Rockwell's face is like staring into the abyss.

Whodunnit. A Murdery Mystery game show with so much drama and theatrics and murky rules (how does the show decide which of the contestants had the conclusion furthest from the truth? - Later it was revealed that the players did a The Mole type of quiz off screen).

(I forgot Tila Tequila's claim to fame at the time was that she had 1 million MySpace friends. Talk about dated!)

I loved the show all about Southwest Airlines and their crew. Was it called "Airline" I think?

What was the name of the show where a team of two contestants would try to find the hidden treasure before the cops found it? Insanity! The cops did NOT like to be duped or one-upped by nerds!

The Osbornes rip off starring Gene Simmons, the big titted blonde he refused to marry, and their two sullen teens. What a prick that guy is.

A couple of years ago there was a show where three teams were trapped in a cage or room and had to escape without being caught by the guards. There were three levels or parts and at the end the winner received some huge cash prize. Each episode took place in a different location (prison, airfield, jungle/swamp, battleship, etc.) I kind of liked that one, but can't remember the name.

"Oprah and Gayle's Road Trip" was surprisingly entertaining. It was edited well, and used lots of great music.

Gayle seemed like a blast to be around, and their arguments were also shown. They encountered cowboys, cops, bigots, janky motels, crashed a wedding, toured Elvis's estate and his private bunker of belongings with Lisa Marie Presley, and ended up in Times Square.

That was The Starlet, R70! I watched the whole thing and it was great.

Fear Factor. I had the hots for host.

[quote]One spinoff I did like was Top Chef: Desserts.

I loved that one. I had such a crush on the winner of the first season. The crazy guy (the guy with the, was it tater tots?, are for my mummy nervious breakdown ) was in the second season, right?

"The Family" from 2003 on ABC is TOTALLY forgotten! I can barely find anything on it.

It was some Italian American family backstabbing each other to win the prize money. The winner was the very, very hot son, Anthony, who went on to do a few fashion reality shows. Pretty sure he was gay but...?

Anyone else remember that show???

Is Scare Tactics with Shannen Doherty forgotten? Apparently it ran a really long time.

"Growing Up Gotti" was filled with eyebrow-sculpted men years before the normalizing of eyebrow-sculpted men.

Live for the Moment was a show produced by Jeff Probst. Terminally ill people were granted their dying wish which was usually boring like skydive (as opposed to something interesting like banging a supermodel).

The show was so earnest and heartfelt. All feel good, no bitchiness or drama. It lasted only a few episodes.

American Idol had a spin off where all of the competitors were little kids. Each "singer" was screechier than the last. It was torture to sit through.

After it failed, Simon Cowell had some hilariously snarky thngs to say about it. If he isn't gay, he's the gayest straight man alive.

"Starting Over", a daily reality soap opera where troubled women live in a house and are counseled by.....wait for it....Iyanla, right after her blow up with Oprah. But the highpoint was a life coach named Rhonda Britten. She had one patient named Lisa that she completely loathed. Once Lisa stood her up during an assignment and for her punishment, Rhonda locked her in a cage. She told Lisa with an evil smile on her face "you know I'd never do anything to humiliate you." Towanda Braxton was also a housemate

Show Biz Moms and Dads should never be forgotten. It brought us the immortal Shane Klingensmith and his skort wearing mom, Debbie. "This isn't Raymond James Stadium"

Debbie is surely his grandmother.

Joe Schmo from 2-3 years ago was the funniest. The girl who played the deaf ventriloquist contestant and Lorenzo Lamas and his "Casual Pouch" were hysterical. And I never would've thought Jim Belushi had a hot son.

Robert Belushi - handsome (IMO)

Wickedly Perfect - the search for Americas next style guru. With Joan Lunden!

RU the Girl - where Chilli and T-Boz looked for a replacement for Left Eye and went with someone named OSO Crispy....to join TLC and then never heard from her again. P Diddy Starmaker - A Mark Burnett/Diddy show like Idol The Road To Stardom with Missy Elliot - Winner was some girl who had a record deal already. Fashion Star on NBC - a show that was a blatant home shopping program. Styled to Rock with Rhianna -Yeah this one was bad Pop Stars - Before there was Idol there was Pop Stars on the WB - with Eden's Crush and Scene 23 the second season. I wanna marry Harry - where they had a Prince Harry look alike...

fame - hosted by Joey Fatone - with Debbie Allen, Jonnie Wright and some creepy looking dj as judges...Shannon Bex of Danity Kane Fame came in second (and then when they needed girls for danity kane - Jonnie showed up with her...)

People forget Kristen Wiig starred in that first season of "Joe Schmo".

Yigit was the winner of "Top Chef: Desserts" (on DVD, by the way, I put it on in background sometimes). He was adorable. The crazy guy was in that season too, he was hot but nuts. Oh and the other almost winner, cute in a seedy way, was arrested for child porn, I think. To my shock!

I think "Fashion Star" was the one where a male contestant told a female judge her opinion meant nothing to him because he was a menswear designer and Jessica Simpson told him "Women are ruling the world" and got a big round of applause. He got kicked off. The whole thing was pretty much vomit. One contestant from Austin got his 15 minutes and did a fashion runway show in a mall there with Tim Gunn. I was embarrassed to be there. AND you had to go buy $100 worth of Lucky Brand cheap shit even to talk to Gunn, ha, fuck that. I left.

My all time favorite random reality show was the fox hit:

My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé

I also enjoyed one with jewel on bravo where songwriters compete

ha, I still play one of the songs from that show, the one Johnny wrote, "Going Where I Need to Be", I think. Too bad it had that dull dull Kara girl from AI as the judge. She was deadweight.

I'm embarrassed to say that of all the shows already named, I am recalling maybe 95% now that I'm reminded of them. Oh, and I've seen probably 80%, even more if you limit it to just major network shows.

TL;DR: this thread is really hilarious and sad for me.

R104, this is the only reality show original song that I can remember

"The Pick-Up Artist", where nerds were given truly lame ways to "score" with women. Taught by the aptly named Mystery, who lived up to his name as you wonder why any woman, even a blind one, would give him a second look. And he was assisted by his wingmen, who no one gay straight male or female would be attracted to even at last last call.

I watched every episode

R107 wins! That show was beyond belief!!!

I still remember when Big Brother began. I can't believe it's still on. I know - not forgotten, but it should be by now.

R109, I only saw one season (maybe two) in the early 2000's. See if this season sounds familiar: There were a pair of female twins (I think they were religious twins); an older male and some alpha female from Boston. The Boston female made it to the final two. The winner was either an asian male or female and was pretty strategic. I think it was the first season where they brought in ex-bf's and ex-gf's. The asian male was pretty hot IIRC but I don't remember if he was an ex or the contestant.

Were all those people in the same season? If so, it was the only season I watched.

The name Jude just came to mind. (It's been so long since I've seen that show!)

One of my favorites was VH1's America's Most Smartest Model with Ben Stein as co-host. A great concept of having models competing at both modeling and mental challenges.

[quote]Remember when Fox ran Paradise Island and the whole point was trying to get self-centered loser couples to cheat on each other on TV?

The fact that such a show would ever be interpreted as "reality" by anyone only proves that a great many people are too stupid to live. And that sad fact has made the producers of these shows rich.

One of the better reality series I've seen was MTV's Sorority Life in 2002. It ended with a screw-you finale with two of the girls walking out of the initiation because they didn't want to be associated with so many bitches.

I remember Sorority Life and Fraternity Life. I'm surprised they didn't go on longer. And- I can't find any clips on YouTube.

Another fan of "The Joe Schmo Show", but a HUGE fan of the first one. It worked so well because the creators found the perfect guy who was so naive but incredibly nice, so much so that the production and cast begun to feel sorry for the guy because he took everything seriously.

Gallery Girls and High Society both featured the best of New York. And both lasted one season each.

Anybody remember Murder in Small Town X? Summer 2001. Really well done, but poor ratings. The winner was a firefighter who died on 9/11

Big Brother is still a big deal with gays and gets a lot of attention each summer on Datalounge. It's a lot of fun. If you're interested, join the ride.

The first or second year of Oprah's OWN network featured a warts-and-all show about Naomi and Wynona Judd. Holy hell, that show was intense. It burned bright for two seasons and left behind only scorched earth. Damn, so much dysfunction.

I would have paid good money to personally strangle each and every one of the Gallery Girls. I loved that show.

A spin off of the I Want to Be Friends with Paris Hilton was I Want to Be Friends with Brody Jenner!

Renember the gay guy in Brody's posse who thought he could hang and win the competition? That guy....where is that guy???

"Ruby"

"The Choice"

"Take Me Out"

"Too Fat for 15: Fighting Back"

Does anyone else remember the horrible fashion design competition, "The Cut," starring Tommy Hilfiger?

Much better was "Make Me a Supermidel," which delighted in putting the straight male contestants in homoerotic photo shoots. (There were girls, too.). It was the launch pad for Ronnie Kroell and his hetero crush Ben, and for Sandhurst, the delectable Trinidadian tour guide on the execrable (current) show "Tour Group."

There was also "She's Got the Look," a modeling competition for over-40 women featuring Kim Alexis and Beverly Johnson. It gave the world an early glimpse of Leanne Locken, villainess of "Real Housewives of Dallas."

I wish they'd bring back the male modeling show, "Manhunt," which rocketed Matt Lanter to the C-List.

Yikes: that shoulda been "Supermodel."

There was only one episode, but Boy Meets Goy was pretty funny.

The Search for the Next Elvira

For some reason they thought they could get some young person to imitate Elvira and no one would notice. Two bitchy drag queens dressed as Elvira assisted in the selection process. It was even worse than it sounds.

I was hoping you were lying R129. That look terrible. How weird was the winner?

The one with Flavor Flav, wearing a huge clock around his neck, looking for a woman. There was one episode where all the women contestants were standing together, Flavor was interviewing some, and an obese black woman got so excited, she took a huge dump right on the marble floor in the foyer of the mansion. All the women contestants were freaking out over the smell, not understanding where it came from, until they found the pile of diarrhoea on the floor. The woman was missing though. Flavor went looking for her and found her on the toilet in one of the bathrooms.

Flava of Love is anything but forgotten

Flavor of Love: here's the poop.

I have asked numerous people and none of them remember this, but there was an unbelievably bottom-of-the-barrel Project Runway knock-off called "STYLE ME with Rachel Hunter." It was glorious.

The challenges were so pathetic ("Here's your $20 budget, and 2 balls of yarn. Come up with a GLAM LOOK for a sorority girl"...some lame shit like that...), but for me every week's highlight was when they'd do the rundown of the grand prize, while panning across the contestants' faces. These people would be screaming, praying, almost crying whenever they heard the prize..."$10,000 and the chance to style Rachel Hunter for an upcoming red carpet event."

(BONUS TIDBIT: had a young Carrot Top look-a-like contestant.)

R93, you're a genius to remember Starting Over. I used to watch every night, very late when I was high. I was in college so this is what 12 years ago? I cried a few times when the housemates had breakthroughs!! I believed in life coaches and loved how the show really took its time to fix the problems of these women. Some were there for months before they graduated. I still barely remember it but you have helped me recover a piece of my misspent youth. That was Iyanla, damn. But the blond miss Britton was way more interesting. Those ladies were hardcore.

The early 2000s were such a boom for all these types of reality shows. They don't make them like that anymore.

Rhonda "I'd like to introduce you to yourself" Britten.

"The Anna Nicole Smith Show" turned me off all reality shows forever.

[quote]Anybody remember Murder in Small Town X? Summer 2001. Really well done, but poor ratings. The winner was a firefighter who died on 9/11

I LOVED "Murder in Small Town X." I don't want to say it was more cerebral than a lot of reality shows, but I did really appreciate that the contestants were rewarded for putting clues together, rather than being able to keep disgusting food town. Plus, setting it in a slightly darker version of Cabot Cove appealed to the Jessica Fletcher in me.

What was especially tragic about the winner, Angel's death was that the show's finale aired literally a week before 9/11. One of the other contestants also turned up on The Apprentice.

[quote] I was hoping you were lying [R129]. That look terrible. How weird was the winner?

She seemed like a nice enough young woman but the whole concept was ridiculously flawed. Sure you can dress anyone up to look like Elvira but you can't copy the humor and voice and personality. Apparently the winner was not well-received when they sent her out to do appearances after winning the show and they quickly ended her run as "new Elvira." Audiences wanted the real Elvira, not some weak copy even if she was approved by the original.

Here's an interesting blog post about the show with an interview with the winner. She put a positive spin on it but I read an interview with Cassandra Peterson where she said the fans were really quite nasty to the winner. She made it sound like the girl's life might have been in danger if they kept sending her out as New Elvira so they just ended that promotion.

"Vegas Showgirls: Nearly Famous", was fun and forgotten.

R110 - can't recall the Asian guy, but the twins were part of the 'twin' twist. They were some country bumpkins who never heard of 'Karma Electra'.

"The Entertainer" was fun. Different showbiz aspirants vied for a Vegas contract, judged by (wait for it) Mr. Wayne Newton! Some of them (including the eventual winner) were actually talented, but it was watching them grovel before "Mr. Newton" that gave the show something extra.

God help me, (and thank you, OP for reminding me) but I still remember some human beatbox guy having an epic meltdown! Oh, and a Brittany Murphy cameo!

British TV had a few tragic misfires in the early 2000s - there was Castaway 2000, where a pack of weirdoes were dumped on an island in Scotland and challenged to build a community (twats, the lot of 'em), not to mention the godawful The Bachelor (similar to the American shitefest, and it was highly amusing to see a recognisable male model speaking in a rather squeaky voice) and...duh duh duh - Driving School - which was more of a docu-drama, but it was bollock-shrinkingly bad.

I'm a celebrity, get me out of here

I've heard it had a better run in England but it flopped here

There was a show called "Cowboy U" that had city dwellers competing on a cattle ranch learning how to become cowpokes. A gay man won a second place award and some woman fitness instructor was the winner. It ran from 2003 to 2007.

Also Richard Branson had a competition to hire someone to be a president of one of his American business', "The Rebel Billionaire: Branson's Quest for the Best". A blond blue eyed Mormon guy ended up winning, but the results seemed rigged.

And of course Fox's "Playing It Straight" where a woman had to figure out which guy was straight.

Oh shit, R2 had already posted this^

Extreme Makeover (not home edition) came before The Swan. I was so pissed when they stopped redoing people's faces and started redoing houses.

Richard Branson's show was about inventors. The runner up invented Spanx. The winner invented Love Sacs. The Spanx girl should have won since her product is part of the cultural lexicon now!

R151 that must be a different show because the one I saw had the competitors doing extreme adventure type activities to prove they would make good decisions. Things like climbing up the side of a hot air balloon to have tea with Richard on the top.

Didn't the WB do one briefly with Faye Dunaway? Called "The Starlet" or something?

I can't imagine that wasn't a train wreck.

Make Me A Supermodel...which only had 2 seasons. Though, rumors surfaced that the show is making a comeback.

VH1 had quite a run for awhile, and most of them are remembered, but they spun things off ad infinitum. My Fair Brady! Real Chance of Love!

Who could forget Sister Patterson from I Love New York?:

I liked Family Plots on A&E which was about a funeral home. I don't think it was on but for a year or two though.

[quote]VH1 had quite a run for awhile, and most of them are remembered, but they spun things off ad infinitum. My Fair Brady! Real Chance of Love!

Don't forget I Love Money, with the contestant that committed a murder-suicide.

R160 Didn't the production company behind Flavor of Love, I Love Money etc end up going bankrupt?

[quote] Don't forget I Love Money, with the contestant that committed a murder-suicide.

R160, was that the woman who was chopped up by her bf and put in a dumpster or she was put in a suitcase? I just saw that story, or one similar on ID a week or so ago. The bf was hot and ended up hanging himself before police could find and arrest him.

Yeah, Ryan Jenkins was his name. The woman's name was...Jasmine something.

I don't know, I don't think he was that hot, but whatever floats your boat. She however looked like a Bratz doll.

Does anyone else remember a Bravo show called "The It Factor" which followed showbiz aspirants as they pursued the careers. I watched the first season, which took place in NYC, and apparently there was a second season which took place in LA. Narcissism reigned supreme. The standouts in the season I saw were Daisy Eagan, trying to establish a career as an adult after her Tony win as a little girl (she came off okay), an entitled cunt named Katheryn, and (especially) an arrogant camera hog named Godfrey who later became the 7-Up man.

Just checked he IMDB entry for he show -- it also featured DL fave Jeremy Renner, though I don't remember him at all!

Vh1's But can they sing with Michael Copon winning.

Pussycat dolls presents: Search for the next doll.

Maui fever, all the main characters were white and kept bragging about being local and hating, looking down on tourists. Yet, most of them only lived in Hawaii a few years.

There was a show about models trying to make it as actors. It was shown on British television and, my god, it was Zoolander before Zoolander. There was a couple of shows like that around the turn of the century, but this stood out for the fact that these pretty boys and girls had all the emotion range of a brick.

R164 you're right, more douchey than hot and she does look like a bratz doll in the pic.

He was a contestant on "Megyn Wants To Marry A Millionaire"

"The Swan." The show featured homely and/or overweight women in a contest to see who, after being sliced up with extensive plastic surgery and undergoing other beauty treatments, would become the most transformed, the one who became "the swan." The winner was given prizes and supposedly her life would be ever so much better after becoming The Swan. One promo featured a woman in hysterics after seeing the results of her beauty regimen, sobbing "I'm so BEAUTIFUL!" "The Swan" is one lists of "the worst reality tv shows of all time."

[quote] Didn't the WB do one briefly with Faye Dunaway? Called "The Starlet" or something?

It was mentioned above a few times. No, it wasn't. It was actually quite enjoyable.

Beauty and the Geek was actually a very sweet show. Not exploitative at all.

I used to enjoy Extreme Makeover Plastic Surgery.

Lol i liked the Pussycat Dolls one but Robin Antin's face scared the shit out of me.

It wasn't too long ago but i liked Vh1s Scream Queens with Shawnee Smith hosting.

[quote] Beauty and the Geek was actually a very sweet show. Not exploitative at all.

I liked that show as well. It had a sweetness to it which is all too lacking in most reality shows.

Rock the Cradle starring Chloe Lattanzi

The Real Househusbands of Hollywood

Southie Rules about a family in South Boston on A&E. I think it lasted one season and was canceled because of it's overt racism.

I Know My Kid's a Star "A reality series in which a group of kids (and their parents) compete in order to be deemed the next child star." I only watched two episodes or so, the cringe was unbearable. It seemed very scripted, too. Also starring Melissa Brasselle AKA Rocky from Tough Love.

R179's post reminded me of VH1's "Wicked Single."

Some Canadian shows:

Debbie Travis' From The Ground Up

The Big Decision

COVERguy

My Fabulous Gay Wedding

Mark Cuban also had one of those apprentice type shows on abc after the Branson deal.

Fox also did an American idol ripoff featuring bands. It even had bootleg versions of seacrest & cowbell shipped in from New Zealand.

I think one of them was called 'Dicko'

There was also a motley crue tribute band composed of 10 year olds

Before the Style Network was revamped as Esquire TV it was home to some trash that I couldn't help but be taken in by. Namely "Big Rich Texas" and it's similarly themed spin-off "Big Rich Atlanta." Also "Jerseylicious" about Italian hairdressers. Some really great fights on that one, including a brawl in a fast food restaurant parking lot and a club fight where one of them kicked the other in the head. Classy girls, they were.

On MTV they had a short lived show about young stylists called "Styled" which I watched.

American Juniors, the kiddie version of American Idol that was supposed to be hosted by Paula, except that she was too drugged up to do it.

The point was to select five kids to form a co-ed group. The only notable thing was that one of the winners stars on Pretty Little Liars now.

The one where Tommy Lee went to college. I think it was called Marching Band? I thought it was funny.

"Jerseylicous" -- I'd forgotten about that classic! How did the Emmys overlook that gem! My favorite on the show was Filly!

The Martha Stewart version of The Apprentice. Instead of proclaiming "you're fired" she wrote them a very tasteful note on very tasteful stationery giving them the boot. One of the contestants was a pre-Housewife Bethenny Frankel. She was hateful then, as well.

She wasn't just a contestant, she was the runner-up.

"Chains of Love." Originally produced for NBC and then they dropped it before it aired and UPN picked it up. A bachelor or bachelorette was literally chained to members of the opposite sex and one person was unchained each episode. So stupid.

What was the one ABC never aired about families competing for a house on a cul-de-sac in Texas? I think it was called "Welcome to the Neighborhood." The neighbors were all horrified when the contestants were liberals and minorities. It never aired because it violated fair housing laws. I'm pretty sure a gay couple won.

Bravo's The Gay Riviera. Aside from a bare bones IMDB page with only one cast member listed, there's nothing, like the Earth opened up and swallowed it whole. Was interesting in a car wreck sort of way, especially the young gay guy whose veteran father was also bisexual.

[quote]What was the great one with Vitamin C where they had awful singers vying to be an "Idol" but somehow made them think they could sing.

"Superstar USA." Someone upthread posted a few clips. What I remember is the last show with the live audience — they told the audience that the contestants were all with Make-A-Wish Foundation and this was their dream, so be sure to cheer loudly no matter how they performed.

It was hilarious, but the reveal was awful and made you feel bad for watching.

A few years ago Fox announced a limited run of "Celebrity Swan," which was supposed to feature extreme makeovers of DL fave Erin Moran and Monica Lewinsky. I thought the baby Jesus had answered a prayer, but it still hasn't happened.

As mentioned above, TommyLee's show was pretty good. He came across as quite likeable.

One I remember is Cougars vs Kittens

Kept is a reality television series that centered on Jerry Hall (model and ex-wife to Mick Jagger) searching for a kept man. The show premiered on the American cable network VH1 in late May 2005. When Hall narrowed the list down to twelve, she spirited them off to London and eliminated them one by one.

The final three consisted of Anwar, Austen and Seth. In the August 4 finale, Hall was torn between Austen and Seth but ultimately chose Seth as he knew how to have fun and she thought he had matured throughout the process. Seth claims that he got his $100,000 in prize money but after filming stopped he never saw Jerry, the penthouse apartment, or the Lamborghini again.

I know it isn't forgotten, but R131 takes me back. I was at the end of a frolicking good night, and in a hotel room, my friends and I, inebriated, watched Flava of Love. The next morning, none of us could believe it wasn't a hallucination. Especially with the clock. Good times!

Mr. Romance is a 2005 US tongue-in-cheek reality television show which aired on Oxygen. It was created by Gene Simmons and hosted by Fabio.

Mr. Romance featured a group of 12 male contestants, mentored by Fabio, entering a "romance academy" hoping to win a shot at novel cover fame. Each week the contestants would compete in romance-related events like romance novel cover photo shoots and learning to dance, with each contestant rated on their facility in the activity. The two lowest-scoring contestants at the end of the regular season were eliminated and the remaining ten contestants went on to compete in the Mr. Romance Pageant to select the winner. Fabio delivered show-ending homilies on the lesson of each episode.

At the pageant, Randy Richwood was crowned Mr. Romance.

I can't believe you bitches forgot the reality show with the 2-headed girl(s)!

Did you all forget the summer of 2001 and the LOVE CRUISE? The (unofficial) forum for the show , LoveCruiseSucks.com was hilarious.

I vaguely remember Cougars Vs. Kittens; I did watch the entire season of a show where they took women from the lower 48 and bused them up to the tundra of Alaska. This show was on FOX and it was called, "Bachelorettes in Alaska: Looking For Love". It was the most degrading show to the women involved. It was supposed to be "empowering' because the women would do the choosing. In reality it was filled with a bunch of passive-aggressive Alaskan men.

Anyone remember the NBC one hit wonders singing show? They tracked down one hit wonders and gave them the opportunity sing their big hit again in front of a live audience to show they still had it.

I think that was on VH-1, r200

Bands Reunited on VH1 was hosted by the charmless and seemingly uninterested Ahmer Halim. Some bands reunited for the show (Berlin was one) while others did not. Holly from Frankie GTH told him to fuck off. It was s great show.

Confessions of a Teen Idol is an American reality series that began airing on VH1 on January 4, 2009 and concluded on February 22, 2009. It ran for eight episodes. The series was hosted and produced by former teen idols Scott Baio and Jason Hervey. The show was filmed in the same house used to film The Real World: Hollywood.

MTV's The 70s House is an American reality television show created by Aaron Matthew Lee. The show premiered on MTV on July 5 and ended September 6, 2005. The show featured twelve contestants (six male, six female) who thought they were participating in a The Real World-type reality show, but instead were thrust into a 24/7 simulation of the 1970s. They were required to part with all modern technology including cell phones, laptops, and MP3 players, as well as all modern clothing and lingo, only to adopt their cultural equivalents of the 1970s. It was billed as a competition to see who can "be the most 70s."

The twelve contestants were: Andrew Severyn, Ashley McCarthy, Corey Hartwyk, Geo Herrera, Hailley Howard, Jami Stallings, Joey Mendicino, Lynda Khristine, Lee Wireman, Peter, Ruben, and Sarah Bray.

Reality show/game show THE MOMENT OF TRUTH: People were hooked up to a lie detector and had to answer intrusive personal questions for money.

I loved this New York Times review:

[quote]Ty, a personal trainer, said yes when he was asked if he has delayed having children because he is not sure that Catia, his wife of two and a half years, would be his “lifelong partner.” After he replied, a disembodied female voice delivered the verdict. “The answer is — ” (long, dramatic beat) “true.” The camera panned to Catia, who stopped smiling and murmured, “I’m dying here.” Her friend April turned to her and asked in a semiwhisper, “Is it worth $100,000 to learn that?”

[quote]As it turned out, Catia got nothing along with the information. When Ty replied no to the question of whether he had ever touched a female client more than was strictly necessary, the polygraph contradicted him, and he lost all his winnings. Ty ran to his wife and tried to hug her. Catia submitted to his embrace but turned her cheek away, [bold]pursing her lips in a foreboding moue of lip gloss and recrimination[/bold].

What was the horror one where in the first episode they left the contestants tied up in a field somewhere while their teammates had to find them? Evil something? I thought it would be a big scary hit. I was wrong.

And one of those Bachelorette type of shows except where the girl's two extremely bitchy friends helped pick the winner/guy she'd marry -- who wisely said, after a whole season, that maybe they would get married but not then and not on the air. Her blonde friend was the single biggest cunt on TV except for maybe Rachel Zoe's horrible assistant and Omorosa.

AMAZING how many of these there were, now that we look back on it. And how most didn't play.

Pop Idol, the originator of the Idol franchise, ran for two seasons on ITV in Great Britain, only to be shelved permanently in favor of Simon Cowell's X-Factor, along with Britain's Got Talent and BBC's The Voice. It's as if Pop Idol never existed, never mind that it laid the foundation for all the other shows to follow. I've never watched one episode of X-Factor, not even the American version. The most that I've ever seen of the show was Whitney Houston's legendary flop performance in 2009. Wow, that was a disaster of epic proportions. The arrangement was horrible, first off. It bore no resemblance to the actual "Million Dollar Bill", Whitney sang too early, and even the backing singers were off, way off.

Look how fucking cute Eric, the first guy kicked off, was. If that's a geek, give me a dozen to go. Hot as a whip.

What about the show (can't remember the name) where they were trying to cast the leads in a "Grease" revival on Broadway? I know Laura Osnes was one of the winners. And there was another one about finding a lead for "Legally Blonde." One or both of these featured DL fave Seth Rudetsky.

One girl (Julie something or other) who was a semifinalist on American Juniors tried out for the 2008 season of American Idol, and they basically tore her a new asshole. After they shunned her, they interspersed clips of her American Juniors performance of "Rainy Days and Mondays" with her meltdown.

Take Home Chef is a half-hour reality cooking show starring Curtis Stone. It originally aired on TLC.[

In each episode, Stone introduces himself to a stranger in a grocery store, typically a woman in her 20s or 30s, and asks if she is cooking a meal for someone that night. When the person responds affirmatively, Stone offers his services to help cook dinner. They drive to the participant's house, cook the meal, and then surprise the participant's partner or guest upon his or her arrival.

I think it was on VH-1 where there was this silly Bachelor type of show where moms picked a bride for their sons. I am still surprised that I didn't die from second hand embarassment just watching the trailer.

[quote]nd one of those Bachelorette type of shows except where the girl's two extremely bitchy friends helped pick the winner/guy she'd marry -- who wisely said, after a whole season, that maybe they would get married but not then and not on the air. Her blonde friend was the single biggest cunt on TV except for maybe Rachel Zoe's horrible assistant and Omorosa.

I remember that show; the girl looked like Courtney Cox and she was from Michigan. Her father was some life long military guy and a real asshole. I think it was a set up and the guy she chose to marry was her real life boyfriend pretending to be a stranger.

I loved "Blind Date." Remember "The 5th Wheel"?

[quote]Blind Date, anyone?

Blind Date was a great show and Aisha Tyler was the best host. I also liked Rendez-View with Greg Proops.

Door Knock Dinners was a huge hit!

Rock of Love with Brett Michaels. Boy did he have a type.

I loved the girl who outed Brett Michaels as being bald under that bandana.

Oh my god, I vaguely remember Change of Heart. It seems like the 90's through early 2000's was primed with dating shows.

R224 7 Lives Xposed wasn't a real reality show. Foursome was and Swing is still on, isn't it?

[quote]What about the show (can't remember the name) where they were trying to cast the leads in a "Grease" revival on Broadway? I know Laura Osnes was one of the winners. And there was another one about finding a lead for "Legally Blonde." One or both of these featured DL fave Seth Rudetsky.

The Grease version was called "You're the One that I Want."

It was based on a British series called "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" Hosted by Graham Norton, with Andrew Lloyd Weber and John Barrowman as two of the judges. That was followed by "Any Dream Will Do," which was in turned followed by "I'd Do Anything" (which added Barry Humphries and Cameron MacIntosh), followed by "Over the Rainbow," followed by "Superstar." The latter had Amanda Holden as the host and Dawn French joining Weber as a judge.

At least a few of them aired on BBC America.

The Legally Blonde thing was an MTV Show with the unwieldily title "Legally Blonde - the Musical: The Search for Elle Woods."

Blind Date, and The Fifth Wheel make me think of Elimidate, which was so bad and good.

The guy would have meathead-voice or douche-voice, and be all "I really want to bang all of 'em but the rules say I have to pick one, so let's see who can handle me"

And one of the girls would be all" "Woo, I'm in it to win it bitches!", and then later she'd get cut, and she'd be all "WhatEVER. You two deserve each other! Y'all just jealous! WhatEVER."

Singled Out with Jenny McCarthy

NASHVILLE STAR - Another Failed show with Jewel as a judge (god could ANYONE be more humorless and boring)...

Fun Fact - The Swan's plastic surgeon was Dr. Terry Dubrow - husband to Heather Dubrow...you know famous TV actress Heather Dubrow.

There was that Kelly Ripa produced show about Soap Star's IRL - I forget what it was called but Kristen Storms was on it and she was a mess. Brandon Beemer too...being totally het.

There was the MTV show THE CUT hosted by Lisa Left Eye Lopez - which gave us international superstar Anastasia.

There was I want to work for Diddy -that gave us Laverne Cox

Next - when contestants sit on a bus, waits for their turn to meet a potential date and win him or her over. If they don t click, the person is sent back to the bus.

Charm School

Mr. Personality- The guys wear masks

Temptation Island was my all-time favorite because of the title. Also because there was a commercial with a female contestant sobbing into the camera, " I never DREAMED I would be so tempted!"

Wasn't there that Shania Twain one. Was it called Why Not? And wasn't it on Oprah's OWN network?

OWN has cranked out a lot of reality shows in its relatively brief existence. Most of them bland and forgettable. If there were any interesting ones I'll leave it to the rest of you to remember them or go through the Wikipedia of them.

I do remember one with those old ladies who first got famous making fun of the Kardashian sex tape. Golden Sisters or something.

I was wondering why nobody mentioned Gigolos yet, then I googled and found out it's still on the air, shockingly. (I don't have Showtime.) Does anyone actually still watch it? I saw the first season, and the guys were so fugly and the show so scripted that I couldn't imagine wanting to see more.

Didn't Syfy have a survival show where people were put in a staged environment that was supposed to mimic a city after a disaster had struck. They had to find weapons, food, water, etc. all while avoiding other teams who wanted to steal their supplies and/or (fake) kill them.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

God, I remember about 95% of these. Good times! I think R63 and R80 are thinking of the same show, which I watched too. It only lasted one season - I knew the prize was too much $$ for the show to last long. I also watched Endurance R56. I remember one contestant was a really nelly tween boy, who was flaming from space. It was nice that all the other kids treated him as "normal".

Another show that didn't last long, and was on only about 2-3 years ago. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (I think it was him) hosted a show where contestants did crazy things like hang out of 90 story window, or swim with sharks, all in the name to showing you were TOUGH! I remember all the contestants being insufferable - some muscle head fame whores too busy "performing" for the camera.

r51 Or protest injustice & workout at the same time

Somebody help me.... I remember some make-up challenge show.

The contestants were about 40% arty women, 55% SUPER-femmey gay guys, and there was one middle-aged straight guy-he did much more subdued, somewhat 1970's inspired, realistic looks, but nobody liked him because he was 'boring'. The women, and especially the gay guys all did super dramatic, over-the-top ridiculous artsy makeup, that no one would ever actually wear in real life. All the gay guys were femme and ridiculous but there was one that was above and beyond. I think his name was 'Maxi'. I could be wrong but that's what I remember. He was constantly carrying a fancy lace parasol with him wherever he went, like indoors and shit, and always wanted to add 'more drama' to his work.

In Dallas, we are still proud of "Cheaters"!

The "straight" host was such a queen, though. Joey Grecco....

Isn't cheaters still churning along?

Anyone Remember STUDS on Fox back in the early 1990s? Recently there was a gay reality series called "Golden Gays" which was actually pretty good.

"Cheaters" guy got stabbed on camera, right? Good times!

Is Clark Gable 's grandson still hosting Cheaters?

How could anyone NOT remember Lindsay. It was a train wreck of epic proportions. Very sad that Lindsay didn't get it, even after she saw it. And she was an executive producer. She had one very bizarre long shot of her crying, crying, crying. That's it. We saw she was a party girl but also completely unprofessional, blowing off assignments right and left. The photo shoot for an Asian fashion magazine would put anyone off working with her. The editor, who called her a bitch under her breath, later said she had no advice for Lindsay because she wasn't close to her but said that advice she would give her own daughter is that even if she made choices that she didn't like, just never waste your life. Oprah sent a life coach to her and even she gave up on her.

I felt bad because it was obvious Lindsay is a lost cause but Oprah was an enabler by giving her over one million dollars for it and then telecasting it.

There were even gay episodes of "Cheaters" here in Dallas. Once episode had some bleached-blond queen finding his boyfriend at a seedy gay bar on Fitzhugh (right around the corner from where we used to live!) and there was hair-pulling and scratching!

There was also an episode where a guy caught his partner cheating at JR's on Cedar Springs and Throckmorton.

Don't forget "Living Lohan" which starred Lindsay's talent-free sister and coke-fiend mother.

This was when LiLo was still big news, so they were always teasing that she would make an appearance, and she even did once... on the phone!

That Dina Lohan is such a skank...

The greatest "Chesters" episode was one that involved a lesbian couple. Talk about a cat fight! Prior to the confrontation, there were large picture glass windows in the business district and you could see people lined up at the windows with huge smiles on their faces for what they knew was going to happen.

I loved the episodes of "Cheaters" where the woman would catch her man making out with another man!

There were a handful of those...

Gay "Cheaters" in Dallas!!!!!!

Rock of Love descended from Flavor of Love, and Flavor of Love only happened because of the weird Flava Flav renaissance that was happening at that time. And that revival was happening because of his appearance on The Surreal Life where he was in a romance...or friendship...or whatever the fuck that was with Brigitte Nielsen. I think there was even a show in between The Surreal Life and Flavor of Love where he ran off to Italy to find her but she was there with some Italian boytoy, and they all sort of hung out awkwardly together.

I don't think The Surreal Life is as forgotten as most in this thread, if you mention it to anyone age 25+ they'd remember it, but it has sort fallen to the backburner of our pop culture memories compared to the dumb splash it made at the time. One season had Ron Jeremy, and Tammy Faye, and for some reason I remember the guy from Smashmouth(hey now you're a rockstar get your game on get paid). And the classic season had Omarosa fighting with Janice Dickinson who screamed 'My father was a pedophile!' while she ran out of the house, while Bronson Pinchot (Balki) cried.

Ultimately, what I'm saying is that Brett Michaels got chlamydia from some psycho-bitch, because Omarosa pulled a knife on Janice Dickinson. It is the circle of Life.

The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency Show

R229 Dirty Soap was the name of that Kelly Ripa & Husband produced reality show about soap stars.

I suppose Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew isn't as forgotten as most upthread, but I detect it's starting to fade from our memories. It shouldn't though. Tonnes of great moments. Like half the people who went on it are dead now. As any good Datalounger will tell you, Bai Ling is, and shall forever be, on the roof.

It also spun off the somewhat more forgotten Sober House, which was even more of a shitshow. Mary Carey. Andy Dick. Dennis Rodman. Porn actress Penny Flame. The old drummer from Gun N Roses having a dope freakout on camera.

Speaking of Janice Dickinson, she was also on Celebrity Rehab!

All I remember of I'm a celebrity get me out of here was Janice Dickinson having a nervous breakdown clinging to Sanjaya, telling him he was a good boy for comforting her.

Moolah Beach, a terrifying, Lord of the Flies, endurance show with teenage contestants who were forced to engage in the worship of idols in oder to have a chance to survive. It also had the buddy love of Drew for Clark.

I watched Loft Story, the French version of Big Brother, which was a semi-sensation in France and brought about many philosophical articles about modern crassness and "télé-poubelle" (trash TV). Biggest scandal: Loana and Edouard had sex in the pool. I do love French outrage.

"MTV had Sorority Life, and the inferior Fraternity Life. Both shows were atrocious, but it was fun to watch them getting drunk with friends and ripping the sisters and pledges apart."

I remember Fraternity Life being vaguely homoerotic

MTV also had one about high school football players. Forget the name of it.

Watching Moment of Truth right now! Thanks, YouTube.

[quote]Moolah Beach, a terrifying, Lord of the Flies, endurance show with teenage contestants who were forced to engage in the worship of idols in oder to have a chance to survive. It also had the buddy love of Drew for Clark.

It did have sexy ginger JD Roth as the host, though.

I swear I am the only one who watched Popularity Contest on CMT. A bunch of city slickers moved to a tiny town in Texas and had to mingle with the town's residents. Then the town would vote someone off each week.

Pretty Wild - that Khardashian wanna be show. I remember her leaving a voice mail for some reporter who got what kind of shoes she was wearing wrong, and her mom kept chiming up in the background - and she was freaking out yelling at her mom.

I had to google this to get the actual name: The Real Gilligan's Island. From wikipedia:

[quote]Contestants on the show were required to participate in challenges based on plots from the 1960s television show.

Shit actually ran two seasons! I only remember it because they gave away a DVD of the premiere episode with either TV Guide or Entertainment Weekly and I had it floating around near my TV set for years.

Remember that complete bitch from Sober House, Kari Ann Peniche? What a piece of work.

She was in the hot tub with that guy from Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart I think.

Janice Dickinson's modeling agency show was good fun.

I think Road Rules has pretty much been forgotten.

Brigitte's nickname for Flava Flav was "Foofy Foof."

R6 I Loved that show! What happened to the fat one?

R214 I loved that show - esp when dumpy husbands would arrive home to find their wives drinking wine with hottie Curtis.

[quote]MTV also had one about high school football players. Forget the name of it.

It's call Two a Days and it starred high school football star Tim Tebow!

Bad Girls Club

A gaggle of hardcore bitches clawing each other to shreds. Sometime literally.

Hit Me Baby One More Time. Formerly big musical stars were given another chance at performing hits. Featured 80s stars like Glass Tiger and Irene Cara ecstatic to be on tv again. Good show.

Jordan from "Sorority Life" was one of the more interesting reality show characters - or at least from the rest of that group of college girls - and initiated bailing on joining at the end. She looked like Drew Barrymore with Little Orphan Annie blonde curls, and probably could have been an actress or model. I read she now works for Fox.

Where do the Fraternity Life guys work now?

"Black Gold" on truTV, about rowdy, brawling Texas oil riggers. I saw the last couple of seasons -- the breakout "star" was tattooed roughneck Brandon, who was arrested on camera during one show. The planned sixth (!) season was cancelled when Brandon was arrested for DUI and hit-and-run.

There was also a cooking one with Bobby flay, Curtis stone, and Lorena Garcia where the contestants were developing a fast casual chain.

The winner had 3 locations opened by the show

I can't believe we've gotten to nearly 300 posts, and no one has mentioned Bridalplasty, one of the sleaziest, most exploitative, and absolutely engrossing and brilliant TV shows of all time.

I also firmly believe that Janessa was the most evil reality show villain of all time.

It was on Netflix for a while, but I recently bought the complete season (one paltry season) on iTunes.

Transamerican Love Story, a Bachelorette-type competition show where male famewhores competed to date a tranny.

Strip Search, which aired after Kept on VH1 and looked for male strippers to be in the American version of Thunder Down Under.

R121, I remember hearing that gay guy was one of those Seeking Arrangements type website looking for a sugar daddy.

In all honesty, he went on the show to become Lauren Conrad, not Brody Jenner.

The best thing I ever saw on reality tv was Deborah on Starting Over eating a bag of cotton candy with a fork. I can't believe there's no video online, or even a picture.

R276, I thought they only opened one location in Hollywood and Vine and it quickly closed down. It was a horrible show because the judges already had in mind what kind of restaurant they wanted and kept changing the contestants' concepts. All the final restaurants were nothing like their original concepts. One girl who only wanted to serve healthy food had hers turn into something completely different and then they eliminated her.

And WHAT about the infamous Boy Meets Boy, a DL fave when it was aired??

[quote]Remember when Fox ran Paradise Island and the whole point was trying to get self-centered loser couples to cheat on each other on TV?

Certainly do. The second season featured so much naked aggression among the contestants I nearly had a panic attack watching one episode.

Yes, I am a Mary.

[quote]What was the great one with Vitamin C where they had awful singers vying to be an "Idol" but somehow made them think they could sing.

That would be WB Superstar USA (mentioned at R7 and R8)... fucking hilarious. I always felt guilty for watching, but still laughed until tears were running down my face.

WB Superstar USA - Rosa - "Wind Beneath My Wings"

My all time favorite was Being Bobby Brown. Hearing Whitney ask him to pop her doody bubble is seared into my memory for all time.

Another performance from WB Superstar USA: Rosa sings "Bootylicious"

[quote]All I heard was "blah blah chelly, blah blah shelly, blah blah chelly" and then some orgasm and some more chelly/shelly and finishes the song off with a final orgasm.

[quote]I watched Loft Story, the French version of Big Brother

Yes! They fucked in the pool in the first episode.

[quote]What's a doody bubble?

Impacted feces, dear.

Whitney had opioid induced constipation...

"Viva Hollywood!" was fun, and had a healthy sense of humor about both reality shows and telenovelas!

Food Network keeps throwing out random concepts for new shows, hoping something will stick. They do these shows as 6 episode runs, then most disappear.

Bobby Flay is the king of that channel - his ego is unstoppable! I remember two short-lived series he tried, giving advice to people who ran food-based businesses. I remember him helping a woman who had a food truck and then he visited a restaurant in NYC run by a black female, and gave her advice on how to improve it. **Found it on IMDB: Three Days to Open

Then there was another show where ordinary people opened their home kitchens and made a meal that was judged by Flay and at least one other person. **Found on IMDB: Bobby's Dinner Battle

R292, is that Suzanne Sommers?

[quote]Hit Me Baby One More Time.

They're bringing that one back, hosted by Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

Nope, r294.

That is Brittny's mother, Lisa Gastineau.

[quote]And WHAT about the infamous Boy Meets Boy, a DL fave when it was aired??

That's BULLSHIT!

If Elimidate, Blind Date, Change of Heart etc... still came on I'd still be watching those shows. I loved those old dating shows.

"There Goes the Neighborhood" was a weird one. Families lived in a walled off neighborhood cut off from the outside world. They had to compete against other families for things like food and electricity.

It was hard to watch. Families had to backstab to win and there was a lot of resentment and paranoia. Little kids were caught in the middle. The show didn't last long.

Thanks for the Boy Meets Boy reminder. I forgot all about Audra.

Have The Kitchen Cousins been mentioned yet? They were very hot though their show didn't last long.

[quote] I forgot all about Audra.

NEVER use that phrase in the Broadway thread!

R304 The two cousins had to file bankruptcy last summer after a court ruled in a client's favor.

DL fav Mike Boogie had one trying to turn c-listers into restaurateurs.

I know it involved Vincent Pastore and Heidi Montag

Breaking up with Shannen Doherty- she decides if couples should break up and helps them do it while trying to get them to agree it was for the best! Horrific low-budget car crash TV

REALLY! Not ONE mention!?

Room Raiders is a "dating/reality" series on MTV

On the show, three men or women have their rooms inspected, or "raided" by another single man or woman. The raider does not meet or see any of the three singles (any personal photographs of the contestant are removed from the room or covered with a smiley face sticker). At the end of the episode, the raider chooses to go on a date with one of them based on the contents of their rooms. The three contestants watch and comment, while sitting in a van, as their rooms are inspected. After the raider has finished with each of the rooms, the three contestants then raid the raider's room. Finally, the raider confronts the three contestants and makes his or her choice

High School Reunion is a reality television series chronicling real-life high school reunions.

The program originally aired on The WB for two seasons between 2003 and 2005, and featured reunions of classes after ten years.

A new version of the series began airing on TV Land on March 5, 2008, focusing on the 20-year reunion of the 1987 graduating class of J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas. Filmed in Maui, the series featured documentary-style interviews with the classmates, who are assigned "labels" to describe their high school roles.[1]

The series returned to TV Land in February 2009 with members of the Class of 1988 of Chandler High School in Chandler, Arizona reuniting and the promise that one of them would reveal a major secret. Once again class members had labels such as "The Class Clown", "The Cowboy", etc.

The series returned with its third season premiering on January 13, 2010. It follows the members of the Class of 1989 of Chaparral High School in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mose Gingerich on Nat Geo trying to run a sanctuary for Ex-Amish kids

Mark Burnett, Sly Stallone, Sugar Ray Leonard did a boxing competition

-PopStar (launching pad for Garrett Hedlund and Nicole Scherzinger) -Search for the New Partridge Family (with Emma Stone as a contestant) -Daisy of Love -That's Amore -For the Love of Ray J -Real Chance of Love -Showbiz Dogs (with the Polish lady screaming HE BIT ME UN THA WAGINA!) -Next -Star Dates -The Mole -Search for the Next Pussycat Doll and the second season Girlicious -Glam God -Hell Date -Elimidate -Date My Mom -College Hill

The only one thats got me stumped was the one dating show where the guys were covered by masks, Monica Lewinsky hosted the first season and Kathy Griffin hosted the second

I wish I could relive the pure cringing ridiculousness that was Showbiz Moms and Dads.

R316, a few people posted up thread that the dating show where the men wore masks hosted by Lewinsky is "Mr. Personality."

Garrett Hedlund was on POp Star?!? Emma Stone and Zac Efron were reality show contestants??

A little trivia: Emma Stone won the part of Laurie on "Search for the New Partridge Family" as Emily Stone. #3 was Alanna Allen who played the bitch in "Camp". The runner up for Keith was Stone's roommate David Petruzzi. David was boyfriends with Max Crumm who would later go on to win the part of Danny in "You're the One that I want". Teddy Geiger was also one of the Keith finalists at age 16.

There was a reality competition show to find the best nail designer. Yes, putting polish and sparkles and shit on nails. It was so ratchet. It was called Nail'd It and ran on Oxygen.

R313, that reminds me of a best selling book I read sometime in the 1970,s titled, "What Really Happened to the Class of '65.." I think they even made a mini-series back then about it.

I lived for Paradise Hotel when it was on. It was like the train wreck of all train wrecks.

Paradise Hotel was must-see TV. It had interesting and loathsome characters like Toni Ferrari.

Toni gets agitated. Yahtzee!

"My Bare Lady" - female porn stars fly to England to do Shakespeare. I watched a whole episode thinking it was a parody.

Is Paradise Hotel a different show than OP's Paradise Island?

Tiny People, Even Tinier Cakes--With 19 Kids and Counting!

I'm pretty sure this was on TLC for 10 seasons.

But seriously, I really liked the Martha Stewart version of the Apprentice. I could never stomach Trump's version. I wish they would bring it back. But unfortunately the new version will be with Schwarzenegger--whom I loathe.

I really enjoyed the first season of The Apprentice, where the focus was on the contestants and their tasks, and the contestants were looking for solutions and how to execute the best.

Things started to change pretty quickly, when more and more attention was on Trump's boardroom antics - I can remember in Season 2 there were 90 minute episodes advertised with "more boardroom!" And the shitty contestants were all about throwing each other under the bus, instead of succeeding as part of their team.

That, and the longer it went on, the more it became about product placement.

I liked The Apprentice: Martha Stewart too.

[quote]—And the person you're referring to was ANDRA

You see what I mean, R305? I told you I forgot about her.

R313 - I didn't realize there was a 3rd season of HSR.

There were a couple seasons of finding the next WWE superstar. I used to watch it for the hotties. Wasn't one named Raven?

R307 That t show was called Famous Food and it was a mess.

Wait, Garrett Hedlund was on Popstars? I know that actor Josh Henderson was on the second season (and completely insufferable while on it).

R334, it was "Tough Enough", and I think you're referring to Maven!

Andy Samberg was also in Pop Star.

R317, bless you for mentioning Showbiz Moms and Dads!

WEHT Duncan Nutter?

R326, Toni Ferrari was also on Love Cruise and was on an episode of Elimidate. She is my all time favorite reality "character". An early fame ho. If it had been a few years later, she'd probably be huge on Twitter.

Paradise Hotel and Paradise Island are not the same show. Paradise Hotel (season 1) is absurdist genius, and was not on an island. I was bed-ridden that summer, and it completely sucked me in.Somehow, I was on Dave's email newsletter for the year or two he published, and he went into local politics. I did not see Paradise Island.

"Next" was a hilariously campy dating show on MTV. It was pretty gay-inclusive, too.

Duncan Nutter gave up his job and moved his family of 9 to a two-bedroom Manhattan apartment so he could work as an usher at Broadway shows. I wonder if he is still doing that.

Duncan had a decent run on reality shows. He did several others. He was always delusional. His wife, whom he aged 50 years in 20, said that at age 18, he decided he wanted to be in the Olympics and started training to become a world class gymnast. At 18.

R344 --Not Manhattan---Queens. He gave up a house so his family of 9 could move to a small apartment in Queens.

Did he give up fucking men on the DL too?

[quote] that reminds me of a best selling book I read sometime in the 1970,s titled, "What Really Happened to the Class of '65.." I think they even made a mini-series back then about it.

Hey I read that book when I was 12 years old, back in the 70's. I had no idea the book was a best seller- I just found it on the shelf at the library. Pretty good book. I do think they made a miniseries or movie about it.

Duncan Nutter lives in Egypt now with his wife and three youngest children. apparently he was a good teacher.

Interesting show, r313. I'd watch it.

I forgot about Toni Ferarri - I thought she was a gorgeous lady of wrestling..lol.

R343

Another fan of 'Next' here. Would binge watch it in the mid-2000s.

Sigh. Those were the years.

...and Shane Klingensmith made an early appearance on World of Wonder's Ring My Bell! Peer into the mind of Shane K!

So did Duncan ever make it as an actor? All that sacrifice for nothing? He made the children's lives hell having to give up a big house and yard to be sleeping 5 per room in a tiny Queens apartment. Some didn't even have rooms and slept in the living room, kitchen or bathtub.

Call me Mary but Next! was way harsh. When a person who thought they were the shit got "nexted " the instant they stepped off the bus before saying a word was hard to watch.

There was one not too long ago on abc that had a medieval/magical type theme.

Questing with knights and storming castles and such...

Anyone remember the name?

Is Duncan fucking Egyptian guys on the downlow?

R357, was that The Quest? I think it was on in 2014 or 2015. A pretty awful show, but one I watched all the way through for some reason.

There was one that ABC ran, probably seven or eight years ago, that was basically The DaVinci Code or National Treasure in reality show form. I think the title may have been "Treasure Hunters." I remember it as being decent, if not exceptional.

"American Colony: Meet The Hutterites." This was on NatGeo and they managed to piss off the Hutterite colony by turning the show into your typical staged-drama reality trash.

"Breaking Pointe," about the Ballet West company in Salt Lake City. I only saw a couple episodes but I found it interesting.

Make Me a Supermodel is an American reality television modeling competition series based on the British reality series of the same name. Following an audition preview on January 2, 2008, the series premiered January 10, 2008 on the cable television network Bravo.

For Season 1, the bottom three contestants were selected at the end of each episode and viewers of the show determine which of the three contestants will not continue in the competition with the judges picking the winner of the episode; for the final episode, the viewers determined the winner. For Season 2, viewer participation was removed, and all model eliminations and winners were selected by the judges.

The first season was hosted by supermodels Tyson Beckford and Niki Taylor, and judged by fashion casting director Jennifer Starr and model agent Cory Bautista. The second season premiered on March 4, 2009, with Beckford returning as the sole host. Nicole Trunfio replaced Taylor and act as a mentor to the female contestants, while the judging panel will be completely revamped. The show features top photographers such as Roxanne Lowit, Markus Klinko & Indrani, Howard Schatz, and Suza Scalora.

Work of Art: The Next Great Artist is an American reality competition show that airs on the cable television network Bravo, in which up-and-coming artists compete for a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum and a cash prize of $100,000. The show is produced by Pretty Matches Productions and Magical Elves Productions, the same company that created Project Runway and Top Chef. The series premiered on June 9, 2010. Work of Art was renewed for a second season in September 2010 which began on October 12, 2011.

Mad Fashion is an American reality television series which premiered October 4, 2011, on Bravo.[1] Mad Fashion follows former Project Runway contestant and celebrity designer Chris March as he creates unique outfits for his A-list cliente

I remember there was some TV show on Bravo or some channel where a woman had to guess if a man was bisexual, gay, or hetero and take him on a date.

I also remember the reality TV show that had Lionel Richie's daughter in it and I think Paris Hilton?

"I remember there was some TV show on Bravo or some channel where a woman had to guess if a man was bisexual, gay, or hetero and take him on a date."

Are you thinking of Gay, Straight, or Taken?

I was a fan of 'Scream Queens' (two seasons) and 'Murder In Small Town X' (one season ..... featured a cute fireman who died on 09/11 shortly after the show aired)

Jon Jonsson, winner of Manhunt, is now a Patent Attorney in California.

I wonder how some of these old "guess who's gay" dating shows would go over in today's social climate?

Today's social climate? The "guess who's gay" shows weren't on that long ago, it's not like they were made in the 50s

The advent of social media (particularly Twitter) has altered our social and political landscape over a very short span of time. I just don't think anyone would be brave enough to put that kind of show on the air today for fear of backlash. I think it's a fun concept, but I think many others probably wouldn't and now they have a really good way to make their feelings known (which can spread like wildfire).

R351, she should have been. She missed her big chance.

R365, I don't think anyone has forgotten The Simple Life with Hilton and Richie. It helped unleash the Kartrashians.

Oh God I loved Trading Spouses. Some of them were quite touching. I loved the one where the farm lady went to Manhattan. She had to do what the original wife did for a couple days. They had her go do the workout the wife did at a fancy gym. The personal trainer told her it would be hard. She changed into shorts and a t shirt. Now this was a woman who lifted hay, chopped wood, carried feed, fixed tractors....etc etc ....she did the workout without breaking a sweat showing off her beautiful working muscles.

I loved Extreme Makeover. Not the home edition the one where the reworked someone. I also lived for Nanny fucking 911. I would have nannied some of those kids right in their goddamn faces. I loved how so many of the dads seemed to be falling for the fat, frumpy, yet caring nannies by the end of the show.

Nanny 911 and Supernanny were excellent shows. I've never felt so relieved to be childfree.

Only aired recently but I'm sure it's soon to be forgotten -- I Want To Marry Harry -- where a group of ditzy young American women competed to win the attention of a Prince Harry look-alike. The producers were made to put quotation marks around Harry in the title, lest home viewers thought it was legitimate.

I also enjoyed the first season of the VH1 show with dancers having to re-audition for their spots in a Vegas show.

The second season blew though.

That Harry crap didn't even last the season.

Few gave a damn, and just about everyone who did care could tell right away that wasn't him and that the broads were acting...

Trump produced a Bachelorette type show to find a man for OMAROSA. I think they did two seasons. One of the contestants was Al B Sure! who many suspect is gay.

Needless to say, the show did not bring everlasting love to OMAROSA. However, it was nice to see a dating show featuring all AAs.

Oh, R377 reminded me of Secret Princes on TLC. Four "princes" from different countries move to Atlanta to get peasant jobs like dog grooming, and to try to woo women who didn't know about their status.

Such a ghastly lot!

Is the one in the turban FTM?

What's the one where Olivia Newton John's ugly daughter stunk up the room?

[quote]I Want To Marry Harry

I was waiting for the sequel, "And Mess Around With Ike."

Jai Rodriguez hosted a great dog grooming competition called "Groomer Has It" on Animal Planet. It was quite entertaining and the first winner was a really charming and charismatic guy named Artis Knox. This is real Reality. Artis has become a serial arsonist and is now in jail for the crime.

There was a show on the E! channel in the early 00's called Showgirls: Nearly Famous about dancers auditioning for some cheesy Vegas show

Also Push Girls, about four ladies dating/living/etc in L.A and they are all in wheelchairs

WE TV had a show in the middle 2000's that featured a couple (Bryan and Jennifer Masche) that had sextuplets. The wife was a horse-face blond nurse who almost died during childbirth and the husband was a bully who didn't seem to have a job. They moved across country to a bigger home to raise their kids in. They bickered all the time, mostly because the husband was a controlling babyman who browbeat the wife with scripture quotes.

After the show disappeared, I read that they got a divorce. Jennifer remarried and Bryan began a campaign of harassment (out of jealousy?) because he didn't like the way the couple treated his kids. I used to read the comments about this show on TWOP and they were brutal. Everyone could see that this marriage was going into the shitter.

Speaking of E! they had that awful reality show with Clint Eastwood's then wife (they're divorced now) and some South African singing group she was managing. Tyler Shields was on it because he was dating one of Eastwood's daughters at the time. The only notable storyline, at least for me, was that two of the guys in the group were gay and hooking up and came out on the show. Needless to say, they were treated pretty poorly by their straight shitty group members after that. Passive aggressively so.

What was that god awful big brother rip off on ABC? the Glass House I think....it was amazingly shitty.

I just watch about three minutes of I Want to Marry Harry on YouTube. It's close to the most horrible thing I've ever seen. Though the ginger they got to play Harry looks mighty tasty.

I'm supposed to get my hair done!

Was Ashley Parker Angel's season of Making the Band mentioned?

I really wanted to like The Glass House

The editor of "Sorority Life" from 2002 uploaded some episodes to youtube for "demo purposes."

R394 Speaking on Ashley Parker Angel:

There & Back: Ashley Parker Angel is a MTV reality television series than ran for 10 weeks in early 2006. It chronicled the efforts of former O-Town member Ashley Parker Angel to launch a solo career while providing for his new family. In the show, Ashley must manage to balance his career while also having to provide for his fiancée, Tiffany Lynn, and his new son, Lyric (whose birth was the very first shown on MTV). The show debuted on January 9, 2006 and ended with the season/series finale on March 13, 2006.

Ashley was so hot... but doomed to no career, I'm afraid. Remember when he visited his fellow O Town member who was then working construction? Not long after the band's hits. My first realization that being a pop star did not mean you got rich.

The editor of Sorority Life says he developed new techniques of editing that revolutionalized reality TV forever. What were they?

One of the O-Town guys pinged majorly (I forget his name but it wasn't Ashley Parker Angel)

Roseanne had a reality show. But I think you'd have to have been aware of the existence of something in order to consider it forgotten.

r400 I always had a crush on Erik-Michael Estrada and his gorgeous lips. I never heard any gay rumors, he is 37 and childless though!

Gallery girls and what was the one with the JAPs from the North Shore of LI - loved both of those shows!

The Restaurant will always hold a place in my heart.

Long Island Princesess - OMG that was my favorite...that tiny little jewish cunt who's daddy had some sort of weird sex/love thing with her.

"I don't like putting out mixed cheeses...I feel that is something poor people do.."

and when they confronted her about being a cunt she walked out of a corn field calling her daddy telling him she was attacked and could he send a jet to come get her? OMG the best...

then she had some sort of stroke IRL...and I felt bad for a second...but then I thought...strokes are for poor people..

I found O-Town to be the least offensive boy band. Liquid Dreams is quite a catchy song.

What was the one on HBO during the 2004 election where they had a pack of cheese balls trying to convince montel Williams they were presidential candidates?

Liquid dreams? So they were singing about cum? Didn't one guy get fired and they replaced him with that guy in front?

I once popped 3 hits of ecstasy and played 'We Fit Together' on a loop for 6 hours!

TransGeneration-2006 show about trans college students. It was made fun of on The Soup and other shows.

The show with the band Me+You=Forever. 2Gether.

Bug Juice is a Disney Channel reality series that premiered on February 28, 1998. The series focuses around 20 kids and their experiences at summer camp. Together, the kids work hard to excel in their activities and become friends. The phrase bug juice is a camping slang term for a very sweet juice drink made from powdered mixes, such as Kool-Aid, which are often served at summer camps.

When Liza Minnelli was married to David Gest they were supposed to have starred in a reality show together. Now THAT would have been something. I think a couple of episodes were filmed but I don't remember any of them actually airing. What happened with that? I vaguely remember hearing that it was Gest's fault the series never materialized, something about him being a horror to deal with.

They served us "bug juice" at Band Camp. It was watered down Kool-Aid, not super sweet in the least.

I would have preferred Jesus Juice, but whatevs.

For some reason I thought "Bug Juice" aired on MTV.

Britney and Kevin: Chaotic

Nobody cares but just so that this list isn't incomplete, I'll remind people of the existence of "Hey Paula!" which featured Bravo cameras following....zzzzz! Sorry, I meant to say following Paula Abdul around. If you like drugged up ex-pop gals, this show was for you.

"Hey Paula" was a hoot -- Paula Abdul would have meltdowns on a regular basis, and always seemed fucked up!

"What was the one on HBO during the 2004 election where they had a pack of cheese balls trying to convince montel Williams they were presidential candidates?"

I think it was called American Candidate

I miss the Rachel Zoe show with the nefarious Tay Tay

Zoe's show was good but at the end it was nauseating. After she had the kid and she ran around constantly droning "sky sky, sky sky.." UGH. And her fashion line...lol.

Over 400 comments in and no one mentioned Sarah Palin's Alaska?

r422, please don't remind us about that abortion

"Age Of Love", where a bunch of 40-something "cougars" think the show is about them being courted by hot guys half their age--until the producers change things up and fly in a group of 20-something "kittens" as competition;

"The Starlet", a sort-of "American Idol" for aspiring young actresses, with none other than DL-fave Faye Dunaway (poor thing) in the Simon Cowell role. I'll never forget Faye shitting on some poor girl's dream: "Young lady....you. Don't. Have. It."

wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait

What was that one....Celebrity Boxing Match...or something?

Tonya Harding was knockin' bitches out in the ring.

All American Muslim which was some TLC propaganda telling us all Muslims are America loving patriots and not the terrorists they actually are.

99.9999% of Muslims are not terrorists. But you knew that, right? Republicans are so afraid of terrorism when your chance of dying in a terrorist attack is about a million to 1

Poor people do tend to have a lot of wine and cheese tastings.

I remember All American Muslim, it got canned due to a Facebook group that bitched to the show's advertisers and the advertisers pulled out.

"Euros of Hollywood" on Bravo, featuring some Eurotrash wannabees.

Bravo also had a design show with the elders.

The British gal who used to appear with Ina Garten & the chubby swarthy fella

Did anyone mention Tough Love with Steve Ward?

Shear Genius. Hosted by Jaclyn Smith, Camilla Alves, and someone else. Introduced Tabitha Coffey to the world.

It's a Brad, Brad World is an American reality documentary television series on Bravo. The series debuted on January 12, 2012. On August 29, 2012, Bravo announced that the series has been renewed for a second season which debuted on March 6, 2013 The series follows Brad Goreski as he breaks away from his career as the assistant of Rachel Zoe and establishes his solo career. Goreski is shown working with celebrity clients along with attempting to share his talents to other designers.

Life's a Tripp, the Bristol Palin show

I watched the whole season "Top Chef: Just Desserts" recently, but hadn't heard about Morgan being arrested for being a pedo until this thread. He was such a proud, openly bigoted homophobe - calling the others fairies, and saying he had nothing in common with them because he's not into show tunes.

High society with Tinsley Randolph Mercer Mortimer

RhObh with Adriana Maloof

Rock of love charm school hosted by Sharon Osbourne. I wish it was online somewhere.

Blow out - Hot but stupid Jonathan Anton...

I don't know how I forgot about Blow Out. That was the first time I started watching an episode of a reality show thinking how stupid it was, and then watched the whole series. I remember Jonathan ogled Kristen Bell as she walked away, and said "Bunny Rabbit!"

I'm just here to do bangin' hair...

ALL of them should be forgotten

Wasn't there some show about the lesbian scene in...I think Los Angeles...something with sugar...Gimme Sugar?

There were several spinoffs of that tattoo parlor show Miami Ink/LA Ink/ NY Ink. All they did was do tattoos for various randoms(who usually had a personal background story about overcoming adversity), and then fight with each other.

And everyone remembers The Anna Nicole Smith show? Remember her lesbian assistant with low self-esteem? Was it Kimmy? And didn't her show feature fabulous gaysian Bobby Trendy at one point? Did he in turn get his own reality show?

Anna Anna Anna Anna Anna Nicole-you're so bodacious!

Don't most of them get forgotten after a few years because they're just trash? In years to come people will probably remember the ones that started it all like Big Brother and maybe even I'm a Celebrity - Get Me Out of Here, but who's really going to remember Growing Up Gotti, Jersey Shore/Geordie Shore, Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo, The Simple Life etc. etc. etc.

The thing is the "reality" label is put on everything now, including stuff like American Chopper and The Biggest Loser.

This thread has gotten so big that people aren't reading it, they're just posting the titles of shows that have already been posted.

So I'll add the tattoo show that was about covering an embarrassing tatt with something a little less embarrassing. The entire show was about "artists" changing "Winona Forever" to "Wino Forever" for sad sacks and it was quite a stupid show.

[quote]This thread has gotten so big that people aren't reading it, they're just posting the titles of shows that have already been posted.

Aren't a lot of DL threads like this?

Did someone actually have a "Winona Forever" tattoo?

American princess on we TV- a bunch of American girls competing for the title of princess with snobbish British people as judges

Johnny Depp did, r449 for Winona Ryder. He then had it shortened.

I'm fairly sure no mention has yet been made of "You Are What You Eat" where a bitchy brit lady laid out every disgusting thing people have consumed in a week. Seven day's worth of revolting burgers, fries, doner kebabs, breads and pastries, sodas, beers, candy, etc. would be piled onto a long table in an effort to horrify people into changing their bad habits. Gillian would also examine and critique their poops.

omg I loved that show..they would poop in a plastic box and she would examine it...lol..there was another one on Brittish tv where a skinny person and a fat person had to eat like each other for a month or something.

R454 Supersize vs Superskinny

R453 And she would often go on about the smell of someone's poo. "Everybody's poo smells!" cried one of the guests. "Not like this" replied the shrivelled Scottish hag.

Scat queens had their own reality show?

I always think someone like Jonathan Ross should have given Gillian McKeith a taste of her own medicine by getting her on their show and bringing out one of her poos in a tupperware box.

Heavy was a show that aired on A&E for one season. The subjects were sent to a fat farm and the show followed their weight loss journey. It was quite interesting and the polar opposite of the exploitative, uber-dramatic Biggest Loser.

Why did the Gastineau Girls reality TV show lasted two seasons?

There was an endurance show on about 3-5 years ago. Teams were dropped off in remote areas and had to get to different points before other teams. Once the reached a stop point, a helicopter would drop supplies that they could use on the next leg. They could not take ALL of the supplies, only like 7 of the ones deemed most essential. Every episode the new set of teams were dropped in a different environment (I think). What was that show?

This was NOT any of the Bear Grylls shows or the one shown on A&E with the teams comprised of experienced hikers, military men, and tour guides.

I enjoyed 'The City', which was 'The Hills' spin-off featuring Whitney Port and the perfect bitchy foil, Olivia Palermo, and the boss from hell, Kelly Cutrone, who later got her own short lived reality show on Bravo aptly titled, 'Kell on Earth'.

I miss the plastic surgery show with dr Rey and his lollipop headed wife Halley. I got strangely attached and then it was gone.

[quote]I miss the plastic surgery show with dr Rey and his lollipop headed wife Halley. I got strangely attached and then it was gone.

I liked Dr. 90120 too. Now they have a show on Netflix called The Celebrity Plastic Surgeons of Beverly Hills. I couldn't get past the first episode...way too obviously scripted.

I can't believe y'all forgot ManTracker, where people act as fugitives in the woods and a tracker on horseback runs them down.

Mark DeCarlo was so good on "Studs." And that reminds me of my mother, who would change the channel when anything gay related came on, even though she claimed not to be a homophobe. Anyway, when she was very ill and near death Mark DeCarlo played the LAGMC "It Gets Better" video on a local Chicago show and it was the ONLY time she ever watched anything gay voluntarily and I think she liked the fact the gays were doing something about the suicide spike at that time with the Trevor project. Anyway, DeCarlo said he was in the video for his gay brother (never mind that he seems like he belonged....). Anyway, it comes back to me now because this recent wedding proposal video has a "Jeff" who is a dead ringer for a DeCarlo.

Not only was Studs a great show but there was an advertiser called CK Clothiers that specialized in sizzling beefcake ads.

The Gong Show was so refreshing compared to all these talent shows we have today because you could put them out of their misery almost instantly.

American Pickers seemed like the laziest people on earth.

I hope that I am not repeating, but 460+ replies is a lot to get through this time of night. Two obscure favorites that I loved: 1) "Debbie Does Dallas... Again" - excellent behind the scenes of the Vivid remake of the cult classic from the late 70's. This was 2007 and porn chic seemed to be back. Everyone was fascinated with the starlets and the performers were living the dream and making serious bank. Soon after - torrents, piracy, file sharing and HIV outbreaks would rock the industry in a very bad way...... 2) "Love is in the Heir" - the year was 2005 and the premise was just to ridiculous to not be a guilty pleasure "Alleged Iranian Princess comes to America to make her mark in country music". I couldn't stop watching. This fame whore had already been in bad reality segments about being a spoiled uber rich brat in very bad E segments.

The Australian "Thunder Down Under" had a reality show where they picked a new male stripper troupe, and then Canada had one too.

"Almost Anything Goes" from the 70s pitted three small towns against each other in wacky challenges. Then they did celebrities. Here is Little House on the Prairie v. The New Mickey Mouse Club

Melissa Sue Anderson was on the LHOP team.

TLC had a short-lived ripoff of Intervention called Addicted...this was a different show than the more sensationalized My Strange Addiction. A&E also had a show called Obsessed which was about people with OCD and other anxiety disorders.

Make me a supermodel 0nly had 2 seasons, but I really enjoyed the show. The second season was a shocker with the model winning unexpectedly. I too have read that they may bring it back.

Wow this thread went like a house a fire yesterday and today....nothing. fickle fickle DL

Manhunt - the male modeling show

Puttin' On The Hits - cheesy lipsyncing show from the 80s

OMG Puttin on the Hits....that was THE shit....

Remember all the split costumes when someone did a duet?

That reminds me, remember "Duets"? It was a singing competition staring Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, and Robin Thicke. They basically had to sing duets with members of their teams and the audience had to call in to vote for the best duet performance.

I adored Dance Fever as a gayling. The costumes were fabulous.

Didn't that horse skeleton, Leanne Rimes have some show with her gigolo husband?

I loved the Swan but I think it was canceled due to a bad reaction to some surgery and subsequent lawsuit.

R469 I have always wondered how Jaye P Morgan ever became a "celebrity?" I always liked her on the Gong Show, but what she only seemed like she was famous for being on that show.

I always thought they should have done a male version of the swan...PS Terry Dubrow husband to Snobby Shrew Heather Dubrow was on The Swan.

Have we mentioned Bravo's "NYC prep" with that unfortunate-looking girl as the lead and the gayer than gay PC?

"Why Not?" with Shania Twain in 2011 was a little different from other PR-driven celebrity reality shows since it centered around her stage fright and wondering if she could perform live again.

R488, I loved in Kathy Griffin's stand-up when she said that show should've been called "Shania Twain: Bitter, Party Of One"

Remember when the Tool Academy guys (including my favorite, Big John) did jerkoff vids for Straight College Men?

And who, may I ask, invented the reality show?

Shawn and Matsuflex jerk off. Matsuflex is visibly self-conscious about his tiny tool.

MTV's Rich Girls which starred Ally Hilfiger and some other girl whose father owned a luggage company. Aired in 2003.

Didn't Shawn and Ryan jerk each other off in a gay porn video?

Another fan of the first season of [italic]Top Chef: Just Desserts.[/italic] Such a perfect storm of maladjusted and insane -- in addition to crazy Seth and creepy Morgan, there was cunty, bitter Heather H.

Seth had not one but two spectacular meltdowns. Remember when he had to be taken out on a stretcher? LOL

What made Morgan's arrest all the more shocking was that he was raising a young son as a single dad. Oddly, there doesn't seem to have been any movement on his case since 2011.

Seth says he begged production to let him leave before he had his final meltdown but was pressured into staying; then, after he was removed from the show, he says was placed on a 5150 psychiatric hold. He's in the process of changing his identity so he can make a fresh start after being blacklisted from the restaurant business.

In MTV's "Rich Girls," Ally Hilfiger said to her friend and a stylist while shopping that her dad invented cargo pants, and everyone else just copied him.

Cargo pants have been around since the 1930s.

I remember wondering why David Tutera thought he was some kind of celebrity.

Have vague flashbacks of a show, not that old maybe late 2000's, that was about wealthy Manhattan wastes-of-space couples who were pregnant for the first time, who hired people to help come up with a name for their baby. 99% of what actually occurred in the show, was, on its own, paint-drying level boring....but taken as a whole it was sort of a cultural insight into how self-absorbed and horrible this ridiculous social milieu was

Does anyone remember a VH1 show that had people driving, picking up people, & singing songs that were on their car radio?

Sorry to bump an old thread...

Someone upthread mentioned TEMPTATION ISLAND. Remember when one of the contestants was a hot Italian-American named Tony? He did a jack-off video and another where a gay guy sucked him off. He later claimed that for the latter he had been drugged. He ended up losing his regular job as an elementary school gym teacher.

I too loved PBS's MANOR HOUSE, FRONTIER HOUSE, and COLONIAL HOUSE. I recall that one of the teenage girls of one of the families on FRONTIER HOUSE departed early because her boyfriend back home was killed in a car crash while they were filming the show. I enjoyed Oprah and Gayle's visit on COLONIAL HOUSE, but admittedly their presence shattered whatever reality they were aiming for because Oprah absolutely refused to be treated as a black person would in those days and the contestants were in awe of her celebrity.

The first season (2000) of Big Brother followed the international format, with viewers voting out the houseguests. It started out strong but took a ratings nosedive because America voted out all of the interesting/shit-stirring houseguests early on. On the other hand, it's notable for having the most successful houseguest of any BB franchise: cosmetics queen Jamie Kern Lima, who sold her company to L'Oréal for more than a billion dollars a few years ago.

It was very corny and early 2000s, with Dr. Drew and some lady from AOL offering weekly commentary on the houseguests. One of them, a middle-aged frau named—wait for it—Karen, confessed in the house that she didn't love her husband anymore and wanted a divorce.

[[quote]On the other hand, it's notable for having the most successful houseguest of any BB franchise: cosmetics queen Jamie Kern Lima, who sold her company to L'Oréal for more than a billion dollars a few years ago.

I remember people were often making fun of her shiny lip gloss. I guess she got the last laugh.

The season of The Surreal Life with Janice Dickenson at war with Omarosa has been completely scrubbed from the internet.

I fucking LOVED The Surreal Life. So many trainwrecks.

Who's Your Daddy? hosted by Finola Hughes. Basically, an adopted female tried to guess who her biological father was among several contestants. Needless to say, it was not well-received and was cancelled after one episode.

Gallery Girls, Rich Girls, The swan and Long Island Princesses are my all time favorites! I still think about RichGirls and the NYC Blackout.

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