Susan Boyle-Over Night Fame

Lately one of the most popular YouTube videos is titled Susan Boyle. This is a clip from the reality elimination show Britain’s Got Talent. This is Britain’s talent show which would compare to our American Idol. Simon Cowell judges this show as well.
Susan Boyle was a contestant on this show. She is a short and stout, homely 47 year-old. She is currently unemployed and looked rather out of place when she stepped out on the stage. As she made her way across the stage in front of the judges you could hear snickers in the audience and people rolling their eyes, thinking this was going to be a joke.
She performed I Dreamed a Dream which comes from Les Miserables. As soon as she opened her mouth the whole crowd was still and drawn. Simon had a look of shock and awe on his face as he had to double-take to see if her talent really was what it seemed. Sure enough it was and it was so great that Susan Boyle received a standing ovation from everyone in attendance that show.
The judge Peirs told her, “"Without a doubt that was the biggest surprise I have had in three years. When you stood there with that cheeky grin and said 'I want to be like Elaine Paige' everyone was laughing at you. No-one is laughing now, that was stunning. I am reeling from shock".
The other Judge Amanda agreed, “"I am so thrilled because I know everyone was against you. We are all so cynical but that was a complete wake up call. It was a complete privilege".
And finally, the famous statement by Simon Cowell, who played everything off as if he knew what was coming, he said, “Susan, I knew from the minute you walked onto the stage that we were going to hear something extraordinary and I was right".
She had yeses from all three judges and can compete in the next round.

Party Dad

I am going to write about my favorite show Jon and Kate Plus Eight again. Jon Gosselin, the father of eight children, has been in the tabloids a lot. They show him partying and try tell readers that he is cheating on Kate. This is easy for them to do because Jon is young and did miss out on this stage of his life due to the surprise of eight kids.
I have found lots of articles saying this is not true. He said he is just like everyone else and has lots of male and female friends and just because he is on TV it’s bad that he is out in public with a female friend. He also realized that being out late with them was poor judgment on his part and makes him feel extremely bad for what state it is putting his family in. His family is the most important thing in his life and it kills him to see these allegations hurting them.
This incident happened April 18, when he arrived at Legend Lounge in Pennsylvania, near the couples home. Kate was in Bellevue, WA promoting her new book “Eight Little Faces: A Mom’s Journey.”
The alleged incident involving the “mystery woman” occurred a few weeks before TLC announced Jon & Kate Plus 8’s fifth season will premiere on May 25.
This incident followed an alleged February incident where Jon was seen partying with college girls at a Huntington, PA, bar that is located three hours away from the 1.3 million dollar home his family recently bought.
While at that bar, Jon reportedly met some girls from Juniata College, who invited him to a house party where he played beer pong.
I feel bad for Jon because he was too young to have so many kids. He missed his glory days pretty much and now he cannot do the things he is craving because he has a huge family and to make it worse they are taped by a camera crew pretty much every day of their lives.

Speidi Married Once Again

Heidi and Spencer got married….again! I really don’t like the thought of this. I like Heidi for the most part, but Spencer makes me want to puke. He is a horrible boyfriend and person in general. On the episode that airred on MTV in December, when they got married for the first time in Mexico, it seemed to me that he got her drunk and then asked her to marry him on purpose because he knew she’d say yes for sure if she was intoxicated. Then when she told him she wanted a big fancy wedding rather than to make it final in court it took him forever to finally give into something she has dreamt about all her life.

I get frustrated with Heidi when I think about this too. She lost most of her friends because of Spencer, including her very best friend Lauren (LC). Even though I thought Heidi and Lauren were starting to get somewhere with their friendship again none of that matters anymore because there is no way Lauren will take her back with Spencer as her husband.

Spencer and Heidi were married officially for the second time at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pasadena California on Saturday. They exchanged vows in front of 200 guests including: Audrina Patridge, Kristin Cavallari, Brody Jenner, and Frankie Delgado. Lauren Conrad who initially said she would not attend the ceremony had a change of heart and was in attendance also. Heidi was draped in about 1.2 million worth of Neil Lane Jewelry and wore a $19,000 custom-made dress by Monique Lhuiller. Heidi’s sister, Holly was the maid of honor and Spencer’s sister, Stephanie was a bridesmaid.

Neither Spencer nor Heidi shed any tears. They also didn’t say their own vows, instead they had the minister do it.

On the wedding day Heidi had wrote on her Twitter page “Thank you God for Spencer” and she also described her wedding dress as “amazing—like a swan princess.”

I’m not sure if this marriage is going to work out or not. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be tough for them to keep it alive because they could barely be together as a couple. But they have been dating for a long time and they have found ways to make it work this long, so they will probably be okay.

Too Many Kids!

Lately, my new reality TV show obsession has been on TLC. It’s actually several different shows with the same theme. The most popular one, and my favorite is Jon and Kate Plus Eight. Several other shows like it are 18 and Counting and Table For Twelve.

All these shows have to do with families who have more than the average amount of children and how their lives differ from the average family. You can tell exactly how many kids each has by the title of their show.

In this blog, I am going to talk about Jon and Kate Plus Eight because I am most familiar with this one and because it is my favorite. This show consists of parents Jon and Kate, fraternity twin girls, and fraternity sextuplets (three boys and three girls). A camera crew follows them through their daily lives focusing on the challenges of raising multiple children.

Jon and Kate met at a picnic in 1997 and were married in 1999. When the couple decided it was time to start a family Kate was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, which turned the couple to fertility treatment. In February of 2000, Kate became pregnant with twins. Cara and Mady were born.

They began thinking of having another child, so they turned to fertility treatment once again. Five weeks after she found out she was pregnant for the second time they told her it was sextuplets. The six children were born May of 2004. They were nicknamed the “Hershey’s Kisses” since they were born in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Their more recent episodes have been them upgrading into a new, much bigger, beautiful home. They also have a “Go Green” episode, where they are taught how to make their home as energy efficient as possible. They install electric solar panels, solar thermal panels, and solar powered lights along the driveway. This is educational and fun for the kids because they help out and learn a little about the environment.

Interesting Idol

I know American Idol is a very popular reality television show and I have barely even touched on it at all in my blogs. I really enjoy watching the show, but for some reason I have always had a hard time keeping up with it. I think this is mostly due to the channel it is on. It’s not one of my most watched. But this week I will blog about what I have seen and some interesting things about the show that I have researched.

A very liked and favored contestant, Scott MacIntyre , has recently been voted off. Those of you that watch the show already know that he is legally blind. He was voted off by a split decision on the judges part. Paula Abdul and Kara DioGuardio were in favor of keeping him on the show, but the other two judges said no, and gave him the boot.

"I was actually very thrilled to know that it was a split decision between the four judges, and that was something very nice for me to walk away with knowing that the decision was split, it wasn't unanimous," MacIntyre says after finding out he was eliminated. The elimination also made it easier for him when he was told that the cold hearted Simon Cowells vote was not an easy one for him to make.

In the end, he was happy with receiving eighth place on American Idol.

The finalist group of contestants is way different than past groups. They seem to be the only group that laughed and joked just minutes before going out to perform, while past groups were silent and serious before their performances. This group is all about having a fun atmosphere.

You can tune into the final episodes on Fox.

Pussycat Dolls

Last Friday, I went to the Britney Spears concert in Minneapolis where the Pussycat Dolls opened for her. This experience was insanely amazing! It was like the best circus I have ever seen times 20 plus Britney Spears and the Pussycat Dolls. After going to this, I thought I would write about the previous Pussycat Doll reality shows Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll and Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious.

The Search for the Next Doll looked for another girl for the group to sing on their next album and go on tour with the group. A group of girls who want to be the next Pussycat Doll go through a pop star boot camp while living together in Los Angeles. The winner of the show was Asia Nitolanno. After the judges announced she was the winner she decided she didn’t want to be a part of that group and instead try a solo career. The creators of this show had to re-think their concept and came up with looking for a whole new group instead.

This lead to the show Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious. Originally the show was planned to lead to a group of the three girls, but by the final decision of creator Robin Antin it ended up being a quartet. They have received more attention from Canadian and Brazilian audiences than the US. They were nominated for “Breakout Group” and “Reality: Music Competition” at the Teen Choice Awards. Rather than wearing heels and fishnet tights, this group as a different, more urban look. They kind of wear work out type of clothing. This show was created to give the audience a feel of what it takes to be a pop star, and feel their sexiness, empowerment, and to learn about singing and dancing.

I absolutely love the Pussycat Dolls, especially the lead singer Nicole. I haven’t got into the Girlicious group at all though.

College Life

The next level of reality TV is being introduced to MTV called “College Life”. It is even realer than reality TV they actually call it “real” TV. This show has no producers, directors and the cameras are given to college students to tape and tell their own college stories. The stories are shot at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, it will give viewers a coarse and original look at college kids telling their stories their own ways. It involves lots of hookups,breakups, pressure to get good grades, and homesickness.

The cameras have been given to eight sophomore and freshman students to capture their high and lows of the college experience to share with the world. The excitement of the new freedom these young men and women have just got a taste of will be revealed.

I think this show will give kids in high school an honest idea of what to expect when they start living the college life. Since it is taped by the students and there are absolutely no scripts it will be great examples.

Alex, Andrea, Anna, Lindsay, Kevin, Jordan, Josh, and Dan are the names of the eight students doing this project. You can read biographies on the MTV website. You will find that they all come from different backgrounds and each have experienced different amounts of freedom in the life they had before college.

The question is, how real do people act when they know they are being filmed? Most people aren’t comfortable enough with the way they are so that when the cameras come on they are truly being themselves. Even when the producers and directors are gone most of the kids will act differently knowing they are being filmed and might end up on TV for all the world to see.

“College Life” will air April 13th at 9:30.

LC

I am a huge fan of The Hills, and I especially love the shows main girl, Lauren Conrad. If you are like me in that way, you might be a little disappointed when you hear her talk about her chances of coming back. They seem to be slim to none. It sounds like the show is still planning on airing another season without Lauren Conrad, known on the show as LC.
Conrad says, “Never say never, but at this point I think I’m ready to step away and do my own thing.” She is ready to have some more privacy in her life. She is also sick of having every mistake she makes in her life being aired on television for all of the world to see.
Lauren started her MTV reality show career on Laguna Beach. The first season aired during her senior year of high school. After graduation she attended the Academy of Art School in San Francisco for one semester. During the second season of the show she moved back home and began taking classes at a local college before she transferred again to Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.
The Hills starts when she makes the move to Los Angeles, where she worked at teen vogue. The show documented her live, along with the lives her friends. So far there has been five seasons of The Hills and the sixth one will air April 6, 2009.
LC now has an internship at Teen Vogue. She is also planning on writing a book titled “LA Candy” which will be coming out soon. She has started her own fashion line called Lauren Conrads Collection. She is a spokesperson for the make-up brand “Mark.”

North Dakota Winners

America’s next top model has turned two North Dakota girls into something bigger than they ever imagined they could be. Nicole Linkletter and CariDee English both became winners of the show. This opportunity gave them each a jumpstart in the modeling industry. Nicole received a contract with Ford Models, a $100,000 contract with CoverGirl cosmetics, a fashion spread in Elle magazine, and the cover of Elle Girl magazine. While Caridee also received a $100,000 contract with CoverGirl cosmetics, a modeling contract with Elite Models, and a six-page fashion editorial and cover for Seventeen magazine.
Nicole Linkletter was the first North Dakota winner. She graduated from Grand Forks Red River High School in 2003. She attending college at University of North Dakota, St. Cloud State Univeristy, and is currently attending California State University Northridge.
Nicole appeared in cycle 5 of the show. She auditioned for the show in the Mall of America. She was chosen to win because of her portfolio, model attitude, diversity, and fierce catwalk. Winning this show at the age of 19 made her the youngest winner at the time.
After the show, Nicole went on to do a photo shoot in Paris for a couture line, where her pictures were featured in a six-page spread of Elle magazine. A few other things she has been involved in since then include: In Touch Magazine, Celebrity Living magazine, People Magazine, Alice and Olivia Fashion Show 2006, Fashion For Life Benefit Show, and much others.
CariDee English, a Fargo native, was the winner of Cycle 7. Before making her appearance on America’s Next Top Model she worked as a photographer.
There was a lot of controversy during the show about CariDee’s personality. She came across as much more outgoing than the other contestants. In the beginning of the series she came across as fun and out going in a positive way, but later on the judges worried that it might be too much. The judges were unsure if they wanted a winner who appeared to be unpredictable and unstable as the winner. They crowned her the winner after they said she has the much needed “X factor”.
Since the show, Caridee has appeared on One Tree Hill, she has modeled for Wedding Style, JC Penney, and Bisou Bisou and a few of her runway events include: New York Fashion week 2008, Snoopy in Fashion, and GM Style Auto Show.

Good-bye to the Girls

Tonight the fifth season of The Girls Next Door was wrapped up when everyone said good-bye to Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson. All the girls have gotten tired of being tied down to the same man for the past five years, and they’re ready to make a move for the better.
Holly Madison announced her break-up with Hugh Hefner, but Hef hasn’t had a problem moving on. He has already found two new girlfriends who happen to be identical twins. Holly has been handling the break-up well, also, she wishes Hef nothing but the best. Because Holly is no longer one of Hef’s girlfriends she has to move out of the mansion, but she hasn’t got that far yet.
Tonight on the show Kendra Wilkinson announced that she will be leaving the mansion. She is engaged to, professional football player Hank Baskett. The couple plans on getting married in June. They have already talked a lot about having babies together. Kendra says she’s not making this move to go out, go crazy, and be a party girl, instead, she has plans of settling down.
Bridget Marquardt will no longer be living in the mansion anymore either. She was seen at the grammy’s with her most recent love, director Nicholas Carpenter. The two have been together since October. They have met each others families, but what was more important to that for Bridget was them having Hef’s blessings. She said he told her she is always welcome to the mansion and Baskett is too, as long as she wants him there.
Although all the girls are leaving the mansion, there is talk of having a season 6. Even though they will no longer be in the mansion, all the girls plan on staying close by and keeping Hef a big part of their lives.

Is winning a reality show really the easy way out?

I think a lot of people see winning a reality show as the easy way out, the easy way to fame or to your dream job. I definitely don’t think that is completely true in all cases though. People who win have never dealt with anything like the fame they receive afterwards or haven’t had the chance to work their way up to the job they get after the show. All of this can be so overwhelming for the ordinary person.

Christian Siriano, a 23 year old, became the youngest person to win the reality show Project Runway. While presenting his line of clothes at the semi-annual fashion even, he was blocked from the hall where his clothes were being displayed by a body guard because he didn’t recognize him as a designer. That is just one incident that shows the difficulty of becoming a big time so quickly. There is a documentary out called “Eleven Minutes” it was created by Project Runways first winner, Jay McCarroll, it takes a look at all the months it took him to finish his 11-minute runway collection, raising financial backing and selling the line, and it also asks whether or not a reality show winner can transfer its television success into the real world.

Siriano now has a deal designing low-cost shoes and bags for payless. What he says about winning Project Runway, “It definitely gave me a platform, but for other young designers I would say, it's not the best way to go if you want to be a real, serious designer.” Other Project Runway contestants have sold their clothing in U.S stores, and some have appeared as guests on television shows, but a limited few have actually held their own runway shoes.

Project Runways season 6 finale show is at the Mercedes-Benz fashion week fall 2009 in New York City.

American Idol: Bikini Girl

If you are an avid watcher of the reality TV show series American Idol you probably know who I am talking about when I say “bikini girl.” Her name is Katrina Darrell, a 20-year-old who tried out for the eighth season of American Idol wearing nothing but a small two piece bikini. After she was done singing she got in a verbal fight with Kara DioGuardi, who was judging at the time. She was eliminated from the competition, and while having her talk with Ryan Seacrest she pulled him in for a kiss. Without her on the show anymore they turn to Tatiana Del Toro to keep the drama alive.

Tatiana Del Toro, is a 23 year old Puerto Rican dancer and lingerie model. She made it into the top 36 by the skin of her teeth. The first try out she had she did anything she could to annoy the heck out of Simon Cowell. She also gave Simon sexy snap shots of herself. There is a lot of talk about her making it this far just to make the show more interesting and add drama and entertainment. Tatiana also gives the people someone to hate, which will make people watch more for the pleasure they get from the put downs she receives. I think keeping her may be a waste of their time though, because once the phone lines start ringing and the competitions is up to the people I don’t think she will last very long.

Unlike any other season, this season has 36 semifinalists. The contestants will be grouped into 3 groups of 12. After they are grouped, Idol will have three weeks where the twelve will perform during two hour pre-taped Tuesdays at 8PM. While those who voted at home votes will be revealed Wednesday at 8PM during the one hour show. The male and female who received the highest number of votes from home voters will automatically be one of the 12 finalists. For more information on this seasons American Idol visit: http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/alleged-identities-of-american-idol-eighth-season-top-36-released-8352.php

Double Shot at Love Season Finale

If you have been a big “Double Shot at Love” fan you probably tuned into the season finale that aired last week. I will give you a little recap on what the show is about if your not a regular watcher. This show’s goal was to find two hot, twin, bisexuals true love. It started off with 12 women and 12 men and they had competitions to see who got alone time with the girls, the more alone time you got the better the girls got to know you. Each week they had elimination where the girls would have to make a decision and send competitors home.
This week, only two competitors remained, and if all worked out right they were both suppose to have someone in the end, but there was a twist they could not discuss their decisions with each other. Rebekah and Trevor were the two to make it to the finale. Rebekah came out first and both of the girls ended up confessing that they were in love with Trevor. So, when Trevor came out the girls told him they both fell in love with him and it was now up to him to pick who he wanted to be with. He said he had to follow his heart and chose Vikki. Rikki left crying.
For previous episode summaries visit: http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/a_double_shot_at_love/episodes.jhtml
I think a lot of people enjoyed seeing an ending like this because they realized that even people as pretty as these girls don’t get what they want and don’t always get a happy ending. I have a feeling there might be another season with just Rikki looking for love again, or maybe them both if Vikki and Trevor don’t work out. I think this, because back when the show was “A shot at Love With Tila Tequila” she thought she found love the first time and it didn’t work out so she had another season to try again. These shows become very entertaining because the viewer often starts to gain feelings for the competitors.

Watch the season finale at: http://www.mtv.com/videos/a-double-shot-at-love-one-shot-too-many/1604218/playlist.jhtml

Reality TV vs Drama TV

Two very similar genres of TV are dramatic television and reality television. People love to watch reality TV because it hits them right at home. People can relate so well to how the ordinary people who are in the show react in certain situations. This is because there are no scripts and they are doing what is natural to them. Sheryl Longin, a person who considers herself a “reality show addict,” says “we may be approaching the death of drama,” because seeing people acting naturally, using normal, natural body language meets the expectations of viewers that cannot be met by actors. Watching a high definition TV and a 1970’s quality TV is to our vision, like watching reality TV and drama is to our brains.

I, personally, like to watch reality TV more because I feel it’s more likely that someday I could actually be on a show like that. Often times I find myself wondering what exactly I would do if I was put into some of the situations I see on the shows I watch. I think it is harder to do that while watching drama shows because unless you become an actor or actress someday, there is no way you’re ever going to be on a show like that.

I would love to be on the reality show The Real World. The opportunity to live in a sweet house, in a big city with 6-7 interesting strangers really intrigues me. I think it would be extremely hard to get used to having cameras on you all the time, but once I got over that it would be a lot of fun. Since I am from South Dakota and have been rather sheltered my entire life I’m not exactly used to all the racial differences, sexual orientation, sexual experiences, religious differences and political differences this show involves, but since I am pretty open minded and love learning about these kind of things I think I would really enjoy an experience like that.
http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/real_world_brooklyn/series.jhtml

History of Reality TV Shows

The genre of reality TV shows began in the 1940’s. The so called “granddaddy of reality TV shows” was Candid Camera, which debuted in 1948. This show broadcasted ordinary people reacting to unexpected pranks. A few competitive game shows aired in the 1950’s including: Beat the Clock, Truth or Consequences, and the Miss America pageant. Another show that helped make reality TV shows successful was the radio series Nightwatch, this was recordings of the daily activities of Culver City, California police officers. You Asked For It was the first reality show where the audience could participate and cast votes to help determine the course of events. The Radio Times Guide to Film 2007 said that Chelsea Girls an Andy Warhols film in 1966 is “to blame for reality television.”

The reality TV we watch today is most alike to how reality TV was in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The show that introduced putting strangers in the same environment and recording the drama was Nummer 28. This show aired in 1991 it also included a lot of soundtrack music and “confessionals” by cast members after an event happened. One year later a very similar show became a hit on MTV called The Real World. The created of Nummer 28 was sure that The Real World was directly inspired by his show, but the creator of The Real World said he got the idea from An American Family. An American Family was the first reality show in modern sense on PBS in 1974. In 1997, a Swedish TV show, Expedition Robinson, was a mix between Nummer 28/Real World taking competition, elimination, strangers, and drama and put them all into one show. This aired until only one winner remained. A few years later this was produced as Survivor in other countries.

Survivor and American Idol have been the top-rated series on American television for an entire season. Survivor, Idol, Top Model, Dancing With the Stars, The Apprentice, Fear Factor, and Big Brother have had global impact, they have been successful series in dozens of countries. During the 2000’s many of these reality TV shows have been put on DVD, so you can purchase and watch according to your schedule. In 2007, according to the Learning and Skills Council, one in seven UK teenagers hope to gain fame by appearing on reality television.

Throughout the history of reality television it has become much more graphic and sex is common. With reality TV changing in these ways I often wonder where it’s headed because it doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon.

You can find more history of reality TV shows at this site:
http://http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1842705,00.html

Hi, my name is Emily Goedert. I am going to blog about reality television shows because I love watching them in my free time. My favorites are all on MTV, but there are reality shows on various channels. Here are a few of my favorites: A Double Shot at Love, The Real World, America’s Next Top Model, and The City. These Shows are all unscripted and most of them are dramatic situations, which involve ordinary people rather than professional actors and actresses. In a few situations the people in these shows end up becoming celebrities after the shows air.

Here are brief summaries of my favorites:

A Double Shot at Love is about bisexual twin sisters who are looking for their shot at love. The show starts off with 12 straight guys and 12 lesbians, and the twins eliminate contestants each week. After all the dramas and cat fights, they hope to find true love.

The Real World is a show that focuses on the lives of eight strangers living in a house together for a few months in a new city. Cameras are on them all the time recording their relationships.

America’s Next Top Model was created and is hosted by Tyra Banks. She is looking for the next top model among 10-14 contestants. The episodes show the contestants doing different photo shoots and then who is eliminated every week.

The City stars Whitney Port who is recorded while making the life transition from California to New York, where she is starting a great new job. While here she encounters lots of drama with girls, boys, and her job.

For more information any of these shows you can visit http://www.mtv.com/.