When reality TV gets seriousReality TV programs generally do their best to avoid discussions of serious issues. No so for SBS’s record-breaking Go Back To Where You Came From, but has it achieved more for public debate than its crasser counterparts? asks Tim Brunero.
Reality tv
Has America ran out of reality TV stars?
With innumerable reality TV shows acting as talent competitions for virtually every skill under the sun, US networks have coming dangerously close to exhausting the talent pool, writes Brian Moylan.
Sarah Palin and reality TV: what’s she up to?
Sarah Palin is the star of a new reality TV program about her life helmed by the producer of Survivor and The Apprentice. It’s kind of hard to see how a move into prime time TV-tainment could help her political career, writes Nancy Franklin.
Daily Proposition: Watch the birth of quality reality TV
SBS doco One Born Every Minute aims to counterbalance the perception of how we enter the world by presenting the birth process in all its painful, animalistic, messy glory. The result is brilliant television, says Stephen Harrington.
Food fight: My Kitchen Rules vs. MasterChef
TV insiders have told The Oz that Ten is looking at taking Seven to court for ripping-off MasterChef with its series My Kitchen Rules.
Murdoch and Ramsay join for MasterfuckingChef
Rupert Murdoch is getting into bed with Gordon Ramsay to make Masterchef for the American market. Will Ten swoop in to make sureit doesn’t fall in to the hands of Nine?
The hastily scribbled note that changed TV forever
In February 2001, veteran UK TV executive Alan Boyd met with Simon Cowell and Simon Fuller to discuss an idea that would change the face of television forever. Read the notepage of ideas from that meeting that became the blueprint for the Idol phenomenon
The ultimate weight-loss reality show
We’ve had The Biggest Loser, Dance Your Ass Off and now the ultimate weight-loss reality program, brought to you by the home of fatness, the US of A: six people try to lose 50% of their body weight.
Australia’s Next Top Cooking Shows?
MasterChef set to be spoiled by sponsors
It was nice while it lasted: the forthcoming series of Celebrity MasterChef Australia will give its sponsors — including McDonald’s, Harvey Norman and Coles — “tailored on-air” integration, meaning more spruiking and less sauteing.
Big Brother dying across the globe
Perhaps the most iconic of all reality television programs, Big Brother, is being axed around the world, as life for broadcasters and marketers gets rougher and losses mount.
TV producers hunt ratings, terrorists
The latest reality TV concept: hunt down suspected terrorists and war criminals, film it and sell the finished product to the highest bidding TV stations around the world. We’d watch it.
Nine set to dance its ass off
What would you get if you crossed The Biggest Loser with So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing With The Stars, the base motives of an American reality TV producer, and a desperate Australian TV network? Nine’s new show Dance Your Ass Off.
French court rules reality TV stars have workers’ rights
Participants on the French version of Temptation Island have won compensation for unfair dismissal and the right to be treated as salaried workers.
The death of American Idol
In troubling news for the Fox Network, the two final nights of American Idol were among the least watched since the program started eight years ago.
The Cougar: too much reality
The Cougar is a horrifyingly embarrassing low-rent dating show in which a 40-year-old woman must choose one young cheeseball from among a batch of 20 spoiled curds.
Susan “Hairy Angel” Boyle isn’t the ugly one
Public reaction to Britain’s Got Talent breakout Susan Boyle has revelaed some ugly truths about our attitudes to women in the public spotlight.
