Celebrity Wife Swap

By the time the Bravo series "Real Housewives of New Jersey" drew to a close during the spring of 2010, it had generated enough buzz, controversy, and water-cooler discussion to make devoted viewers forget the producers' original intention: They had intended this installment of "The Real Housewives" franchise to satirize the characters and lifestyle represented in cable hit "The Sopranos." As "The Real Housewives of Orange County" were supposed to mimic ABC's "Desperate Housewives," so the Jersey Girls were groomed to look, sound, and spend like real-life equivalents of Carmella Soprano. The New York Times summed-up, "[They are] loud, nasal, nouveau-riche wives who raise spoiled children and spend their husbands' money in vast marble and onyx starter palaces in Franklin Lakes, N.J. They boast about everything, including how soon they qualified for the black American Express card. As Danielle Staub puts it, "˜I actually got mine before Madonna did'." They even had the pedigree to support the role: Albert Manzo, husband of mater familia Caroline Manzo, is the son of Albert "Tiny" Manzo, whose body"”all 350 pounds of it"”was discovered in the trunk of his Lincoln Continental; in 1983, police described the body as "perforated" with machine gun bullets.

Not exactly on the cutting edge of "reality" programming, "If I Can Dream" nevertheless pushes the technological envelope as it works to make the real-life dramas imitate life as accurately as possible. The show still has potential to become "The Jersey Shore" with class and brains. In March, 2010, "If I Can Dream" debuted, showing specially chosen contestants pursuing their artistic, musical, dramatic, athletic, and creative gifts dreams, pushing themselves to break into the big time in their fields. In order to gain admission to the show's Hollywood, California home, contestants had to satisfy producers they really had legitimate shots at making their dreams come true. MySpace, PepsiCo, and Ford invested heavily in the project, gambling that it would revolutionize broadcasting by making optimum use of internet technology. At first, weekly episodes of "If I Can Dream" aired exclusively on Hulu. According to its website, "The "˜If I Can Dream' House is wired with 56 AXIS Q1755 H.264 cameras delivering content across 3 CDNs. Video feeds are available at both 500 Kbps and 1 Mbps. As designed, "˜If I Can Dream' will be the largest persistent live "˜event' produced by a media company."

Professional decorator Jeff Lewis and his assistants are in the house "flipping" business. That is they buy them up cheaply and sell for a profit. Along the way there are always complications involved with refurbishing houses that have been neglected or even abandoned, thanks especially to the real estate crash in recent years. The stressful environment of flipping houses makes Lewis decide to concentrate more on home design and his consulting business as a means of income. We, the viewing audience, follow him and his helpers along as they work out the details and improve on each home they take on as a project now based in the Los Angeles, California area. Among the homes Jeff Lewis takes on as home improvement projects are some worth well over a million dollars so this is no small time business. Jenni Pulos, Ryan Brown, Chris Elwood, and Chris Keslar are part of his crew and prove to be dedicated workers who Lewis finds he can't do without. The program makes for some interesting and inspiring viewing that makes many of us want to head for the Home Depot and begin our own restoration in our own homes.

The latest concept in reality television is Same Name which pairs up a "regular guy" with a celebrity who just happens to share the same first and last names. Of course a name like Betty White (at least five in the Boston area alone) is an easy one to match up but how does the well known comedienne compare with someone from the so called normal world? The idea could be interesting if the celeb trades places with the real person and spends some time in their shoes and vice versa. Can Floridian Justin Bieber (they found one in Jacksonville, Florida) sing? In the pilot episode we see a landscaper and electrician from Lake Jackson, Texas with the name of David Hasselhoff trade his life with THE David Hasselhoff, formerly of Baywatch and Knight Rider. Will the Hass electrocute himself? And is Mr. Hasselhoff from Texas better looking? Those who share names with celebrities seldom have anything else in common other than that name thing and it could be humorous observing how difficult it may be for the pampered set to actually work at real jobs.

Watch MTV and the iTunes for episodes of the new hit show Geordie Shore and you will see similarities to the popular Jersey Shore. For one thing the show has its own group of "party hard" individuals who live together in an upscale house, share bedrooms, and each as their own reasons to be there. The Geordie Shore show is a British based program coming from the UK and having decidedly British points of view. The filming of Geordie Shore has been stated to be bordering pornographic due to bare breasts, six packs, fights, and simulated fellatio. Each of these vain individuals have their own reasons to submit to "reality" television. Holly states she is the most realistic "fake" person there is and her size double F chest (paid for by her mom) is a testament to that. Then there is Jay who loves himself too much to get involved with a female on the Geordie Shore show. His idea of a relationship is about him and his workouts at the gym. James, who is only 20, must check himself out each time he passes a mirror. Sophie likes to flash her "boobs" while dancing on table tops. Quite an interesting group!

"Kourtney and Kim Take New York" chronicles the continuing adventures of the unmarried Kardashian sisters as they work their strange magic on adoring fans in the Big Apple. Like magnets among loose nails, the girls draw a crowd wherever they go, cameras stalking every step. Viewers enjoy more of the intense Kardashian programming they apparently craved and demanded. On any given day, E! empowers you to keep up with some kind of Kardashian in at least three ways during approximately twelve hours of non-stop first-letter-"K" programming. If it weren't for the success of Chelsea Handler, E! News, renegade women fleeing the Playboy mansion, and "Fashion Police," the Kardashians would fill entire programming days. Apropos of "reality" programming, "Kourtney and Kim Take New York" has neither plot nor script, but it has plenty of "situations." Kim, more or less determined to remain single for an entire year, nevertheless has no qualms about exciting hook-ups with assorted styles and flavours of eligible New York bachelors. Kourtney, ostensibly the more level-headed and businesslike of the two, apparently lives vicariously through Kim. Together, they allegedly run a business in-between pictorials, promotions, parties, and "Patron"-powered club appearances. Moralists might worry, as "Kourtney and Kim Take New York," they corrupt an entire generation of impressionable "˜tween girls, but studies show thirteen-year-old boys are the Kardashian sisters' biggest demographic.