• Showtime orders pilot for "Black Eye For The Uncool Guy"-type series

  February 16, 2004
  Showtime cable channel, whose previous forays into reality television have included last fall's Freshman Diaries and the adult entertainment industry centered Family Business, has announced that it has ordered a pilot for Make It Cool, a new Queer Eye For The Straight Guy-like reality series in which a group of "hip African-Americans" will help horrifically "uncool" people of all races overcome their "uncoolness."

• UPN to air 'Awful Pretty', a 'Top Model'-like cross-dressing reality show contest

  February 3, 2004
  Just when you thought FOX had set the reality TV bar about as low as it could go with such upcoming shows as The Littlest Groom and Playing It Straight, along comes UPN to demonstrate that the bar can go even lower.

• Executive turmoil threatens future of reality TV powerhouse Endemol

  December 30, 2003
  Endemol, the Anglo-Dutch reality TV giant best known for its shows Big Brother and Fear Factor -- but which is also the largest independent producer of TV shows in the U.K. -- is on the verge of disintegration after open warfare broke out between the corporation's owner and the creative team.

• Are networks really cutting back on reality shows?

  November 10, 2003
  Despite the strong performance of reality TV shows during the 2002-03 season, the sic U.S. television networks resolved to cut reality shows from their 2003-04 schedule when they sold commercial time for the season. So how well are those promises holding up?

• Rod Stewart gets new MTV reality show, 'Rod: Live and Uncensored'

  November 10, 2003
  The Sydney Morning Herald reports that aging rock star Rod Stewart, who has the #2 album in the U.S. right now, has been signed by MTV for a reality series. The show, tentatively titled Rod: Live and Uncensored, will focus on Rod's personal and home life, similar to MTV's The Osbournes.

• 'Survivor' producer Mark Burnett launches new scripted show, based on himself

  October 30, 2003
  Without Mark Burnett, reality TV as we know it today might not exist. We may soon learn whether his own life is as interesting as his reality shows.

• Indiana U. telecommunications course focuses on reality TV

  October 21, 2003
  According to the Indiana Daily Student and WTHR-TV 13 in Indianapolis, a new telecommunications seminar for freshmen at Indiana University takes college students inside reality TV, for better or worse.

• Networks face sharp decline in young adult viewers; lack of reality shows blamed

  October 12, 2003
  The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that the first Nielsen ratings of the 2003-04 season contain bad news for the six broadcast networks. Viewership in the critical 18-34 demographic has dropped from the prior year by 12%.

• Fox TV plans production of 'Making the Cut' reality show about hairdressers

  October 2, 2003
  According to Hollywood Reporter, Fox TV Studios is about to produce a new entry in the "docureality" genre -- one modeled strongly on NBC's The Restaurant. Entitled Making the Cut, the show will focus on a group of apprentice hairdressers, fresh out of cosmetology school, who go to work at a new hair salon In downtown Manhattan being opened by top New York hair stylist Rodney Cutler.

• Bobcat Goldthwait and Jimmy Kimmel team to produce 'Joe Schmo'-like "reality film" for Comedy Central

  September 22, 2003
  Comedy Central and Jackhole Industries have teamed-up to pull one of the greatest and most elaborate prank ever played. Premiering Sunday, October 12, at 9 PM on Comedy Central, "Windy City Heat" is a two-hour original reality film that is the climax to a decade-long practical joke played on its "star" Perry Caravello.

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