Category Archives: Reality TV

Blockbuster: will Victoria’s tough housing market push The Block into the red?

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Some predict the TV show will lose money this season as investors exit property and contestants face ‘a buyer’s market’ at auction

Channel Nine’s hit series The Block could be caught in the firing line of Victoria’s flat housing market and investor woes, with one expert predicting the show will make a loss this year.

The properties in the seaside township of Cowes, on Phillip Island, are set to go under the hammer on Saturday.

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‘Octomom’ Natalie Suleman, mother of 14, welcomes her first grandchild

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Suleman, who made headlines for giving birth to the first surviving octuplets, announces granddaughter’s birth

Natalie (formerly Nadya) Suleman – the so-called “Octomom” – has added yet another young addition to her already impressively large family. The mom of 14 announced Sunday on her Instagram that she is now a grandmother to a baby girl.

Suleman, 49, accompanied the announcement with a photo of an infant’s tiny foot behind a pink baby blanket.

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Fresh crisis at ‘toxic’ Strictly as ex-staff claim they faced sexualised comments and cruelty

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Production workers at Strictly Come Dancing allege BBC refused to take their complaints seriously

Production staff who formerly worked on Strictly Come Dancing have complained of a toxic work culture and accused the BBC of failing to take their complaints seriously, in a fresh blow to the corporation’s primetime show, the Observer can reveal.

One former staff member alleged they had been subjected to sexist and sexualised comments, including intrusive questions about their sex life, while another claimed they witnessed “talented co-workers treated with cruelty”.

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Craig Revel Horwood says Strictly Come Dancing allegations are ‘shock’

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Accusations of abusive behaviour in rehearsal rooms ‘complete news’ to judge of the dance show

Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood has said allegations of abusive behaviour to past participants on the show have come as a “shock” to him.

Last weekend professional dancer Graziano Di Prima said he was leaving the BBC show after claims about his treatment of reality star Zara McDermott when they competed together last year.

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Alec and Hilaria Baldwin to share family life in reality show

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The actor and his wife will be the focus of a TLC docuseries, announced just weeks before his manslaughter trial begins

Alec Baldwin and his wife Hilaria have announced a new TLC reality show following their family life.

The 66-year-old actor, whose films include Beetlejuice and Glengarry Glen Ross, shared a video on Instagram with his seven children.

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‘Funny and kind of sad’: how Clarkson’s Farm has captured Chinese viewers

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Jeremy Clarkson’s reality TV show has particular appeal for young people with no experience of farming

To one Chinese reviewer, Jeremy Clarkson is “a stupid old British man with too much money who farmed for a year without harvesting anything”. To another, he is “the British version of Li Ziqi”, a 33-year-old woman who is one of China’s biggest internet celebrities thanks to videos of herself farming and cooking in the idyllic Sichuanese countryside.

Clarkson’s Farm, the former Top Gear presenter’s beguilingly popular reality television show about his pivot from petrolhead to farmer, has been hugely successful on his home turf, becoming the most watched show on Amazon Prime in the UK. It is also a hit in China.

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Two Come Dine With Me winners convicted for importing cannabis

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Nicholas Panayiotou and Eleanar Attard among gang who planned to smuggle 58kg of the drug into the UK

Members of a gang, including two former winners of a Channel 4 cooking programme, have been convicted after their plan to import large amounts of cannabis was uncovered.

Nicholas Panayiotou, Eleanar Attard, Constantinos Zavros, Luke Wileman and Koby Haik planned to smuggle 58kg of cannabis into the UK from the US, but were foiled after a theft at a London airport, the Metropolitan police said.

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Nigel Harman withdraws from Strictly Come Dancing

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Actor, 50, sustains injury hours before the quarter-finals, leaving just four celebrities in competition

Nigel Harman has withdrawn from Strictly Come Dancing after sustaining a rib injury just hours before the quarter-finals of the competition.

The Casualty actor, 50, had been due to compete with a Charleston to Step in Time from Disney’s Mary Poppins with his partner, Katya Jones, on Saturday night.

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‘Appalling abuse of animals’: Chris Packham tells Ant and Dec I’m a Celebrity is like dog fighting

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The conservationist compares ITV reality show to pursuits that are ‘the sad preserve of psychopathic criminals’

Chris Packham has written a letter to Ant and Dec, accusing I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! of exploiting animals.

In the missive, released on X (formerly Twitter), he states that this is not the first time he has tried to engage with the show’s presenters about animal welfare standards on the reality show, but that his previous “polite, reasonable and constructive” attempts were ignored so “this time I’ll be a little more frank and forthright”.

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Nigel Farage to be dumped in middle of Australian outback for I’m a Celebrity

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Divisive Brexiter will be tasked with helping fellow contestants 2,000 miles away on Gold Coast

Nigel Farage will be stranded in the middle of the Australian outback when I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! gets under way.

He will be one of three unsuspecting stars who will be dropped in the red desert in the scorching heat and tasked with helping his campmates thousands of miles away.

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Nigel Farage spotted in Brisbane just before start of I’m a Celebrity

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Former Ukip leader has reportedly been offered large sum to appear on ITV show, which begins this month

Nigel Farage has been seen at Brisbane airport in Australia, adding to speculation that he will be joining the lineup in this year’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!.

The former leader of Ukip and the Brexit party did not confirm when asked whether he was entering the jungle as part of the ITV show, but did tell a reporter that he “might be going in”.

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Nigel Farage ‘giving very serious consideration’ to I’m a Celebrity … offer

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Former Ukip leader said he was offered ‘substantial sums of money’ and would decide ‘within next 48 hours’

Nigel Farage is giving “very serious consideration” to an offer to join the lineup of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!

The former leader of Ukip and the Brexit party has been courted by the ITV show several times in the past, but previously ruled out an appearance, saying the reality show was “humiliating”.

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More diverse Big Brother returns to UK after five-year absence

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Exclusive: reality TV show will reflect societal changes but keep ‘social experiment’ format

A more “aspirational” house and housemates who represent different sections of society and will engage in the debates of modern Britain are among the changes as Big Brother goes “back to basics” when it returns to British TV on Sunday.

At a time when division is exacerbated by culture wars and social media echo chambers, the producers have taken the format back to its social experiment roots by narrowing down 30,000 applications to just 16 housemates who reflect the “changes in society” since the reality show was axed five years ago by Channel 5.

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Former speaker John Bercow ‘to star in The Traitors US’

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British ex-politician, a cult figure in the US, will reportedly appear alongside Love Island’s Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu

Former House of Commons speaker John Bercow is reportedly starring in the upcoming series of TV show The Traitors US, alongside Love Island winner Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu.

The former MP will feature alongside reality TV stars from Big Brother, Dancing With The Stars and RuPaul’s Drag Race, according to media reports.

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Outrage as Polish TV talent show contestants use blackface for Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé performances

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Singer Kuba Szmajkowski and actor Pola Gonciarz heavily darkened their skin on Your Face Sounds Familiar, with Szmajkowski also wearing cornrows and using the N-word

A leading Polish TV talent show has been widely criticised for featuring celebrity contestants in blackface, impersonating Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé.

Singer Kuba Szmajkowski, a star in Poland who has 163,000 Instagram followers, won the second episode of the 19th series of Twoja Twarz Brzmi Znajomo – the Polish iteration of long-running franchise Your Face Sounds Familiar – on Saturday after performing Lamar’s track Humble in blackface, fake cornrows and a fake beard. He also used the N-word, which went uncensored on the broadcast.

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Reality show The Traitors inspired by murderous 17th-century mutiny

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Maritime horror, after Dutch sailing ship Batavia wrecked off western Australia, set TV show in motion

The hit TV reality show The Traitors was originally going to involve a recreation of a real-life murderous mutiny onboard a 17th-century Dutch ship, with programme contestants pushed into the sea when voted out.

Jasper Hoogendoorn, who oversaw the programme’s development, said the show was inspired by the voyage of the Batavia, a Dutch ship which was shipwrecked off Australia in 1629.

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Location, Location, Location star Phil Spencer’s parents killed in car crash

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News of death of Anne and David Spencer confirmed by co-presenter of long-running Channel 4 series, Kirsty Allsopp

The parents of TV presenter Phil Spencer have been killed in a car accident near their home, his co-star, Kirstie Allsopp, has confirmed.

Location, Location, Location presenter Allsopp told fans to join her in “sending so much love” to costar Spencer, following the death of his mother, Anne, and father, David, on Friday.

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Krishnan Guru-Murthy joins Strictly Come Dancing lineup

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Journalist takes ‘irresistible’ chance to take part in show while still working as Channel 4 newsreader

Krishnan Guru-Murthy has been announced as the fourth celebrity to join this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.

The journalist, who is a main presenter on Channel 4 News, joins a lineup that includes Angela Rippon, the actor Amanda Abbington and the Bad Education star Layton Williams.

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Padma Lakshmi leaving Top Chef after 17 years as host and producer

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Lakshmi announced on Twitter that she will be leaving the hit cooking show ahead of its 21st season

The longtime host and producer Padma Lakshmi has announced that she will be exiting the Top Chef kitchen ahead of the hit cooking show’s 21st season.

Lakshmi announced the news on Twitter and Instagram on Friday, saying that she had made the decision “after much soul searching”.

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Jock Zonfrillo remembered in televised tribute as MasterChef Australia returns

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Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Nigella and Marco Pierre White among those giving emotional tributes to late chef ahead of 15th series

Celebrity chefs including Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson and former boss Marco Pierre White have remembered Jock Zonfrillo in a televised tribute dedicated to the late MasterChef Australia judge a week after his sudden death.

Network 10 aired the first episode of the new season of MasterChef Australia on Sunday night, having delayed the premiere until Zonfrillo’s family gave their blessing for it to air. Filming of the series was completed last month.

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