Reality TV

Started by MacGuffin, February 20, 2005, 03:07:10 PM

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Myxo

'Survivor' Winner Indicted on Tax Charges



M.L. JOHNSON, Associated PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Richard Hatch, who won $1 million on the first season of the reality show "Survivor," was indicted Thursday for failing to pay taxes on his winnings from the CBS show.

Hatch faces 10 charges, including tax evasion, filing a false tax return, wire fraud, bank fraud and mail fraud. U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente said Hatch, 44, did not pay taxes on his "Survivor" prize, income from a radio show and rental income. The Newport resident also allegedly used donations to his charity, Horizon Bound, to cover personal expenses.

Prosecutors charged Hatch with two counts of tax evasion in January. He agreed to plead guilty, but backed out of the deal in March, saying he thought CBS was responsible for paying the taxes on his prize. CBS has said Hatch was well aware of his obligations to pay taxes on the money.

On Thursday, Hatch was on a plane headed for Houston to help hurricane victims at the Astrodome and could not be reached for comment, said Rod Mitchell, a spokesman for Hatch's lawyer, Michael Minns.

The grand jury, which received the case after the plea deal fell apart, indicted Hatch for filing false 2000 and 2001 tax returns, which omitted his income from the reality show, $327,000 he was paid to co-host "The Wilde Show" on a Boston radio station and $28,000 in rent on a property he owns in Newport.

The indictment said Hatch had two accountants prepare tax returns that included his "Survivor" winnings but did not file them when he learned he would owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. In 2002, he had one of the accountants prepare a second return that did not include his TV show winnings. He filed that one, which called for a $4,500 refund, the indictment said.

Hatch was also accused of misusing $36,500 from a nonprofit camp he set up, Horizon Bound. For example, he allegedly kept for himself a $10,000 donation made in return for his appearance on the NBC game show "Weakest Link." He spent the money from the game show on a construction project at his house, the indictment said.

Hatch faces a maximum of 75 years in prison if found guilty on all charges. He also could face millions of dollars in fines.

On "Survivor," Hatch stood out for being a cunning and ruthless competitor, and spent some of his time in the nude. He won the show's first season in August 2000. He has since appeared on other TV shows, most recently the "Battle of the Network Reality Stars" on Bravo.

Since the TV show, Hatch has weathered a series of legal battles. He was arrested in April 2000 on a charge of abusing his then 9-year-old son. That charge was later dropped. In 2002, Hatch was found innocent of assaulting his ex-boyfriend.

MacGuffin

TV Viewers Speak Out Against Reality Shows

NEW YORK - In the eyes of viewers, reality television is not only a misnamed genre. It's a format wearing out its welcome.

Four out of five Americans say they think too many reality shows are on the air, according to an AP-TV Guide poll. Only 4 percent of respondents said there were not enough.

Few people believe there's much reality in reality TV: a total of 82 percent said the shows are either "totally made up" or "mostly distorted."

"They pick the personality types to fit a role. I don't think it's really real," said Brenda Sobol, a 42-year-old homemaker from Susanville, Calif. "It's kind of bogus. I think they pretty much know what the outcomes are going to be or they wouldn't do the programs."

The poll also found:

_Half of Americans believe there are too many crime shows on television. The longtime staple of TV dramas has proliferated with the success of franchises such as "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "Law & Order."

_Of all the new shows introduced last year, "CSI: New York" has the most people looking forward to its return. "Desperate Housewives," twice as popular with women as it is with men, came in second.

_People watch more TV as they get older. The median number of hours that people over 65 say they watch is 14.7 per week. For those 18 to 34 — young people that TV advertisers are desperate to reach — it's nine hours.

Television's new season officially begins next week, a relief to viewers after a lackluster summer. Broadcast networks threw many new reality shows on the air. Between angry chefs,     Tommy Lee's college escapades and a rock band searching for a new singer, the only one to catch on was ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

Starting primarily with the CBS game "Survivor" and encompassing pop culture favorites like "The Osbournes," "reality" is a TV genre that has grown to rival sitcoms and dramas. It doesn't hurt that most are cheap to produce.

The poll results could be daunting news for     Martha Stewart, who joins Donald Trump with her own edition of "The Apprentice" on NBC next week.

"You can get a reality show about anything," said Michael Russell, a 27-year-old construction worker from Cleveland who admits to getting a charge out of Bravo's "Being     Bobby Brown." "Anyone can do it."

Joseph Passmore, 66, a retired computer systems analyst from Oklahoma City, said he enjoys "Survivor." But there's little real about it, he said.

"I think most of them are fake," he said. "Even `Survivor,' they just show you the parts they want you to see and it's been messed with too much. They have too much — what do you call it? — editorial control."

The saving grace for TV producers is that even a belief these shows are fake or distorted doesn't necessarily mean they won't watch. Sixty-eight percent of viewers said it didn't matter, or only mattered a little, whether the shows were truthful or not.

Viewers may also be having their fill of talk shows. The AP-TV Guide poll found 56 percent of Americans saying there were too many.

And the fact that half of the viewers said there were too many crime shows could be an early warning for TV programmers: The genre's success has only encouraged them to make more and, based on previews, they're getting more gruesome than ever this season.

"It's like they're harping on it," Russell said. "There's so much crime going on around the neighborhood and around the world, it's like they're glorifying it."

He'd like to see more uplifting programs, like ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

The elderly are more likely to say there are too many crime shows, according to the poll. Given the way advertisers seek youth, that's not an audience programmers are likely to listen to that much.

The poll of 1,002 adults was taken Sept. 6-8 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. It was conducted by Ipsos, an international polling firm.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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Ravi

Quote from: MacGuffinSixty-eight percent of viewers said it didn't matter, or only mattered a little, whether the shows were truthful or not.

"Its rotten, but I'll eat it anyways."

MacGuffin

Porn Stars To Go Legit in Fox Reality Series

Hoping to answer the perennial question, "Can female porn stars really act?", the Fox Reality Channel is planning to cast the actresses from several U.S. porn studios in a theatrical drama to be performed in London's West End. The series, My Bare Lady, will follow the actresses as they undergo acting lessons to the time they appear "before a discerning British audience," according to a Reuters report. "It's a wonderful tale of redemption," David Lyle, general manager of Fox Reality, told the wire service "Do they want lines that are a little more challenging than 'Oh, here's the pool guy...'?"
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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squints

David Lyle should be tarred and feathered...and then put to death, by public hanging, his last great reality television extravaganza! on FOX!
"The myth by no means finds its adequate objectification in the spoken word. The structure of the scenes and the visible imagery reveal a deeper wisdom than the poet himself is able to put into words and concepts" – Friedrich Nietzsche

polkablues

Hey, I'd watch it.
My house, my rules, my coffee

©brad


Ravi

I'd rather watch porn.

squints

"The myth by no means finds its adequate objectification in the spoken word. The structure of the scenes and the visible imagery reveal a deeper wisdom than the poet himself is able to put into words and concepts" – Friedrich Nietzsche

MacGuffin

Spider-Man Creator Seeks New Superhero

The creator of Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk is on the hunt for a new superhero, and he plans to find it on reality TV.

Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee said Friday that his new reality show "Who Wants to be a Superhero?" breaks new ground.

"I've never lived in a world of reality," quipped the 83-year-old writer.

Eleven wannabe superheros whittled down from 200 are set to compete in the show, which is scheduled to premiere July 26 on the Sci-Fi channel. The winning superhero will be the star of a new comic book created by Lee.

The reported catch-phrase for those who don't make the cut? "Turn in your spandex!"
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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©brad

comic book writer's block.

MacGuffin

TV reality hit 'Survivor' to play race card

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Hit US reality show "Survivor" will divide contestants by race in its next round, in a daring move the show hopes will generate controversy and big audiences, the television network CBS said.

For its 13th season, the show, the granddaddy of US reality TV, will divide 20 "castaways" into white, black, Asian and Hispanic "tribes" who will battle for supremacy on an isolated part of the Pacific Ocean's Cook Islands.

Where originally the show set teams evenly balanced by age, sex and ethnicity, the ethnic divide should spice up the competition, series host Jeff Probst said Wednesday, according to the CBS website.

Probst dismissed suggestions that the show was going too far by focusing attention on the hyper-sensitive racial divide.

"I found it to be one of the freshest ideas we've had going back to the beginning of this show in season one," he said.

The alignment of the groups along racial lines "is guaranteed to be a talking point," he said.

"Survivor" typically maroons a diverse group of people on a remote island and puts them through competitions as groups and individuals to eliminate one person each week until eventually one final "survivor" is chosen, winning a million dollars.

The trick is that the competitors themselves decide by vote each week who is ejected, often forcing ostensible allies to stab one another in the back to survive.

And the expelled people return at the end to choose the final winner.

Probst conceded that the race-based move could appear like a "stunt", but said it was hardly unusual for everything-goes reality television.

"The idea for this actually came from the criticism that 'Survivor' was not ethnically diverse enough," he said.

"So we set out and said, 'Let's turn this criticism into creativity for the show. I think it fits in perfectly with what 'Survivor' does -- it is a social experiment."

He said he assumed that the show's audience will divide along ethnic lines for the groups they support.

"I think it's very natural to assume that certain groups are going to have audience members rooting for them simply because they share ethnicity. At the end of the day, I think it will come down to what it always comes down to: who do I like?"

Probst was asked what the contestants themselves thought when they heard the plan.

One, named Yuhl, "was concerned we were going to turn this into something that would show stereotypes and reinforce them," he said.

But another, Rebecca, only saw it as an insignificant basis for competing for the ultimate prize.

"Ultimately, to win this game, you're voting people out that are then on the jury that have to come back and vote for you. So, the person who wins is actually going to do the best job of merging with all different ethnicities."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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Pubrick

polly don't like this cracker.
under the paving stones.

polkablues

The season will be called "Survivor: Paul Haggis' Brain".

The upside is, this should put an end to their time-honored tradition of casting one black dude whose lack of wilderness skills and/or work ethic allows White America to sit comfortably in front of their televisions, laughing at the dark man's zany antics.  Plus, Asians!  That'll be new and fun...
My house, my rules, my coffee

MacGuffin

NYC officials want new 'Survivor' pulled

NEW YORK - As CBS prepares to launch a new season of the hit reality show "Survivor," this time featuring teams divided by race, enraged city officials are saying it promotes divisiveness and are calling for the network to reconsider.

"The idea of having a battle of the races is preposterous," City Councilman John Liu said Thursday. "How could anybody be so desperate for ratings?"

For the first portion of the 13th season of "Survivor," which premieres Sept. 14, the contestants competing for the $1 million prize while stranded on the Cook Islands in the South Pacific will be divided into four teams — blacks, Asians, Latinos and whites.

Liu, who is Asian-American, said he was launching a campaign urging CBS to pull the show because it could encourage racial division and promote negative typecasts. He and a coalition of officials, including the council's black, Latino and Asian caucus, planned to rally at City Hall on Friday.

In a statement, CBS Entertainment, which is part of New York-based CBS Corp., defended the ethnic twist, saying it follows the show's tradition of introducing new creative elements and casting structures that reflect cultural and social issues.

"CBS fully recognizes the controversial nature of this format but has full confidence in the producers and their ability to produce the program in a responsible manner," the statement said. "'Survivor' is a program that is no stranger to controversy and has always answered its critics on the screen."

Last season, the show divided contestants into groups of older men, younger men, older women and younger women.

The show's host, Jeff Probst, said the network was aware this season's race ploy might offend viewers.

"It's very risky because you're bringing up a topic that is a hot button," he told asap, The Associated Press service for younger readers. "There's a history of segregation you can't ignore. It is part of our history.

"For that, it's much safer to say, 'No, let's just stick with things the way they are. Let's don't be the network to rock the boat. Let's not have "Survivor" try something new,'" he said. "But the biases from home can't affect you. This is an equal opportunity game."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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