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Fake Reality
09 Apr 2004 by Matthew Linderman
Apparently reality TV is not actually completely real. Shocking, I know. Keith Hollihan reports that Donald Trumps The Apprentice faked the renovate and rent an apartment episode (the apartment was above his place).
We talked about her experience on the show. It turned out that she had actually rented the apartment before it was renovated. She had looked at a few places in the neighborhood, picked the apartment upstairs from us, and made arrangements to move in before learning that it had been pulled off the market for the show. She went ballistic. The landlord told her not to worry, she could still have the apartment at the agreed-upon rent but would have to participate in the episode in order to get it. During the filming, she went through the motions and rented the apartment at a price higher than the one she would actually be paying. The negotiation was a sham.
10 comments so far (Post a Comment)
10 Apr 2004 | CM Harrington said...
Of course "Reality" TV is fake. Originally "The Real World" took random people and stuck them in a house. These were normal, average people. Fast forward a bit and you realise that everyone on a "Reality TV" show wants to be on TV and the "Directors" only pick people beautiful enough/shocking enough to make their show more interesting to the public. "Reality TV" isn't any more real than your average "Friends" episode, but the actors don't get paid nearly as well.
While the lines may be scripted, *everything* else on those shows is closely guided in the direction the Director wants.
10 Apr 2004 | CM Harrington said...
woops, should have hit the preview button. That should read "While the lines may not be scripted"
10 Apr 2004 | ~bc said...
It's ashame. It's an entertaining show, and one of the few reality shows I can stomach. There's definitely aspects of the show that are suspect. Funny thing was I didn't think the apartment episode was one of the fishier ones. The last one was quite fishy.
10 Apr 2004 | scott said...
I've really enjoyed the show, except for the oh-so-distracting audio from Trump that is spliced in later, to flesh out what he actually says in the board room. It's audio editing at it's worst!
I've noticed a lot more reality shows getting sloppier as well about their scripted parts. Watch how many "surprises" occur by ringing the doorbell of someone who already has a cameraman inside the house to get the shot of the couple opening the door from the inside!
On Trading Spaces: Home Free, in the first episode the producers decide to push a box (with a person hiding inside) to the front door to "surprise" the first couple who have been selected. After the couple discovers the mysteious box and are "surprised," the wife's microphone box tucked in the back of her pants falls out and she has to put it back in place...and the editors even left that in!
I don't mind that some of these shows parts are less-than-100% reality, but at least make it good semi-fiction!
10 Apr 2004 | Jay Allen said...
Testing comments for Jason...
10 Apr 2004 | andrew said...
Great story. You couldn't make stuff like that up! Oh, wait...
11 Apr 2004 | Jay Allen said...
Testing for Jason once more...
12 Apr 2004 | pb said...
Lighten up, Francis...ehrr, Keith!
12 Apr 2004 | Bill Brown said...
scott: I thought that his boardroom banter sounded not quite right, but I figured it was bad angles or something. I should have known that, at that production level, poor mic location isn't an issue.
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