Rule breakers are just part of reality TV script

Todd Camp, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Monday, August 28, 2006

If you can't trust reality TV stars to play by the rules, then who can you trust? Preposterous as it may seem, in the anything-goes, back-stabbing, cutthroat world of reality television, it certainly seems like rules have become a big deal lately as three recent high-profile violations on unscripted series have shaken our faith in, well, "reality."

First came last month's disqualification of comedian Gabriel Iglesias on NBC's Last Comic Standing. After already being caught using a BlackBerry and having it taken away, Iglesias was then busted making forbidden phone calls outside of the contestants' allotted one call a day. The comic insisted he was talking to his girlfriend, but why did mysterious spoiler leaks about goings-on on the show mysteriously dry up after his departure?

Then came the much-ballyhooed expulsion of Project Runway designer Keith Michael, who violated the show's rules by possessing a few fashion how-to books. But rather than simply sweep the incident under the rug, Bravo turned it into a ratings-grabbing "special episode," with Internet rumors and on-air teasers counting down the minutes until show guru Tim Gunn solemnly told Michael "Rules are rules. You'll leave tonight."

Is this just the latest twist in the endless quest for ratings as audiences for sagging series in their 10th or 11th seasons start to dry up? Maybe. Especially considering that most reality show contestants wait until "after" they've left a series to start acting up. Richard Hatch, the first winner of CBS' Survivor gained a lot of attention after his arrest in 2000 on a charge of abusing his then-9-year-old son. Now he's serving a 51-month jail sentence after failing to pay taxes on his $1 million prize along with income from other gigs his fame helped him get.

But this recent spate of rule-breaking doesn't really break new ground. Let's look back at some of reality TV's most memorable showstoppers: Puck runs amok. Considering that MTV's The Real World practically invented the reality genre, it's only natural that the series' third season in San Francisco should yield one of the genre's biggest antiheroes. David "Puck" Rainey, a fuzzy-haired bike messenger with bad skin and an even worse attitude, spent the first night of the series in jail but arrived just in time to get under everyone's skin. His endless parade of grotty, antisocial behavior - much of which was directed at gay, HIV-positive housemate Pedro Zamora - drove housemates (not the producers, mind you) to band together and boot him out of the house. And just like that, a new reality-TV conceit was born.

A month after Frenchie's farewell on American Idol, Fox gave yet another finalist the boot after discovering that singer Corey Clark was facing trial on misdemeanor charges of battery against his sister and resisting arrest. Those details somehow managed to elude Clark's Idol application, but the real fire flared up two years later when Clark went on ABC's Primetime Time claiming he had an affair with judge Paula Abdul and that she offered to help further his music career. What, like she's furthered her own?

Back on the blacktop with the cast of MTV's Road Rules 9, Abram Boise took the phrase "road warrior" too far when he hauled off and slugged fellow "Roadie" Donell Langham. Boise apparently was tired of being teased for being a hick, and nothing says you've left your country roots behind better than a good old-fashioned fistfight.

Additional information gathered from www.realitytvhallofshame.com, realityblurred.com and thesmokinggun.com.