E! gets sued for torturing wannabe reality TV stars
It seems like everyone wants to be on a reality TV show these days. It’s a chance at a little bit of fame, a big prize and, ironically, an escape from real life.
In light of this intense desire for microcelebrityhood, Entertainment channel E! launched a show last month that mocks wannabe reality TV stars. It’s called Reality Hell:
Most reality shows have people looking for their 15 minutes of fame. Reality Hell will have people wanting to give their’s back! The reality genre has all but taken over television programming, making stars out of regular people. Now E! is turning the tables on all those reality-star wannabes by staging a show where the whole cast is in on an act to set up one unknowing reality-show contestant.
Maybe this show helped inspire the Turkish guys who told a bunch of women they were on a Big Brother reality TV show when in fact they were unknowingly starring in a porncast, featuring all the naked footage caught on the house’s ubiquitous cameras.
The first Reality Hell features a young man who likes to date older women and thinks he’s starring in a show called “The Widow.” A future episode will focus on a musician who thinks she’s competing for a spot in a new girl’s band.
That musician isn’t happy about being put through Hell by E! Now she’s suing E! Entertainment, according to Courthouse News Service.
Brush says the third audition was taped at her house. She says E! told her it wanted an “in-home, behind-the-scenes backstory,” and told her to do humiliating things for the camera.
The next day, E! sent a limousine to take her to studio to sing tracks for the show, and that’s when the worst nightmare began, Brush says.
After confiscating her cell phone, the entire cast and crew, all of whom were paid actors, used the next eight hours to “harass, embarrass, heckle, insult and offend” her, the complaint states….
Brush wants E! enjoined from airing footage of her, and punitive damages for fraud, conspiracy, false imprisonment, intrusion, deceptive trade, misappropriation of her image, public disclosure of private facts and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
I imagine that E! has a whole host of lawyers who advised them on how to operate this show legally. But it certainly seems deceptive and fraudulent to tell someone you’re taping them for one show when it’s for a different show entirely.
But I kind of hope Brush doesn’t win her suit, because the show sounds really funny.
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This show is as much of a guilty pleasure as I’ve ever seen. It’s completely ridiculous, but a mindless escape. I don’t think you’ll set it as a series recording on your TiVo, but it’s worth checking out!
While all the actors are playing such caricatures of reality TV participants that are already caricatures of “regular people,” I think VH1 has conditioned reality TV hopefuls into thinking that these people are believable.
At the end of every show, there’s usually a fun shot of the cast and the victim smiling and sharing a laugh about being in Reality Hell. I’m guessing that didn’t happen with Miss Brush.
“But I kind of hope Brush doesn’t win her suit, because the show sounds really funny”…
Ha. I agree.
Ms. Brush should know there’s no free lunch. I suppose she had to sign release forms? Do you think “reality tv” will jump the shark as a whole someday? When I was a little kid in the fifties (jeez) “reality tv” was Queen For A Day. Some poor lumpen homemaker, riddled with bad luck would be crowned and awarded new furniture and a trip to Florida. Rat-fucking her like ms. Brush’s experience would have sent “I Like Ike” generationists through the roof! Then there were those great war documentaries – always waiting for the solemn battlefield dead scenes. Hey, you think Ryan Jenkins would have liked “Reality Hell”? Tom Medlicott
Spike TV did this years ago with “Joe Schmoe” which was an absolute riot. They went totally over the top with every aspect of the show.