Show goes beyond bad taste
MELISSA HANK
POSTMEDIA NETWORK
What’s the most offensive reality show you remember airing on TV? Is it with 20 ladies angling to marry supposed rich guy Evan Marriott, who’s really a construction worker? Or is it
with its panel of celebrities judging semi-nude contestants on their hotness?
Or maybe it’s which gave “ugly” women extreme plastic surgery makeovers only to make them compete in a beauty pageant at the end?
Well, hold on to your Spanx because a new Dutch TV show just might usurp it.
The premise getting people in a lather is this: Women must stand on a podium while men guess if they are fat or pregnant. Men must also figure out whether women’s breasts are real or fake, and determine whether Asian volunteers are Chinese or Japanese. The show, called
(or debuted Sunday night on public broadcaster NPO 3. Viewership was unremarkable, with just 304,000 people tuning in.
“I hope they did not lose the receipts for this experiment. Perhaps they can still return and refund this waste of money,” wrote TV critic Han Lips, of the Amsterdam newspaper He also called the show “pitiful and embarrassing.”
An online petition claiming the network is “downgrading women to pieces of meat” has garnered more than 2,000 signatures so far.
For its part, the public broadcaster said that the pilot episode that aired last summer didn’t raise any eyebrows for its fat-or-pregnant segment.
The show’s producers maintained that “the satirical setting is a way to laugh off all kinds of prejudices,” by confronting stereotypes head-on and forcing participants to reflect on their assumptions.
And from maybe-pregant to definitely-pregnant. Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, who starred on the MTV reality series are expecting a baby.
“The look on her face, I can’t even describe it. She was literally glowing,” Pratt told about the reveal. “I thought she was about to • Charlize Theron • Tony Goldwyn, • Romeo Santos say she made muffins or banana bread.”
The couple have been married for eight years. Montag is 12 weeks along and due Oct. 19.
Pratt and Montag were a devious duo on entangled in feuds with co-star Lauren Conrad and • Anderson Cooper • Judd Apatow • Jidenna making headlines for their behaviour — like in 2009, when Montag had 10 plastic surgery procedures in one day.
Now, though, they claim they’ve matured and are ready for diaper duty.
“We’re older, we have more life • Michelle Monaghan • Bradley Whitford • London Grammar experience,” Montag said. “Nothing is holding us back.”
She’s 30; he’s 33. Her cravings — because we know you’re dying to know — are salt-and-vinegar potato chips and Sour Patch Kids.
aired for six seasons on MTV, from 2006 to 2010.
Fallon Kimmel Colbert Corden Meyers
• Ewan McGregor • Zoe Kravitz • Jon Pard • Nicko McBrain