10 Worst Reality-TV Shows Ever
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10. SKATING WITH CELEBRITIES (Fox, 2006)
Exemplifying the TV industry's regrettable tendency toward ''me too'' reality knockoffs, Skating was Dancing With the Stars plus ice — and minus any entertainment value. And now there really is a Skating With the Stars, which turns out to not be so bad.
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9. BOY MEETS BOY (Bravo, 2003)
The first same-sex dating show could've been groundbreaking TV. Instead, viewers watched gay bachelor James Getzlaff romance 15 men; unbeknownst to him, almost half of them were just pretending to be gay. Cruel, offensive, and worst of all, boring.
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8. KILL REALITY (E!, 2005)
When a bunch of fame-craving ex?reality stars got together to film a horror movie (and a series about filming said movie), two sets of cameras made them act twice as infantile: Survivor's Jonny Fairplay was asked to leave the show for defecating in a Bachelor castoff's bed. The tribe has upchucked.
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7. CHEATERS (Syndicated, 2000-present)
The concept: Catch suspected cheaters in the act. The execution: As tasteless as it sounds. Lowlight: Host Joey Greco getting stabbed by a cheater.
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6. DANCING WITH THE STARS and AMERICAN IDOL results shows (DWTS: ABC, 2005-present; AI: Fox, 2002-present)
Their monster performance episodes go down easy; it's the bloated follow-up hours of product-placement filler and endless zoom-ins on the fate-awaiting contestants that are unbearable. Thank you, TV gods, for the DVR.
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5. THE ANNA NICOLE SHOW (E!, 2002-03)
The sneering tagline said it all: ''It's not supposed to be funny. It just is.'' But nothing's remotely comical about the exploitation of an obviously troubled woman, whose slurred words and unsteady gait were played for laughs — and who died of an overdose four years later.
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4. WHO WANTS TO MARRY A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE? (Fox, 2000)
Thank this two-hour special for the advent of reality TV nuptials. The importance of thorough background checks, though, was its more critical legacy: Not only was groom Rick Rockwell's net worth questioned, it was also discovered that he had a restraining order against him. No wonder bride Darva Conger annulled the union in less than two weeks.
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3. ARE YOU HOT?: THE SEARCH FOR AMERICA'S SEXIEST PEOPLE (ABC, 2003)
The ugly, short-lived series marked the first (and last) time that Lorenzo Lamas — the crude laser-pointing judge — was considered an ''expert'' in anything.
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2. BRITNEY AND KEVIN: CHAOTIC (UPN, 2005)
Britney began her intimate look at the great American love story that was Federspears by asking ''Can you handle my truth?'' The ''truth'' turned out to be a blandly narcissistic collage of home videos, in which Britney often raved about the duo's great sex life. TMI, y'all.
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1. THE SWAN (Fox, 2004)
What was missing from 2004's already creepy plastic-surgery show Extreme Makeover? A pageant element, of course! After all, what good is watching a sad woman with a warped sense of self nip and tuck her face and body into oblivion if the results aren't compared and judged before a national audience?