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Texannie
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 7:51 am
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/9770.htm SHALLOW GAL By DON KAPLAN -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Melana Scantlin Email Archives Print Reprint November 3, 2003 -- TALK about reality. The first few moments after sexy ex- NFL cheerleader Melana Scantlin met her 16 suitors on NBC's new reality dating series "Average Joe," did not go as smoothly as producers hoped. "I would not want to repeat that evening," executive producer Stuart Krasnow told The Post. Rumor has it that Scantlin ran off into the desert near the Palm Springs mansion where the show was filmed, before regaining her composure. On the show, she's seen on a hidden camera complaining about the situation to host Kathy Griffith. For NBC's new dating show, producers found Scantlin, a gorgeous ex-NFL cheerleader, looking for love. But they ditched the typical lineup of suitors with chiseled chins and six-pack abs for bunch of average looking dudes, most with pretty good hearts - and a fair share of jumbo-sized, fur-covered bellies and sunken chests. Scantlin, 25, is a former Miss Missouri 2002 and an ex-Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader - who appeared on another NBC reality show called "Meet My Folks" - with one heck of a personality. And the good sport that she is stuck around for the duration of the series even after panicking when she first met her "average Joe" suitors. Krasnow wouldn't confirm that Scantlin temporarily disappeared, but he doesn't deny it either. In fact, he says his staff recruited a back-up to replace Scantlin in case she ran away after meeting her suitors. "Any good reality concept has moments when the producers literally stop breathing because we really don't know what's going to happen," he says. "We were so nervous that Melana would potentially run away that as we taped the show we had a back-up girl booked - who we kept in full hair and makeup, and a beautiful dress - ready to go right in and replace [Melana] if need be." The show was filmed last spring and NBC execs were so happy with the finished product, a sequel was filmed this past summer. It was a vote of confidence, given before network execs would learn that the sequel to the gimmicky one-hit wonder "Joe Millionaire" would turn out to be a flop. "I think we are a very different 'Joe,' " said Krasnow. "I think the problem with 'Joe Millionaire 2' - and I loved the first one - is that I believe it concentrates too much on the gimmick and not enough on the story."
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Texannie
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 7:52 am
http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/ Average Joe is "the anti-Bachelor." Celebrity Mole winner Kathy Griffin hosts NBC's latest reality TV dating show, which finds one woman being courted by 16 average-looking guys. Although star Melana reportedly ran away upon learning that the men were, um, not hot, she returned and Average Joe debuts tonight at 10 p.m. ET. The New York Daily News says although the show "sounds like another mean-spirited NBC reality-show exercise ... the graciousness of the woman and most of the men make this more of a lesson in kindness instead."
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Mack
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 11:48 am
So much for love at first sight. :-) Hope the last sentence in the previous post is right and that we actually get to see the better side of humankind.
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Lori
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 3:41 pm
I saw three of the guys this a.m. Dennis and Joe (I think)...and I do not recognize the last one from the pics. They had a great time and really enjoyed being on the show. Kathy Giffin was with them as well. It sounds as though there are "twists" in this show as well.
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Puttergirl
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 5:28 pm
Be watching close so you can make picks this week for the POLL!!
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Realfan
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 5:57 pm
Just a reminder to WATCH tonight! <<In fact, he says his staff recruited a back-up to replace Scantlin in case she ran away after meeting her suitors. >> I wonder if the replacement knew of the twist, or if they would have had a second girl run away? I'm glad she bucked up. If the kissy previews are any indication, she might be glad, too!
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Pbnj
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 8:23 pm
Can you imagine~~a talent scout approaches you in a club. He says, "we're looking for very unattractive men, dogs really, for this new reality show....are you interested???" Can you say LOSERRRR...poor guy....I already feel sorry for them but I'm lovin' the concept. It's coming on now!
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Froggiegirl621
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 8:35 pm
This show is a RIOT!
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Pbnj
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 8:38 pm
You know, this would be even better if it was a guy (good looking or not) and a lineup of very average janes.........now THAT would really tell the story because men are way more visual than women...at least for me, looks are not at the top of the list, personality, humor, heart, those are the biggies for most women but MEN, OTOH, would have a very tough time getting past the love handles, warts, hair in the wrong places, etc etc. I think that would be velly intellesting..... anyway, the guys are pathetic but I can tell, there's some winners in there...they just weren't as blessed physically....hope they don't get hurt too badly........this should be fun if it goes the way I want it to!
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Tishala
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 8:45 pm
Tareq looks like my cardiologist. That is NOT necessarily a good thing.
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Froggiegirl621
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 8:57 pm
Ok, I'm really starting to feel bad for these guys...her face just dropped when the first guy came out of the bus. Poor dudes!
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Pbnj
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 9:05 pm
ohk, now she's being a good sport.....she realizes that personality was at the top of her list so now she just better go with it LOL love it.....there's a couple guys there that aren't THAT bad....this is cool.....I hope :\
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Pbnj
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 9:06 pm
"I'm not too fascinated by green food" LOL LOL by Tariq (sp) quote of the night so far
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Fabnsab
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 9:37 pm
I think she handled herself with an amount of grace few others would muster. Of course she was disapponted at first. In her heart, she thought she was getting 16 Ryan's and Charlie,s. She worked through that, went out and had a great time. She might have gone straight to the party but the show had her go into that little room, probably. I have a theory on the twist. I think they're going to bring in some great looking bachelors to stir the pot. I liked it, damnit. Now I have another one to add to my too large list to watch! I wonder what the Bachelor thinks of them completely copying their sunset beach intro though.
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Eliz87
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 9:43 pm
I enjoyed this too. But, the lighting must have been bad. Why did it look like all the guys had skin conditions or really bad sunburns?? I agree that Melina (sp?) was very gracious. Seems like a nice girl. I thought the police officer was good looking and he seemed to have a decent personality -- wonder why he got sent home? I think the 21-year-old college professor is pretty cool. For any other dating show, I'd be preaching that he's too young, but it seems like he really has a good head on his shoulders and I find accents charming. And, Pbnj, I couldn't agree more...Maybe we'll get our wish and #2 will be "Average Janes". "Bachelor" girls all women are NOT (Thank God!! hehe).
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Sia
| Monday, November 03, 2003 - 11:28 pm
Eliz, I felt that one of the bigger guys (the really tall heavier guy) was flushed in the face when he exited the bus probably because the bus wasn't air-conditioned to the point of being actually cool and due to exertion. Later in the show I felt the guys who looked red-faced were the ones who'd been drinking to excess. Alcohol has a way of making some people's faces flush red.
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Dee
| Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - 12:12 am
OMG, I can't believe Tariq (?)! He's been shooting her smouldering looks all night and then when it's his turn to talk to her, he asks if she likes broccoli. OMG... I just died! Poor Craig could barely fit inside the photo booth - he's 6'8"! What is so funny is before the guys met her, so many of them were talking about how regular looking they all were and many hoped that she would be able to see thru their average looks to their personality... but after they met her, almost every one kept going on and on about her hot looks! Not one looked inside of her - they were so fixated on her beauty. Another thing - Zach is a total ass! I hope she cuts him. Near the beginning of the show when the guys met each other, Zach took an egg and smashed it on one of the smaller guy's head. Just to be mean.
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Azlen
| Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - 12:25 am
I agree Dee. There was a lot of hypocrisy there. As they were all going gaga over how great she looked without even knowing her, I really would have liked to remind them that they are acting just like the women that don't go gaga over them. I noticed at the end that there was a disclaimer that said the producers consult with the contestant as to the selection process. I am sure that happens on all of these dating type of shows, but I wonder sometimes just how many picks are done just because they create better TV.
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Cancunkid
| Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - 12:27 am
Which guy is it that thinks he is so much better. Doesn't want to be best of the mediocre? Is it Zach? Can't remember but I hope he is out soon!
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Cancunkid
| Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - 12:33 am
Hey speaking of disclaimers at the end it read some and I may be wrong here but I thought it said CONTESTANTS!!! were paid for their appearance. Now wait that just isn't right!
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Gina8642
| Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - 1:52 am
It's funny how they kept saying it was about personality - that they may not be attractive but they all had great personalities. However - IMO - Quite a few of these guys came off as total jerks. The guy who egged and the eggee both were particularily annoying. The sweeter, quieter guy (brown jacket) got the boot. Hmmm... Hopefully the jerkier ones will go sooner than later. I agree with Dee too. All the 'hot' comments started to make me sick after awhile. Hello??!!?? boys, you're doing the exact thing you're whining about. Lordy!
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Luvtrash
| Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - 4:45 am
Yes, Zack is the one that said he wanted to go home because it was so degrading and he didn't want to be the best in a group of rejects (don't remember his exact term for them). He made some kind of remark like that when they were first arriving also. He does seem to be the biggest jerk in the bunch. Actually there seemed to be two groups: jerks acting like frat boys and nerds who really seemed to be nice. I was surprised how kind this group was to each other. The look on Melena's face when she first saw them was priceless, but she turned out to be a good sport and was really nice to all of them. Maybe this will turn out to be a heart warming one! Nah, can't be! What would that do to ratings?
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Essence
| Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - 5:45 am
'Average Joe' Viewers: Real Losers By Tom Shales Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, November 3, 2003; Page C01 Apparently NBC aspires, at least on Monday nights, to offer viewers Nothing But Cruelty. "Fear Factor," which leads off the night, invites women and men to eat cow's eyes and stick their faces in vats full of scorpions. Starting tonight at 10, the network's new reality series, "Average Joe," seeks to humiliate 16 dumpy schlemiels and the glamorous beauty who will be forced, at the end of several weeks, to choose one of them as her favorite. In between, at 9, NBC sneaks in an hour of actual if mediocre professionalism: the scripted drama "Las Vegas." But the tiny minds that run the network must be hard at work trying to turn this into a totally cringe-inducing night of hapless, heinous horror. "Average Joe," on Channel 4, wreaks a nominal twist on TV's new line of dating shows in which human cuties serve as the prizes, a 21st-century variation on slavery in that people are treated as items of merchandise. The standard breathless announcer lays down the new law as "Joe" begins, at first describing Melana Scantlin, the 25-year-old lady-in-waiting (for a shuttle bus full of decidedly non-hunkish suitors): "She's a former NFL cheerleader and beauty queen looking to fall in love with a perfect guy. Living like a princess in a multimillion-dollar mansion set high on a hill, she thinks 16 modern-day Prince Charmings are on their way to win her heart . . . but what she doesn't know is this fairy tale is more like 'Beauty and the Geeks'!" The correct English would be "16 modern-day Princes Charming," but that's the least of the quibbles that decent-minded folk are likely to have with the program. Hypocritically fashioned as a chance for ordinary schmoes to date the kind of gorgeous and glamorous female normally beyond their reach, "Average Joe" is really an exercise in cynical humiliation, portraying the men not only as geeks but as freaks, a collection of largely pathetic losers whose loneliness is being exploited for viewers' nasty cackles. Time stands still as the contenders introduce themselves -- a 24-year-old bar bouncer ("I'm a good human being"), a 34-year-old chiropractor ("People are attracted to me because I like to have a good time"), a 32-year-old cop who couldn't scare up a date for his high school prom, and so on. A 5-foot-4 software tester is as close as the show gets to including a midget; he is contrasted with a behemoth who runs a cigar lounge and declares, "I'm very big all over." Some of their other candid remarks aren't quite so cute or quippy. "I have sex with very, very, very, very, very, very, very few people," one man says, and another confides, "Personally, I'm dying for female attention at this point." In the 1950s, Paddy Chayefsky wrote a brilliant television play for NBC called "Marty" (and later a movie) about a stout and lonely butcher. "Average Joe" reconfigures it as a knee-slapping comedy. We're asked not to ache with Marty but to titter and jeer at him. It's one illustration of how NBC has sunk from art to garbage. The show is awfully short on format. Almost halfway through, Melana finally gets to meet the 16 contestants, but first, as a prank, a handsome guy drives up in a stretch limo to tell her he will not be one of the contestants. Then comes the shuttle bus stuffed with losers. After she meets them -- maintaining a polite affability throughout the handshakes and hugs -- Melana retires briefly to a private room where a hidden camera captures her looking sad and fearful. A few contestants are eliminated each week, and eventually the crowd will be winnowed down to a "winner," but Melana will be under no obligation ever to see him, much less date him, again. A strange closing credit tells us that "some participants were paid in connection with their appearances," but we're not told who. Obviously comedian Kathy Griffin, who keeps some measure of dignity in her comic-relief role, would have been paid, but maybe some of the contestants had to be bribed to go along with the vicious trickery as well. The male contestant who for no apparent reason smashes an egg over another contestant's head, for example. Earlier, Melana is seen running along the beach in her bathing suit, looking much like Bo Derek in that iconic shot in "10." In that film, Derek was meant to epitomize the ultimate unattainable, as Melana is in "Average Joe." Watching, one yearns for all those average Joes and their above-average Melana to get together and plot revenge on NBC and the producers for their cruelty: Burn down the mansion on the hill and make off with as much costly bric-a-brac and champagne as possible as they flee en masse into the night. That would be a reality one could cheer. The loser would be NBC, and not the 16 schnooks lured into the scam, or the victimized viewers seduced into tuning in to this swill. © 2003 The Washington Post Company link
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Kizz
| Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - 6:15 am
That Tariq guy kind of creeps me out...reminds me of that "mind control" guy from Mr. Personality. He also made me think of a little ringmaster standing off to the side in that long coat. And the broccoli comment? Will go down in the history of reality dating shows. So funny. And I think some of the guys did have sunburn on their faces.
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Puttergirl
| Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - 6:36 am
Kizz, I agree. Tariq was creepy, the way he would quietly stand off to the side and watch everything. Wally also creeped me out, the way he kept talking about how great a catch he would be for a girl. She was right to lose him right away. As for how they all kept saying how hot she was, its understandable. These guys aren't used to being noticed by "hot" girls; they couldn't help it. It was like a dream come true for most of them- they're poor little brains could only focus on one thing!!! How many of you stuck around during the credits. They showed pics of the 4 guys who were voted off with the caption- "Available Again". I thought it was kind of mean! I'll post the rules and questions for the POLL tonight. Be sure to come back and play! The winner gets a date with Wally- lol.
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