Reality News Update, March 14: ABC’s Ups and Downs

Today, ABC is in the news for three reality TV shows it airs. Unfortunately, two of those pieces of news are bad, but the one bit of good news may make up for it as far as fans are concerned.

First, the bad. It has been reported that the first episode of All American Girl fizzled in the ratings. In fact, its two-hour debut this week brought ABC its lowest ratings this season in those timeslots, with a 3.0 rating and 8 share among adults aged 18-49. Ouch. As a point of comparison, American Idol (produced by the same company, but airing on Fox) was the top-rated that night, with an 8.7 share and 23 rating for young adults. To truly put it in perspective, All American Girl had worse ratings than Smackdown on UPN.

Previous reality shows in that timeslot have been Celebrity Mole Hawaii, The Bachelorette, and I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!. All of them did significantly better.

News reports don’t indicate whether ratings might have started higher and dropped off or just were low the entire time.

The second item of bad news for ABC is that “shock jock” Howard Stern is suing them over their none-too-successful series, Are You Hot?. He claims that the producers ripped off a televised version of his radio show, which appears on E!. On that show, he had a segment called “The Evaluators,” where judges decided if contestants were good enough to appear in Playboy magazine.

In addition to ABC, the $10 million lawsuit also names Mike Fleiss, the series creator, and Scott Einziger, co-executive producer who coincidentally (or not) used to produce Stern’s TV show. The suit goes so far as to say that everything from the single male host and three blunt judges to the use of a laserpointer has been copied from Stern’s show (the laserpointer has been used to highlight good or bad parts of contestants bodies during the judging process).

Frankly, you have to wonder if he’ll get $10 million out of this even if he’s 100% correct, considering the series’ lack of success.

Now, finally, for the good news. ABC has announced that it is going to air Celebrity Mole 2 in the summer or fall. Seven episodes of the show, which will likely feature Ahmad Rashad again as its host, have been ordered and they are looking for celebs right now (so if you’re a celebrity – quick, contact them!).

Previously, the news had been that ABC wanted a Celebrity Mole for the winter (which we had) and a “regular” version of the show for the summer. News reports have not mentioned that “regular” version, but it seems likely that because the Celebrity version did better in the ratings – providing the best young adult ratings in that timeslot in six years – they have decided to go that route.

The show’s producers hope that two factors will help them get more well-known celebs this time around. First, all of those who were on the first version have made it known that they had a lot of fun. Second, they will be taping the show during an off-time for most television series.

Perhaps they can make a deal with Howard Stern and instead of going to court, just have him compete on Celebrity Mole.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at rno@pobox.com.

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