Memo to Bravo: Don’t Let Crashers Invade Our Living Rooms
by John P. HanlonIn a year when a “balloon boy” became a media sensation, it is bizarre that some networks are thinking about giving more credibility to reality show contestant wannabes. The Salahis, the other high-profile ”celebrity” couple that seemed more interested in gaining publicity and fame than following the law, are getting even more attention because of the party they crashed several weeks ago at the White House. The network Bravo has seemingly furthered their careers by polling people about giving the party crashers their own show. These are the uninvited guests who, after invading the White House party, want to invade your living room.
The Washington Post recently reported on the Bravo poll that gave the Salahis the spotlight once again. The article noted that Bravo ”decided to poll viewers for their thoughts on Michaele and Tareq Salahi. This included asking whether you’d think less of Bravo if it gave the Salahis their own reality series.” The Post article noted that “the poll, which was being conducted by Research Results — a company that says it’s affiliated with NBC Universal” asked repondents if “it would be in poor taste to give them [the Salahis] their own reality show. ” The answer to that question seems obvious. The Salahis got publicity for breaking into a White House party. If that activity helps to earn them a reality show, that will only lead to future White House incursions by publicity-hungry celebrity wannabes.
Sadly, the Salahis are no stranger to either Bravo or the reality show universe. According to a New York Times article from November, the Salahis were already being filmed because they might be added to another reality show. According to that article, Bravo had ”confirmed that Michaele Salahi was being seriously considered for the coming series ‘The Real Housewives of D.C.’” However, the recent Bravo poll suggests to some that the Salahis are being considered for more than just a supporting role on a reality program. As an article from the New York Post noted, one of the questions in the poll, that attempts to gauge people’s thoughts about the network if they gave the couple their own show, “suggests that somewhere within the NBCU wheelhouse, someone is contemplating giving the fame-seeking duo a shot at their own TV show.”
The reasons not to include the Salahis on their schedule should be obvious to Bravo and it seems like it may have been evident to some of the folks behind the poll. The Post article noted that the poll was “yanked since word of it got out to the press Wednesday morning.” Someone at Bravo or working on the poll must have realized the amount of bad publicity that the network could get for conducting a survey about whether White House party crashers should get their own show.
The Salahis are famous for the wrong reasons – not for what they did right or the careers that they took time building. They are famous for what they did wrong: crashing a White House party, and that should not get them more air time. Plus, the Salahis already have a guest appearence scheduled that should get them a lot of media coverage. The Post article stated that the infamous couple “are already the stars of a federal investigation and a Congressional committee wants to meet them too, voting to subpoena them for a Jan. 20 hearing, although, sadly, their reps have said they’ll take the Fifth at that bash.” How ironic. The one time they actually get invitations to appear and they don’t want to say anything. (Unless of course, Vice President Joe Biden shows up and then the Salahis would probably want to take a picture with him.)
I hope that in pulling the plug on the poll, Bravo also decided against giving this couple any more publicity by not puttting them on their own reality show. I am also hoping the network realizes that the actions of the Salahis should not give them a career boost. If the network decides against putting the Salahis on their own show and rejecting them from “Housewives,” I would say ”bravo.”
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37 Comments
Sure, I say we give them a Reality Show…..lets call it….. Cell Block B from Leavenworth.
There used to be a difference between famous and infamous. Sadly, not any more.
In case Bravo's reading this – NO, the Salahis should not be given a reality show. And don't even think about a show for the Balloon Boy family or Octomom either.
Well the publicity-hungry celebrity wannabes Obamas got their own reality show…….live from the White House.
If they crash another secured political event…can we shoot them?
Whatever you may think about this couple and all that is listed above may very well be true, but
somehow I can't work up any more disrespect for the couple for scamming the White House
than they all ready deserve for their deeds or mis-deeds in life. I think their involvement includes the White House staff and the Secret Service took the hit for it. NBC/ Bravo comunications asked for a favor
from the White House, the symbiotic relationship with each other made the stunt permissable.
The 5th that will be taken at the hearing assures the couple will be paid off as agreed.The level of deceit
is unparalleled even for a democrat.
Hey Bravo – you lost me a long time ago when you started offering up chef shows and cougar shows and anything NOT to do with being able to say "bravo" to some performance of some artistic endeavor. I'll give you that I am sometimes an early adopter but I'll guarantee you lose many more viewers if you reward such bad behavior as these louts. Of course, you will be gaining the MTV viewers getting tired of all those music videos they serve up these days.
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Unbelievable! Another 'reality" couple exposed for the bold faced liars that they are? Wow! I am stunned!
Ever since the reality show craze reared its ugly head with the first Survivor show, I have dreaded the hell spawn it has created – the reality show celebrity! These people have brought nothing but pain and misery to televison. The reality show industry has spawned a generation of actor/model wanabees who know that talent has nothing to do with making it in showbiz – just look hot and be a jerk/ bitch/guido/houswife on camera and you will go far. It has to stop! Do not give these fame seeking jerks thier 15 minutes! I am begging you!
The Salahis are nothing new, just social climbers with a twist, the whole administration along with congress belong on Jerry Springer.
I agree we should never here of the Salahis ever again and I also wish the same for obama.
They were not uninvited guests. obama knows Tareq served on the board of directors for the American Task Force on Palestine, a pro-Palestinian lobbying organization. In short a terrorist supporter like he is. They have met before as well. A search will reveal the Salahis are grifters involved in numerous lawsuits. They use other people to get what they want just like obama.
I'm going to take the contrary view here. I say give them a show! They can pop around and crash political events showing us all how easy it is to breach security and it would be a big morale boost to our "friends" in the middle east and elsewhere.
Regardless, does anyone actually -watch- reality TV at all?
The Washington Post is doing an entire series of articles about these jokers – and not to give them more publicity. The Salahis appear to be, at the least, really lousy business people and at worse, cheats and grifters. They seem to be addicted to a jet-set lifestyle but take a lot of shortcuts to maintain it. That's putting it charitably. The Post depicts a pattern of failing to pay their bills, being sued for payment, then countersuing – lots and lots of lawsuits, apparently trying to make it so difficult for creditors to get paid that they give up.
Like a lot of papers, the Post is not always a paragon of accuracy and fairness. In this case, however, they seem to be doing the public a real service – especially people who might find themselves doing business with the Salahis. They might make interesting television, but they are also a lawsuit waiting to happen. Even a sleaze-mongering Bravo network executive would have to think twice before hiring these two freaks.
You are only down on the Salahis because they are black!
Seriously now, an entire WaPo series? That´s a public service? How many "people who might find themselves doing business with the Salahis" are there? I call it tabloid journalism. You cannot read this stuff and then complain when someone gives them a tv show.
They could also try to smuggle explosives on airplanes to prove that the system works.
Joe Biden likes them and that´s good enough for me!
Wall to wall coverage of celebrity personality meltdowns, then celebrity and personality scandals, on the major cable news networks are their own reality series. It plays out all day, every day, for several days and is ongoing. And the news channels produce it for free, saving those channels which normally would have produced reality series tons of money in production costs. But also costing them tons of money in potential ad revenue. We've already watched, plenty, the Salahi's reality show on the news channels. If too many other celebs or personalities or wanna-bes get in on this pretty soon the cable news channels will be unwatchable. Then we'll resort to reading books again!
Andy Warhol once said everyone would have their 15-minutes of fame. Warhol never saw the 24-hour newscycle on cable news networks and how those networks would treat celebrity news. He never saw the proliferation of reality TV shows. With celeb coverage inflation between Warhol's era of the late 1960s to today, "15-minutes" then is worth hours and hours and hours today.
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To think that Biden is that close to being president……. I prefer just about anyone else
MTV shows music videos? When did they start doing that again? These days MTV is nothing more than reality TV for the punk (and not the good 80s kind) class.
Why do people watch reality programming? Are they really that easy to amuse? I guess so because that wretch Obama and his Mama got elected the first reality TV American Idol President. There is plenty of evidence that is exactly what happened.
Ha! Thanks for exposing my secret racist agenda. Actually I'm upset because he's a nice Muslim boy and she's a shiksa. Or something…
Seriously, while the Post's articles about these freaks might be "tabloid journalism," there's nothing in them celebrating their lifestyle or making them out as "interesting" people. The last one I read sounded like a genuine hatchet job. Unless there's truly "no such thing as bad publicity," I can't imagine how the articles could possibly benefit those two.
On the other hand, there's no telling how the TV-viewing public will react. Sometimes I think the networks could just put a camera in Charlie Manson's cell and let him ramble and people would watch it. Some folks do love a freak show.
Right on, but by the way it's "permissible."
And I second the comment above about the celebrity wannabe in the White House. It's a much bigger scandal.
Remember, though, it's SanFranNan right behind him, at least until November…
Is that a photo of the Salahis with Beavis in tails and a tie? (Maybe it's Butthead, I could never tell those two apart.)
oops!
I´m afraid to say that is probably true.
Isn't COPS still on Fox?
To give you a reference, my delinquent 11 year old nephew watches MTV. I personally cann't stand the shallow crap on that channel.
I remember reading an article about the "contestants" on a reality show. One of the criteria for being selected was how ruthless you could be. How underhanded you could be. What lengths (or should I say depths) you would be willing to go to in order to eliminate the other participants on the show. If this is a critical success factor for reality show participants, I guess the Salahis more than qualify. I do believe that whoever at the White House participated in this charade should be outed and fired. The Secret Service should not have to take the hit for this. This would NOT have happened in the Bush White House. At least THEY had some respect for the office of the President.
Ugh. Remember when it took talent of some type to be famous? Now all you have to do is do something stupid or forsake your dignity in front of a camera and be "accessible" about it and you're a television personality.
Voyeurism should be left in the closet with the other vices. As a society, we shouldn't be throwing it into the mainstream and letting the media rest on its defense of, "but it's what the people want!" Sometimes the people as a whole want things that aren't good for them. Society needs to be the parent (note: society, not government) and chide the idiots that need chiding.
When can we bring back the shun, huh? Shunning has gone out of style. Let's bring it back.
I think so, but they can't do DC. Nobody would believe it was "reality."
The last time I watched MTV they still served up videos. I could say I will have to catch up
with the times, but some things are best left in the dark and MTV is one of them.
Well, at least now anyone who is approached by these two for a new penthouse suite lease or a no-down limo purchase will have easy access to the information they need, if they bother doing the most cursory investigation.
Time for these two to move on the sunny SoCal – far away from WaPo turf. I'm sure Mayor Tony V would love to have his picture with them, they're such a photogenic couple…
To quote Dennis Miller, "soon everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes"
With the recent death of comic actor Arnold Stang, it occurred to me that if the Salahis really wanted to know how to pull cons, they should have learned from the master – Top Cat, the famous Hanna-Barbera cartoon character to whom Stang gave voice. Tareq & Michaele can't hold a candle to good old T.C.
Am I the only one who thinks the Salahis DIDN'T crash the party; that they were let in by someone in the Obama Administration who, after the sheist encountered the fan, retreated into the shadows?
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