"Jeopardy!" superfans have struggled for years to find out why a contestant's 1986 five-episode win streak has been erased from history

Claire McNear gets to the bottom of it for the Ringer:

[Her] legend ... might have begun with the mystery of her absence from the 1986 Tournament of Champions, but it grew ever larger after top Jeopardy! brass began to disparage her in the press.

...

Sleuths hunted for bread crumbs, celebrating each minuscule find. They turned up a Sacramento Bee story from 1986 written by Clint Swett, the Jeopardy! champion who immediately followed Lowe and described her as “so bubbly you could almost hear her fizz.” They found a clip from a 1980s segment on game shows for a Buffalo TV station that featured a few shots from Lowe’s winning streak, with her ringing in from the champion’s lectern. “When I was a little girl, I wanted to go on Jeopardy!” Lowe tells the camera, grinning. “My lifelong ambition was to go on Jeopardy!”

In 2021, a fan noticed that a fragment of her second episode had been uploaded in a six-hour-long clip compilation from the archives of a game show tape trader. It offered confirmation, seemingly, that the recording still existed somewhere—and provided J! Archive with a blurry image of Lowe’s face. The fan pulled the segment into a video of its own, adding the caption: “This is probably going to be the only clip that surfaces for a while.”

She has a book about Jeopardy.

"France’s version of Survivor, Koh-Lanta, has effectively cancelled a season for the third time"

The French press is now full of rumours about who cheated and how, with suggestions the contestants were having secret dinners at a local motel when they were meant to be fending for themselves.

The €100,000 prize money has been given to charity.

— Tom Hourigan (@TomHourigan) December 15, 2021

Here's one write-up. And here's the Wikipedia page, which summarizes prior scandals on the show, but not the current one yet.

A Russian man kept winning on a Chinese boy band reality competition show while begging voters to vote him off

Straits Times says he was stuck on the show for months after signing a contract that would force him to pay a penalty if he quit:

His lack of enthusiasm played out in half-hearted singing, rapping and dancing alongside the other, more eager contestants.

Performing under the stage name Lelush, he urged the public to vote him out, saying he did not want to be among the 11 winners of the show, who are contractually obliged to form a boy band.

...

Fans, some earnest and some ironic, dubbed him "the most miserable wage slave" and celebrated him as an icon of "Sang culture", a popular concept among Chinese millennials referring to a defeatist attitude towards everyday life. 

Another write-up:

As in Japan, South Korea, and other parts of Asia, fan groups have carved out a large niche in Chinese popular culture. Existing for the sole purpose of elevating the online popularity or album sales of a celebrity “idol,” such groups often adopt cute names in hopes of winning over new recruits. But because Sidorov was such an unconventional contestant, his fans chose an unconventional name for their collective: sunsi, which means “shredded bamboo shoots” and is also a homophone for “mean fans.”

There was a a cross-country lawnmower race reality show inspired by a David Lynch movie

"The Straight Story" is a 1999 movie directed by David Lynch about a man who commits to a long drive on a tractor to see his brother:



LATimes on "The Great Grass Race," a low budget reality competition created by a company called "Menace Vision" and loosely inspired by the movie:

Unlike Straight’s story, though, “The Great Grass Race” is animated by a competitive edge. After “racing” 3,000 miles from Los Angeles to Tampa, Fla. — a destination shifted from New York City at the 11th hour because of COVID-19 restrictions — to claim a nebulous prize of “up to $100,000,” contestants crossed the finish line in mid-September and the winners were announced, though the exact prize money was not.

It was a slow slog through punishing heat and slashing rain at 5 mph, the lawnmowers’ maximum speed. Required to embark on the journey without money, racers were forced to beg strangers along the way — in person and on social media — for gas, food and shelter.  

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A contract signed by contestants and obtained by The Times includes a nondisclosure agreement. A first violation of the agreement results in a $20,000 penalty, a second $50,000 and a third $100,000. The contract states that contestants who leave the show before crossing the finish line owe the producers $100,000, with limited exceptions. It also limits the producers’ liability for injuries. 

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Soon after launch, the production became plagued by problems. Several crew members dropped out within a few days. 

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According to [a camerman], the patrol officer told him that with trucks speeding around the blind curve where the racers were plodding along, “we’ll be picking up your bodies for weeks.”

“And that got under my skin because … he’s right”

 

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A look back at the 2014 dating show "I Wanna Marry Harry," in which 24 women were falsely told the man they were wooing was Prince Harry

Refinery29 has along article about the series, which is available at Youtube. Contestants say the entire scenes were constructed by the producers by splicing unrelated moments together:

It wasn’t easy for producers to convince the contestants they were dating Prince Harry. Throughout much of filming, many of the women didn’t know what to believe. Three contestants who spoke to Refinery29 painted a picture of vulnerability and confusion that was achieved through isolation techniques, heavy-handed clues, and just plain gaslighting from the producers, resulting in one of the most ludicrous, elaborate — but ultimately forgotten — reality shows of the past decade.

“[The] logical part of my brain was telling me this does not look like Prince Harry. This is an absolute ridiculous premise. This would never happen in real life,” Birch said in her heavy Long Island accent during a phone call. Now an actress, she doesn’t sound much different than the tanned, dark-haired, optimistic Meadow Soprano-esque contestant first seen on screen. “But the other part of your brain is being completely brainwashed. You're secluded from your friends and family, you have no access to any sort of media outlet, and you are in this castle [being told that] if you're questioning if this is Prince Harry or not, you're crazy.”

It wasn’t like Birch could turn to her fellow contestants for reassurance: The women weren’t allowed to talk to each other between filming, according to [another] contestant

...

“When people first started saying they thought it was Prince Harry, I right away was like, Oh my God, no, you can't be that dumb,” she explained, saying she attempted to steal moments with fellow contestants in the bathroom to help them see reason.

"Quibi Orders True-Crime Home Renovation Series 'Murder House Flip'"

Deadline:

Murder House Flip is described as an unconventional home-renovation show that takes on the country’s most infamous homes — the ones known for the mysterious murders and incredible intrigue committed within their walls. Homeowners turn to the colorful cast of forensic specialists, spiritual healers and high-end renovation experts to uncover the true crimes, shocking secrets and scandalous history of their homes. Then, cleansing renovations remove the stains of the past and take these homes from morbid to marvelous.

...

“Murder House Flip combines home renovations with the intriguing elements of a true crime series. Bringing healing and solace to families living in the aftermath of tragic events by transforming dark places into healthy spaces.”

Speaking of disturbing homes:

In case you ever wonder just how mad Hong Kong real estate is, this is an advert for a US $790 (minimum) monthly rent for a wall-mounted coffin in what appears to be the back room of a shop in Central. pic.twitter.com/Lcolw3yTAk

— Mike Bird (@Birdyword) August 29, 2019

*Previously: House Hunters should regularly feature a 7'2" tall realtor

"I’m going to tell you all about my experience with House Hunters International, on which we appeared in 2017, and House Hunters, which we filmed last winter"

Slate:

When people learn that my husband and I have been on House Hunters not just once but twice, they always have a million questions. Once we are done explaining, though, they never like my answers and wish they never asked.

...

I was surprised how even the littlest details could be fictionalized. When they couldn’t find a local real estate agent, the House Hunters International producers needed a Dutch person who was willing to be on camera for $500 as our “relocation expert.” Our neighbor and friend Michael, who actually works in IT, was happy to oblige. In the episode, I hinted at the absurdity of the whole situation when Michael mentioned that he lived near a house we were looking at. “Oh, so we could be neighbors,” I exclaimed, while biking to tour our actual house, down the street from his … where my children were playing with his daughter, under the supervision of his wife.

...

When it came time to film us touring our home, the production company had a problem: It needed to make the house look like we didn’t live there yet. So it hired a moving company to essentially move us out of our own house.

*Previously: 7'2" realtor on House Hunters.

"Here's Everything We Know About the Fake Australian 'Bachelor' Contestant"

Observer:

(For the record, Observer editor Juliet Helmke, who was raised in Australia, found Bri’s accent unconvincing from the jump. “It’s stilted, when the entire sound of an Australian accent relies on you being somewhat lazy with enunciation,” she said. “Also, it veers slightly into Eastern European territory.”)

House Hunters should regularly feature a 7'2" tall realtor

Season 148, Episode 12: A Starter Home in Austin, featuring former USC center Philip Von Backstrom.

"Here's What Really Happened To The Cars From 'Pimp My Ride'"

HuffPo:

The Huffington Post spoke with three of the kids who got their cars pimped

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In Justin Dearinger’s Reddit AMA, he claimed that “they actually take out a lot of the stuff that they showed on TV,” such as in his case, a “pop-up” champagne contraption and a “drive-in theater.” Further explaining to HuffPost, Dearinger said that they removed the champagne part because the show didn’t want to condone drinking and driving. The theater was removed for not being street safe.

According to Larry Hochberg, however, the removals were done with a specific purpose in mind. “Sometimes we did things for safety reasons that the kids on show interpreted as us ‘taking away’ some items,” he said.

"How Top Chef’s finale tarnished its brand"

AVC:

The problem comes from the show’s editing, which suggests producers couldn’t resist Elmi’s “bad boy makes good” narrative and climbed over a fair outcome to get to it.

Elmi isn’t much of a villain early in the season. He’s the average Top Chef redshirt, hovering in the middle of the pack thanks to his competition’s egregious mistakes. But in episode 13, “Oui Si A Challenge,” Elmi steps in to fill the season’s villain vacuum.

Link roundup

1.  TLC's Amish reality show is apparently heavily, heavily fictionalized.  SyFy's Collection Intervention is also supposedly seriously misleading.

2.  Major League Baseball had to make a last minute rule change to stop a cheater from winning the batting title.

3.  Dungeons and Dragons Kickstarter collecting homemade modules

Link roundup

1. From an i09 article about space travel myths:

Things are far apart in space. If you took your spaceship through the asteroid belt, you wouldn't even see an asteroid unless you really knew where you were looking.

2. From a Buzzfeed article about reality television:

In terms of shows that I haven't worked on, some of the ones that I think are especially bad are animal training shows. There are things that people don't know that happened beforehand, in order to create this perfect scenario for this expert to magically whip a troublesome animal into shape. The viewer doesn't know the animal had to take an hourlong walk to be super-tired before the expert got there.

3. From an interview with Gravity Fall's Alex Hirsch:

Well, the first thing is to start with my sister. When I came up with the show and pitched it to Disney, the thing that I was most excited about -- sort of tied in excitement with being able to tell stories with magic, monsters and mayhem -- was to make fun of my sister for twenty stories a year. I was really excited to mine my comedic relationship with my sister, to deliver her weirdness to America, and that's probably the core of the series.

...

My sister, when we were in Elementary school, had one particular lime green fuzzy troll doll sweater with a gem sticking out of the belly and actual hair that stuck to it, and I just remember, even though I was very young, being like "This is unusual. It is weird that she is wearing this in public."

...

One funny thing was, when we had a wrap party, we got the whole crew and everybody together to premiere the first episode. My sister came down, she lives in San Francisco, and she brought THE sweater from elementary school. With a lot of peer pressure, we were able to talk her into putting it on, and it's funny. When she was a kid, it was huge, now it finally fits her.

Link roundup

1. Washington Post:

In the ‘you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff’ category, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is spending about $1.1 million to develop a way to physiologically measure how engaged students are by their teachers’ lessons. This involves “galvanic skin response” bracelets that kids would wear so their engagement levels could be measured.

2. You probably suspected HGTV's House Hunters was at least a little staged. But did you suspect it was this staged and that the participants were paid so little?

3. From a review of Peter Watson's The Great Divide: Nature and Human Nature in the Old World and the New ($15 at Amazon):

The plentiful availability in Eurasia of animals just waiting to be domesticated ultimately led to the invention of the plough, the chariot, the wool industry and the pork pie. Meanwhile, what the peoples of the New World might have lacked in terms of horses or cattle was compensated for by a quite prodigious supply of naturally occurring hallucinogens. While the great intellects of Eurasia were busy inventing monotheism and the water-mill, their counterparts in the Americas were off their faces on drugs. This, combined with the fact that the New World is much more prone to extremes of weather and seismic activity than the Old, resulted in gods that were scarily in people's faces. "In the New World," so Watson argues, "the existence of a supernatural world was altogether more convincing."

Or the same thought from a different review:

Watson's rationale for the different religions that developed in the Middle East and South America does carry conviction. In the Old World, the regularity of the natural cycles meant that supplicative religions could be said to work. If your existence depends on the Nile flooding every year or the arrival of the monsoon, and you engage in rituals to implore these life-giving waters to return, and they do – the ritual is consolidated. But in the New World, the climate was extreme, with terrifying unpredictable events such as volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, violent storms. The gods were unappeasable and human sacrifice became the last resort. A reinforcing factor was the abundance of hallucinogens in South America; thanks to them, "the existence of the supernatural world was... more convincing".