Becoming a celebrity from a reality show... (1 Viewer)

[todd s]

We all know of the people who star in Survivor and Big Brother becoming faux celebrities. And most of these people are people who want to be in the spotlight.
But, now we have a new group of celebs from reality shows who probably never expected to be. I am talking about the crabfisherman from Dangerous Catch or the truck drivers from Ice Road Truckers. They dicussed it on After The Catch. And how they get 1000's of fan letters. And the Hanson brothers appeared at the Norway Pavilion at Disney's Epcot this month. They were there for a couple of days to meet the fans.
So it has to be wierd for these guys who a year a two ago nobody would have paid attention to. To being recognized almost everywhere they go.

 

[KevinGress]

Actually, I feel sorry for them in a way because in a couple of years when people' attention is focused on the next 'hot thing', some of them won't know what to do. They'll be addicted to the attention, but won't receive it. No more Epcot, no more fan mail, etc.

That's why you see so many Celebreality shows - they crave the spotlight and are desperate to get it back.

Perhaps the fishermen have their heads screwed on right and won't miss it, but I wouldn't be too surprised to see them popping up here and there trying to extend their 15 minutes....

 

[todd s]

You mean like Rob & Amber. They did Survivor and The Amazing Race. Then had their wedding as a reality show. Plus another show just following them around. They even appeared at a Trenton Thunder game (double A baseball team) here in NJ signing autographs. Actually, in their reality show they talk about how great it is to be hired to appear at charity functions such as one in New England where they played golf, drank and partyed as vips. And got paid for it. I can see this couple seriously going into withdrawls when the cameras and noteriety stop.

 

[John Kilduff]

I've been watching Celebreality programs on VH1 for several years now, and I haven't noticed that many contestants becoming bigger than the shows they were on. If they did, it was in a different capacity than camera stuff. A good example of this would be "Flavor Of Love 2" alumni Sappharyi (At least I think that's how you spell it...She doesn't spell it in a traditional manner). She didn't even last one episode on "Flavor Of Love 2", but after a lot of struggle, she won a $50,000 dollar prize on "Flavor Of Love Girls: Charm School". She put that money towards starting a personal products business, starting off with lip chap, a focal point of her Celebreality career, and it'll be expanding from there.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

That's one example I could think. There are others, but I don't pay as much attention to the various shows' contestants' MySpace pages as I should.