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Even though Project Runway’s producers are phoning it in–two of three challenges so far copied from previous seasons? really?–and the contestants seem less engaging and more annoying, ratings for the show’s fifth season are actually increasing. Bravo said in a press release that week-to-week, “the series was up 31 percent among adults 18-49 (2.146 vs. 1.636 million), and also up 25 percent among total viewers (3.287 vs. 2.621 million).” Compared to the fourth season, the show “is up 12 percent among adults 18-49 and up 18 percent among total viewers.” Also on Bravo, Shear Genius had 2.399 million viewers, 1.49…

Former vice president Dan Quayle was asked by the producers of Dancing with the Stars to be on the show’s seventh season, but he said no. “I can tell you that he is not doing the show. There was contact (made), … there was interest in having him be on the show. (But) it’s not like he said he was going to do it,” Quayle’s spokesperson Craig Whitney told the Indianapolis Star. Perhaps most surprising is that the rumor was actually true. Earlier this week, Gossip Sauce reported that the show “is courting Dan Quayle for the new season according…

Entertainment Weekly’s cover story next week takes an in-depth look at the phenomenon that is The Hills, and what it takes to create the series. The story gives the most detailed account to date of how exactly the show is produced, and EW writer Tim Stack calls the series “scheduled reality. … Depending on where the girls are going and whom they’ll be with, production will call ahead and clear the locations — restaurants, cafes, retail outlets — for the crews to come in. Once everything is set up, Lauren gets her shooting schedule e-mailed to her, usually the night…

On Sunday night, three new celebrity-focused series will debut, but only one appears to be the typical “celebreality” crap and nonsense that we’ve come to expect when celebrities invade unscripted television. Ewan McGregor, Ludacris, Tommy Lee, and Pamela Anderson will be featured on the three series. Ewan McGregor comes to the Fox Reality Channel with his documentary reality series Long Way Down that first aired, in a shorter form, on the BBC last year. The six-episode series debuts at 9 p.m. ET, and follows Ewan and his friend Charley Boorman as they travel 20,000 miles from Scotland to South Africa…

The fifth season of Top Chef has made itself at home in Brooklyn, and is currently in production. That means that there have been chef sightings in the New York City area, although perhaps the biggest news is how few of them there are, especially in a city like New York. Last week, Eater published a report from someone who saw the chefs at Whole Foods, where they’re apparently continuing to shop this season. An actual sign proved it was them: At the Bowery Whole Foods, there was “a sign announcing that anyone entering the store would automatically agree to…

So You Think You Can Dance: The Final Six Can Dance

Big Brother 10: Opinions, Odds, and Predictions

This summer, TV ratings “are up slightly, reversing years of declines, even as basic cable continues to grow with more original series,” USA TODAY reports. Reality TV leads those shows on broadcast, as “ABC’s Wipeout is the lone new broadcast hit,” but not on cable. Of the top 20 shows, just three are reality series, but they all fall in the top five. America’s Got Talent is the summer’s most-popular show, scripted or not, with 13.2 million viewers last week. ABC’s ridiculously fun but completely pointless obstacle course series Wipeout was number two last week with 10 million viewers. Fox’s…

Less than a week since they officially broke up, Matt Grant and Shayne Lamas have started publicly sniping at one another. First, Shayne told People magazine that she’s keeping the engagement ring he gave her on the show. “I have it and I am going to keep it forever for the rest of my life. It’s safe and clean and in a glass box like a glass slipper.” And she said Matt was fine with that. “He wants to come over and look at it,” she said. Shayne also insisted that she never cheated. “I did not cheat on Matt….

Big Brother 10: Keesha, Hooter’s Halfwit or Calculating Cutie?