Reality Champion Rankdown

[taylorkat]

Bill Bailey 

 

 

Mark Robert "Bill" Bailey is an actor, comedian, musician, and singer. He is known for his role as Manny in the sitcom Black Books and his stand-up comedy work. He plays a variety of musical instruments and incorporates music into his performances. He was named one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. Bill was on Season 18 of Strictly Come Dancing and his partner was Oti Mabuse. It still baffles me how he won that season when we had Maisie Smith or even HRVY. He was not a good dancer. I think I liked maybe one routine of his compared to everything Maisie danced. The outcome of these shows often ends up disappointing me. At least Oti won, there's a positive.

 

[*Amanda]

The only good thing about Bill winning is that it made Oti a 2-time Strictly winner and the first pro to win back-to-back seasons of Strictly.  Ugh I’m gonna miss her so much this upcoming season. 

[*Wallace]

Aww a bit sad to see Luke go, but I understand the two entries would work against his favor. I did watch/was more invested in his Season 18 run moreso than his Season 8 time (where I would watch back his routines), so at least his S8 self went out first.  He's great, likeable guy and a great dancer... but yeah it did some time for him to grow and get better in S8 while he was always strong in S18.

 

Awww lol I was hoping for the Strictly winners to be untouched for awhile but hey, at least it went a week.   Aww the Bill cut. Not too upset about it but I do think there were a few (aka 2) weaker winners than him. I def get the upset of him beating out Maisie or HRVY, as I did much prefer those two too. But it is iconic how he got Oti two wins when the producers thought they were giving her a duffer celeb and didn't expect much from him.  

[*Amanda]

Aidan O'Mahony (Dancing With The Stars Ireland 1)

 

 

I feel like it would only be a matter of time for a DWTS Ireland winner to be cut since people are making the rounds on shows that have all their winners still intact, so this cut is to make sure that Aidan is the lowest-ranked Ireland winner like he should be. With the other 4 winners, I think their wins were deserved. Lottie was my only season favorite to win, but I can't argue with Jake, Mairead or Nina winning because even though they weren't my favorite of their season, they were still great dancers so I was fine with them winning. And then there's Aidan. In a season where the other 3 members of the top 4 were much better dancers, the weakest dancer won out. A Gaelic Football player, he was partnered with Valeria Milova. And he was massively popular with the viewers/voters despite not being a very good dancer. The only dance of his that scored a 30 was his Showdance, and the only other one to even score a 10 was his Charleston. Other than those two dances, he never scored above a 25 (both 25's came in the finale, which isn't surprising).  His lowest-scoring dance was his Samba which scored a 15. And like, I'm not surprised that he won because the Irish public very much loves their ~journey~ contestants (which is why Lottie's win in season 4 after multiple bottom 2 appearances while being great all season long was such a shock) but journey contestants Mairead and Nina started out good and became fantastic as the season progressed. Meanwhile, Aidan started out awful before progressing to "okay, so that wasn't completely terrible" by the end of the season. Nothing he did was fantastic. He was pretty mediocre but mediocre men are rewarded just for showing up. He was completely outclassed in terms of dancing by the rest of the Top 4. Any of Aoibhin, Denise, or Dayl would've made for fantastic winners. All were consistently great and delivered week after week. Aidan winning season 1 really was a rough start to the series IMO, but luckily it course-corrected to give us 4 great winners in all the seasons followed it. 

 

Here's his Viennese Waltz, which is one of his better-scoring dances (it scored 24 points). It was fine. He was definitely better at Standard Ballroom than Latin.

 

 

...Danced to Somebody to Love by Queen. Such a popular song to dance a Viennese Waltz to on the DWTS franchise. LOL.   Queen Mel B still has the best Viennese Waltz to this song, though.  

 

 

Edited August 29, 2022 by *Amanda

[taylorkat]

I added Aidan to see him eliminated as well.

[Solaris]

3 minutes ago, taylorkat said:

I added Aidan to see him eliminated as well.

 

Who else is on Gigi's hitlist?

[taylorkat]

4 minutes ago, Solaris said:

Who else is on Gigi's hitlist?

I can't tell until they are cut.

Edited August 29, 2022 by taylorkat

[*Wallace]

Aidan was on my shortlist of cuts and someone I was considering cutting last night, tonight or within the next few days.  He had a good showing on the final but that certainly wasn't a good enough reason to win where Aoibhin, Denise, or Dayl were all much stronger dancers.

 

Definitely a fair cut and he should definitely be the first eliminated of the DWTS Ireland winners.  

 

I def feared for the Irish series with Aidan as the first winner but thankfully 4 great winners came about after that.  

[FrogLenzen]

Sunny Fong (Project Runway Canada - Season 2)

 

Sunny Fong was the winner of the second and final season of Project Runway Canada. His label nowadays is VAWK which is not a brand I've heard of before, but presumably his market is in Canada so maybe that explains it. He beat out 13 other designers on his season in 2009, culminating in a final collection inspired by Alexander the Great. My knowledge of Sunny is from Project Runway All Stars Season 7, which was an All Winner season featuring US and international winners. For the first elimination challenge that season, the designers had to create a look for a "graduation party" using two assigned colors. Sunny's assigned colors were yellow and blue. Take a look at his dress and let me know when you find the blue.

 

 

Honestly, it's not a bad outfit and the layering gradient effect is objectively cool. But the judges felt like he was insulting the challenge by relegating his assigned blue color to a random piece of jewelry that I don't even see in this particular image. Sunny was the first winner to go home on the winner season, so it feels right letting him go early in this game as well. 

[Alex95]

Paul Brennan

As I scanned the list of remaining winners I was pretty surprised to see this name. While I haven't seen many BBUK seasons, I've seen enough clips and read about them and thought I at least recognized the names of all the winners, but I did not recognize this name. Upon further research, I discovered he was on "Teen Big Brother: The Experiment". And what a failed experiment I'm sure it was! I think between Jennette McCurdy's book and Nathan Fielder's masterful HBO show The Rehearsal society is soon going to take a serious look about child actors, exploiting children on film & television, etc. Despite the fact that I'm a whole ass hypocrite and think Kid Nation is a masterpiece, children especially do not belong on reality television. Reality television is hell that adults barely belong on. Upon further research, it appears all the teens on Teen Big Brother were 18 years old so that makes it a little bit better, but not much. Anyways, Teen Big Brother was a spinoff of Big Brother UK pretty much during its height of fame. It involved putting eight 18 year old teenagers in a house to play a game of Big Brother. The series was controversial because it featured the first sexual act between two contestants on Big Brother. Like holy shit! I can't emphasize enough how insane that is. On Teen Big Brother! Can you imagine how mortified these children must have been? Tommy & Jade, the teens in question, immediately questioned their decision and were provided with medical and professional counseling after the act. The incident was not aired, but references to the sex and discussions about it were. Everything I've been reading about this show is absolutely wild. I don't want to sex shame since they were consenting adults, but there's still just so much grey area here.

Anyways I spent my whole time talking about the series I never talked about Paul. Paul is the winner of Teen Big Brother. As opposed to regular BBUK, the winner was decided by the fellow housemates as opposed to the British public. According to the BB wiki he is best known for being mean, but despite this he still won the competition and a trip around the world lol. I guess nice guys do finish last! He is gay and left home at 16 with dreams of being a hairdresser. He became an LGBTQ+ advocate, but unfortunately died earlier this year at the age of 37.

[*Wallace]

Oh wow, I never heard of Teen Big Brother UK before, and therefore did not know about Paul Brennan. But wow that write-up about it is reallly insane.  Not surprised to learn it only lasted one season as it seemed to be so much controversy about it.

 

But aww that's really sad about hearing about Paul dying earlier this year and at such a young age too.  

[*Wallace]

Ben Driebergen

 

Ugh I was hoping for someone would have cut Ben Driebergen sometime earlier in the game. I've been holding out because.... I just feel awkward and don't know/think I could give Survivors proper write-ups. There are major details that I don't think I can properly remember to talk about? I just feel like my Survivor write-ups aren't IT with how other people could do them. But... I really can't take Ben lasting any longer here, so I shall cut him now. So I will try my best here.  Ben Driebergen is an an American Marine Corps veteran, who first competed and won Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, which was the show's 35th season. Since Ben was on multiple seasons of the show, I will only focus on the season he's won, since this is the entry he's represented here in this game. 

With Ben's time on Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, he started out as a key member of the Levu tribe. But then a tribe switch to the Yawa tribe put him in the minority where he didn't have the numbers or the main alliance. He did luck up as this tribe was strong enough to win challenges to avoid 3 tribal councils. Ben made it through to merge and he had the cruical role as the swing vote at the first tribal council at merge. This worked out for him as he took a leading role in the majority Round Table alliance. But of course, Ben being Ben, he messed up things for himself where he would become a jury threat. He would blow up his own social standing with his alliance and went from a top tier of his alliance to the bottom of the tribe's/alliance and was viewed as a target to get out. Then the real annoyance came in when Production handed him he found all of these hidden immunity Idols in a row and while the cast was trying to get rid of him at Final 7 and Final 5, he would. just. not. go. This was just really irritating to see especially as I never liked him in the first place and would lose people I liked and rooted for more. Then Ben makes it to the final four fire-making challenge and beats Devon there. Ugh I was rooting for Devon so bad there to take Ben out but of course that doesn't happen. Ben used his Idols play and underdog status as ways to help his case to the jury - and it worked in his favor as he won the title of sole Survivor in a 5-2-1 vote beating out runner-up Chrissy Hofbeck and 3rd placer Ryan Ulrich. I mean... congrats to Ben as he did what he had to do to win but I was simply not here for this win. I just think him constantly finding Idols to save himself just became ridiculous. Although yes, if this happened with someone I loved and was a favorite of mine, of course I wouldn't mind it. But I'll be a hypocrite in that sense.  

 

Since his win on this show, Ben has also competed on Survivor: Winners at War where he made it to the Finale, although he quit and finished at 5th place. He's currently competing on The Challenge USA. I like most of the cast on that show but Ben is one I just don't care for. Although he has some okay moments and even some moments where I do actually root for him to win (mainly because of whoever his female teammate is). Sorry to Ben fans to this cut But I think Elliott is his only true fan here so hopefully he doesn't see this.
 

[taylorkat]

I also put Ben in to see him get eliminated!

[*Wallace]

9 minutes ago, taylorkat said:

I also put Ben in to see him get eliminated!

Miss Gigi slaying the game out here watching her targets getting eliminated.

[taylorkat]

43 minutes ago, *Wallace said:

Miss Gigi slaying the game out here watching her targets getting eliminated.

I'm enjoying it.

[jarmon]

SALEISHA STOWERS

Not me cutting Wallace's favourite . Saleisha Stowers is the winner of the 9th season of America's Next Top Model. A season where had Jenah won, would've been one of the best winners. Yes, I am biased and what about it? 

 

Saleisha was recruited for America's Next Top Model after her participation in Tyra Bank's T-Zone camp so Tyra just had to have that narrative that she discovered Saleisha. The producers and Tyra tried so hard to make Saleisha happen but I was never amazed by her throughout her season. She always just left me annoyed by her or just disliking her. It didn't help that there were much stronger and likable personalities that season like Jenah, Bianca, Heather & Lisa. I also enjoyed Chantal even if she was kinda vanilla, always liked her photos. 

 

I remember a moment during the Casting episode where Saleisha told Chantal they're going to be the Final 2 and well, she didn't lie! It kinda does feel like the season was catered to ensure a Saleisha win considering she should've eliminated Week 3 for her awful Tulip photo. But anyway, she had 2 FCO's and was in the bottom 2 twice as well. Overall, one of the weaker winners of the franchise in my opinion and hence why she is now out of the Rankdown!

[FrogLenzen]

my least favorite winner of ANTM 

[*Wallace]

It's ON, Akshar.  

 

Saleisha making it this far, at least.  And not being the lowest ANTM winner.... so growth, at least.  

[Steven_]

JUD "FABIO" BIRZA

 

Survivor: Nicaragua was one of the worst seasons, and Fabio is arguably the worst winner of them all. He was completely clueless throughout the whole game and somehow stumbled upon the win simply due to likability. The jury didn't like Sash's deceptiveness or Chase's indecisiveness, so they decided to award Fabio the win because he was nice and didn't do anything to hurt their feelings. I understand jury management is important, and I'll always defend Natalie White winning against Russell. That win was controversial among a large portion of the fanbase due to how aggressive and strategic Russell was. However, Natalie positioned herself well and was aware of the happenings within the tribe. She helped her alliance, and she even led the vote against Erik. But what did Fabio do? Nothing. He was just there. No one took him seriously, hence the Fabio nickname. Fabio was out of the loop, had no alliance, and oftentimes voted on the wrong side of the numbers. He never influenced the game in any way, or even make an attempt to play a strategic game. He coasted by and got lucky at the end. He benefited from the double quit near the end of the game, and he won a challenge to get to the Final 3. Chase or Holly would've been a much better winner for this season. Holly probably would've won if she made it to the Final 3. Based on the Final Tribal Council performances, Chase definitely should've won. He really owned up to his game and was assertive in his answers, and it's a shame Chase wasn't able to sway one more vote. Anyway, Fabio already outranking Tony's Winners at War win is absurd, so let me eliminate Fabio from this rankdown before he outlasts any other better Survivor winners.

 

Edited August 29, 2022 by Steven_

[*Diana]

Donny Osmond

 

 

Mya deserved so much better that I will make this cut and wonder why he lasted this long in our rankdown. the disrepect. Team Mya where you at? anyway yeah Donny Osmond unfortunately won season 9 of Dancing with the Stars. Yeah he won when Mya outdanced every single one of them week after week. but what can you say DWTS voters are known for crowning terrible winners so add Donny to that list. He danced with Kym so I guess the one benefit is she got a mirror ball but that is the only nice thing I can think of to say.

[*Wallace]

Ah yeah I liked Fabio as a fun person/character, but yeah he was certainly a bad Survivor winner. I like him personally over a number of other winners but he's probably way down the list of worst winners as far as gameplay and strategy.  

 

Donny being cut isn't a major surprise and not mad at it. Yeah, I definitely was not here for him beating Mya and was very bitter about that. But I don't actively dislike him and there's still some winners I like even less than him, so he wasn't one of my immediate targets per se. But again, no problems with that cut.  

[Solaris]

Sal was my first choice to cut when I got around to ANTM, now I can move to another show.  

[*Lily]

King!

[*Lily]

John Rich

 

I remember watching this season of Celebrity Apprentice and it was honestly great. Surely some great competition for one of the best female reality TV line-ups ever assembled. Dionne Warwick, NeNe Leakes, Star Jones, Marlee Matlin, La Toya Jackson... gold! NeNe Leakes' assassination of Star Jones.. forever legendary. 

 

 

Anyway all of that was ruined when this random boring white dude won. I don't remember a single thing about John Rich nor do I care to remember. Unsurprisingly, he still pretty much bows down to Tr*mp to this day. I mean... we're not shocked but still. Apparently after Biden won the election he made a $10,000 bet that Tr*mp would still be in office come the following January, lmao what a clown. He recently released an 'anti-woke' song that he promoted over Truth Social, which made it to no. 1 on the iTunes chart, something that might have been an accomplishment in 2009 but not now. Bye!

[Qorey]

John Rich - I was wanting him to be second out, but I guess first is okay too.

Edited August 29, 2022 by Qorey