VH1 News Presents
Season 1
VH1 News examines topics as seen through the prism of media and culture.
Where to Watch VH1 News Presents • Season 1
13 Episodes
- Extreme Reality ExposedE8
Extreme Reality ExposedPart 1: Games People Play James Ronald Whitney is a self-confessed "reality whore". From The Bachelor to Punk'd to Elimidate and American Idol he tunes in regularly for the raw drama and train wrecks. But too often, he complains, he is left feeling unsatisfied- there's a flatness he can't quite define. "It's all so one-dimensional," Whitney says. "I just knew there was a way to add something to the salad." So Whitney, a successful documentary filmmaker, invented Games People Play, an extreme reality game show taped over a 72-hour period and edited as a film series. Games tests how far 'actors' will go for fortune and fame (or $10,000 and a starring credit in his film series). In Las Vegas we watch Whitney cast his six contestants, individuals who prove to be the most physically and emotionally uninhibited; in other words those totally willing to bare their body and soul. The games include outrageous hidden camera-style challenges: a female player must get an unwitting pizza delivery man naked and on the couch and give him a massage; a team of male and female contestants must solicit a stranger to join them in a hotel room for a 'naked trio,' which turns out to be a nude dance routine. There are also mind games - players must tell a close member of their family they are participating in a pornographic video; contestants are grilled by a resident psychiatrist about extremely personal issues. The games become increasingly extreme: contestants must convince a bystander she is witnessing an attack in progress; Is Whitney going too far in the name of satire? - Plastic Surgery ObsessionE14
Plastic Surgery ObsessionNipping and tucking used to be something that only movie stars and the wealthy did. Today, people all over the country, both rich and poor, are going under the knife. This hour-long documentary looks at how "America the Beautiful" has become more than a national anthem -- it's a national obsession. The United States will never look the same again.
