why??

The shwo was real yes and no. Well the whole murder thing did very much happen other episodes were "imbellished." I know this because I was actually a guest on the show in late 2002. The title was called "I'm Obsessed With Eminem." Basically a friend told me they were looking for people who thought they were eminem. While I was very mucha fan at the time, I was in no way "obsessed" the way I made it look on the show. The entire screening process and modelling of the show is actually very interesting. I can honestly say that all of the "wannabe" celebrities did not actually think they were someone whom they weren't. Basically my friend called into the show and give a brief outline. Then some months later they did some call backs to potential guests. This is where you really gotta sell it. They talked to me and while I did mention a lot of things that were true, I embellished alot and made up even more. They asked me for some pictures and I literally got a friend to take them with a digi cam and then faxed them into the show 15 mins later. After several more phone calls I was invited onto the show. From here more phone calls occurred and "screening" questions were done to see how I would answer them. The questions which Jenny asked me on the show were from these screening questions. Before the taping all the guests do a walk through "rehersal" in the green room backstage. The producers try to "syke up" the guests and explain the emotion that they want you to bring. Once you hit the stage it is pretty much all improv. I mean I used a fake accent and acted like a complete fool on their request.

The one thing however that is not scripted is the audience reactions and comments. The producers do "syke up" the audience before the show and tell them to be raw etc. just like they did with us guests. Though the audience members are real people they forget that most of the guests are too and are just acting. However a lot of people belive these kind of shows to be real. But I can tell you that even though I was just acting some of the audience remarks were quite hurtful.

Now I am sure that a lot of the shows where they deal with serious issues are different. I'm sure those people have real problems. But from my experience I can safely say that when you see a show that just seems dumb, and you say "people can't really be like that," then they are most likly just acting.

There was actually a contract that we had to sign before the show as well stating not to talk about the show or appear on any other talk shows for 6 months and a bunch of other pages of legal crap as well. Funny that the murder thing was brought up because one of the guests on my episode actually mentioned that backstage and it was not seen as being too funy to many of the employees who worked on the show. But ya that's the long and short of things, there is much more that I could tell you about and if anyone is interested in hearing more about something then post a reply and I will try to accomodate.

Peace