Production Favoring Cast Members?

Well it was kinda obvious Evan would win Nehemiah, just because N. is has the less weight. But when it comes to fixing the duels, i dont think so. =P But hey you never know..

Also do u realise that they have a little segment for the girl/guy who is going to leave? Like Last week everyone was talking about Brooke This week everyone is talking about Katie. Last week was davis making plans, this week was Nehemiah.

[quote=Famous.;66089]I always asked myself this, and I have never seen it posted on here so I would like to know what everyone else thinks of this. But do any of you guys think that production has a way of favoring a certain cast member when it comes to who wins a certain battle? For example, take Evan vs. Nehemiah in the Elevator duel. Wouldn't it be quite easy for production to build the set in a way that things could be more complicated for Nehemiah to win? Like, they could have found some way to made Evan's cage heavier so Nehemiah would struggle with pulling his weight up. I don't know, just food for thought...[/quote] I think that wouldn't be fair.

I think the production crews, who are mostly "for hire" experts in a technical area and not BMP employees, would be insulted at the suggestion that any of them would violate US Federal Law by setting up any head to head competition to deliberately favor one person over another. The Game Show Act says they can't do this. While I am not a fan of the producers of either Real World or the Challenges, I do not believe this is something they do, but they do some other shady/silly/stupid things on occasion like the fake airdrop of supplies to the cast during "The Island." Those things relate to an attempt to enhance the production, not to disadvantage one or more cast members. One of BMP's executive producers told me that for Gauntlet 3, the puzzle challenge was intentionally created to balance out the weight/mass differential between Eric and the smallest guy. While it was left to chance whether or not Eric was ever in a gauntlet against someone greatly disadvantaged by the relative size differential, BMP nonetheless attempted to create a range of possibilities to create the greatest fairness possible. Chiku, above, raises an entirely unrelated point. Most reality producers intentionally attempt to satisfy fans of the person departing at the end of a particular episode by featuring that person to some greater degree during the episode for two reasons: 1) to give context to the departure, and 2) to do whatever can be done not to alienate the departing person's fan base to the extent that the do not watch the following week. It has nothing to do with favoritism, it's just a hard learned production technique from the "lessons learned" history of series that bled audiences week to week as fan favorites disappeared.

I think there were several cast members who remarked that once CT chose to take David Burns' place in the Inferno against Shane, production learned of Shane's lactose intolerance and made an Inferno where they would have to drink cookies and milk until they threw up. The other Inferno that struck me as suspicious was the Jodi vs. Veronica one where they had to spin around the cloth, it definitely favored Veronica's dance past and her low center of gravity.

[QUOTE=ssseeeaaann;66111]I think there were several cast members who remarked that once CT chose to take David Burns' place in the Inferno against Shane, production learned of Shane's lactose intolerance and made an Inferno where they would have to drink cookies and milk until they threw up. The other Inferno that struck me as suspicious was the Jodi vs. Veronica one where they had to spin around the cloth, it definitely favored Veronica's dance past and her low center of gravity.[/QUOTE] The problem with both of those stories is that production can't make stuff up on the spot. Everything must be vetted thought the network legal affairs and standards and practices offices before the show ever begins taping.

[quote=chiku;66094]Well it was kinda obvious Evan would win Nehemiah, just because N. is has the less weight. But when it comes to fixing the duels, i dont think so. =P But hey you never know..[/quote] TJ stated before the first duel between Ryan and Nick that weight had nothing to do with it.

Still talking about Nedermeyer's and Evan's Duel? Some of you are hopeless..

Can production show some bias in the enforcement of judgement call situations, like the Beth/Svet duel?

[quote=needsalife;66154]Can production show some bias in the enforcement of judgment call situations, like the Beth/Svet duel?[/quote] I have some personal bias about that particular situation. What you didn't see on the episode was the 20-30 minute producer conference that took place. We asked for a copy of the specific rules for that duel. It has never been provided; therefore, one can only logically conclude that BMP made a production decision to keep Svetlana that was not supported by written rules. When a company has nothing to hide, it provides the evidence. BTW, TJ's audio recitation of the rules was recorded after the fact.

[QUOTE=V1man;66158]I have some personal bias about that particular situation. What you didn't see on the episode was the 20-30 minute producer conference that took place. We asked for a copy of the specific rules for that duel. It has never been provided; therefore, one can only logically conclude that BMP made a production decision to keep Svetlana that was not supported by written rules. When a company has nothing to hide, it provides the evidence. BTW, TJ's audio recitation of the rules was recorded after the fact.[/QUOTE] Hey V...I really think they need to hire me to be the host...I could really make things much more fun and interesting than TJ...BUT I wouldn't want to be production's puppet so maybe I should ust sit down and shut up, LOL.

I really doubt that production would in any way jeopardize themselves legally, but Sarah used to talk about production favoring certain people in her Gauntlet recaps--specifically, she said they didn't like Alton and Irulan because they were rude to production and thanked Sarah for sending Irulan home. She also said she had a particularly good relationship with production and sometimes shared things like nail polish with them. I guess whether that was just her perception or a realistic interpretation of events is up for people to decide themselves.

According to several of the castmembers on the gauntlet 1. they do favor some castmembers. Sarah really shouldve went home during the gauntlet against the real world rachel on the "Ride 'em cowboy" gauntlet. BUT production wanted to keep the Sarah storyline so they let her slide even though she really should've gotten disqualified because her stomach was on the bull. But they "changed" the rules to let it slide. The real world team was pissed and screamed at production. Norman wrote that he accidently ate one of the production crews sandwich and she was very pissed off about that. So during the gauntlet between Theo and Cara (Ride 'em cowboy) the same woman that had her sandwich eaten, was the same women in charge of controlling Theo (Real worlds) bull. So you can see Cara's bull going very slow while Theo's is going CRAZY. Yes it was said that the male contestant would have a faster bull but this was just absurd. One the "Vertical limit" mission they handed Road Rules the check even though Real World won. So Real World was tired of all the production favoring so they were basically gonna quit the whole challenge all together. so they walked away and were planning on leaving, ruining the whole show. Production freaked out and finally gave them their 10,000 check.....

[QUOTE]So you can see Cara's bull going very slow while Theo's is going CRAZY. Yes it was said that the male contestant would have a faster bull but this was just absurd. [/QUOTE] Quick nitpick--I have that one on tape, and while Theo's bull might have been slightly faster, it did the same number of revolutions as Cara's bull. There wasn't a huge difference, and if you watch carefully in the spots where you see both bulls side by side, you can see that. The fact that Theo was flopping all over the place while Cara sat perfectly still also added to the illusion that Theo's bull was significantly faster. In this case, I do think Norm was seeing what he wanted to see, to some extent.

I think is all probably just like high school with the cast being the jock's and cheerleader's, and the crew are the nerds or whatever, I need a better reference for the crew. I am sure their are bullies and favorites on both sides.

[quote=MrsPlumBean;66224]Quick nitpick--I have that one on tape, and while Theo's bull might have been slightly faster, it did the same number of revolutions as Cara's bull. There wasn't a huge difference, and if you watch carefully in the spots where you see both bulls side by side, you can see that. The fact that Theo was flopping all over the place while Cara sat perfectly still also added to the illusion that Theo's bull was significantly faster. In this case, I do think Norm was seeing what he wanted to see, to some extent.[/quote] I have the whole season on my labtop and just watched that episode. If you only look at the 2 bulls and no the castmembers you really can see Theo's bull rocking and rotating faster while Cara's is still rotating but overall, is a lot more calmer and slower. The only reason Theo was flopping all over the place was because he was there for a while and his legs wore out, and the bull was moving like crazy from the start.

Point of order: No cast member filed a complaint with the FCC that the Gauntlet was unfair.

[quote=V1man;66248]Point of order: No cast member filed a complaint with the FCC that the Gauntlet was unfair.[/quote] Perhaps the word Speculation should be in the title of tis thread.

[QUOTE=Famous.;66258]Well I did add a question mark to the title. I also strongly believe that Evan should have been disqualified. He just wouldn't listen to TJ, he got too many chances. Does TJ make the decisions on his own or does production or whomever tell him when someone needs to be disqualified?[/QUOTE] I am pretty sure Production pulls the puppett strings.

[quote=Famous.;66258]Well I did add a question mark to the title. I also strongly believe that Evan should have been disqualified. He just wouldn't listen to TJ, he got too many chances. Does TJ make the decisions on his own or does production or whomever tell him when someone needs to be disqualified?[/quote] Sorry....what is done is done there is no changing it now. Man I think if they could change things Paula might have won The Island with Kenny, Johnny, Derrick. There is nothing we can do about it, and it is a TV show, plus that's life...it's not always fair.

[quote=LilysMom;66269]Sorry....what is done is done there is no changing it now. [B]Man I think if they could change things Paula might have won The Island with Kenny, Johnny, Derrick.[/B] There is nothing we can do about it, and it is a TV show, plus that's life...it's not always fair.[/quote] Change things in what way? Just curious, I'm not exactly following what you mean...

[quote=Famous.;66354]TQO, I think LM meant if production could change things up to favor a cast member, they would have found a way to help out Paula. But I doubt production wanted to help out Paula, that would be too much of an "evil prevails" case.[/quote] Gotcha, thanks!

[quote=TheQuietOne;66315]Change things in what way? Just curious, I'm not exactly following what you mean...[/quote] Kenny stating the one thing he would have changed was Paula on the back of their boat. That was quite a broad statement I should have added this in the original post. As to what I was alluding too. Thing's like CT losing the Duel to Brad, I would have like to have seen that differently as well, same thing with Beth and Svet. I understand what you are saying. But it is getting to point where we are beating a dead horse.

I just hope that production stopped messing with the competition and the castmembers...I also hope that the missions are a lot safer than they were before. I know that in BOTS1. The ice mission, where they had to sit on a block of ice and have their hands above their heads was EXTREMELY dangerous. The testers only lasted around 45 minutes. When the actual competition began, some of the girls lasted around 3 hours and ended up having their butts turn purple and Melissa was endangered of having hypothermia. Ellen complained that chunks of her butt was falling off and Lori's mom is a nurse who said that the mission was very dangerous. Sarah did say on her blog that she got along with production and wanted her to stay in the competition, which is another reason why she won at all those "Gauntlets". The Real World team had A LOT of problems with production and constantly screamed and complained at them, it's pretty unfortunate.

[QUOTE=Famous.;73557]Bringing this back... When picking the games for face-offs, do you guys that production may make all the cards be the same game? I find it funny that Anessa has gotten the only game that she can win in (IMO) twice. Maybe production wants her to win since she hasn't yet after so many challenges. They should show the rest of the card after they pick, I know if I was a player, I would request to see them.[/QUOTE] Doing what you describe would violate the Game Show Act. Why would the Exec Producer risk violating a federal criminal statute because he felt like Aneesa should finally win? That said, if I were a cast member, after picking one card and showing it to TJ, I'd then grab the rest of the cards to determine if it was a setup.

I dont neccesarily think production sets these things up, but they definitely favor some castmembers over others. I think we have a natural tendency to overthink and analyze certain situations that don't seem to feel "right." I trust that production has been fair about 95% of the time. The again i'm sure there are times when they had a say in deciding who went home.