B-List Rivals Bring Their A-Game to Reality TV

By LOLA OGUNNAIKE
Published: August 4, 2005

It's a match made in mud-wrestling heaven: Omarosa, a fire-breathing dragon of a woman, fond of scorching rivals with a whole lot of index-finger-waving attitude, versus Janice Dickinson, a former supermodel with a Birkin bag of bitchiness and a perma-scowl etched into her surgically enhanced face.

But anyone eager to see these reality television veterans go at it in skimpy bikinis will have to settle for this season of VH1's "Surreal Life," which invites has-beens and B-listers to live together for 13 days of D-R-A-M-A.

Part nostalgia trip, part sitcom and part freak show, "The Surreal Life," currently in its fifth season, has become a breakout hit on VH1, which has invested heavily in the notion that celebrities, like roaches and zombies, never really die. This season of "The Surreal Life," which began late last month with new episodes on Sundays at 9 p.m. and reruns throughout the week, arrives at a time when semi-celebrities are enjoying astounding notoriety, thanks to shows like VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club," NBC's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" and ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," where the barely established and the washed-up fox-trotted before an average of more than 16 million viewers a week. B-list, it appears, is the new A-list.

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