Reality Show

"The Job," which premieres Friday on CBS, puts a reality-show spin on the hiring process - which is to say, it does explicitly what many reality shows do figuratively. Here, five "highly qualified candidates," a new batch each week, sell themselves to a tribunal of executives who will hire one for their company (also new each week) within the hour. Linking their series to the weak economy and job market, the producers (including Mark Burnett of "Survivor" and "Shark Tank" and "The Celebrity Apprentice")

    The critics who say MMA is too violent got some ammunition on Tuesday when Uriah Hall knocked out Adam Cella with a vicious spinning back kick during the reality show "The Ultimate Fighter" on FX. After Hall knocks out Cella, Cella's breathing becomes ragged as the mood in the gym moves from celebration to fear. Cella was out for four minutes before he revived and was taken to a hospital. He was released and is expected to compete on the season finale in April. The fight, which was taped previously and shown for the first time Tuesday, made for some uncomfortable viewing for Hall, who watched it with his friends at a bar. "I'm just not used to that [attention]

In its search for hit programming beyond the omnipresent Kardashian clan, E! network continues to poach from the music community -- this time with across-the-pond boy band "The Wanted. " "The Wanted Life" (working title) willl document the personal and professional lives of the English-Irish fivesome as they shack up in the Hollywood Hills. They're the latest music folk to get a reality series: British pop girl group The Saturdays made their stateside presence known in "Chasing The Saturdays," which premiered last month, and last year's "Married to Jonas" chronicled newlywed life for Kevin Jonas, one-third of the Jonas Brothers.

Boy Scouts may be tough, but can they be as tough as GLAAD? The gay-rights group is upset over "Are You Tougher Than a Boy Scout?," a new reality competition series from the creators of he-man fare such as "The Deadliest Catch. " The show is due to premiere on the National Geographic Channel later this year. GLAAD has tangled with Boy Scouts of America over policies forbidding gay leaders and members. The group last year reaffirmed its anti-gay ban after a two-year review of its policies.  GLAAD is upset that NatGeo is going ahead with the TV project and declining to criticize the Boy Scouts.

OK, so disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong has spilled his guts to Oprah Winfrey about doping and cheating. Now what? Don't be surprised if Armstrong pursues getting a reality show. And an Armstrong reality show would most likely air on Winfrey's struggling OWN network. It could be a win-win for both Armstrong and Winfrey. Think about it. Armstrong could be the latest in a line of former sports stars such as Michael Vick, Mike Tyson, Pete Rose and other troubled athletes who have used the arena of reality TV as a way to rehabilitate their images and show they are just like ordinary people with kids and pets.

I'm thinking Lance Armstrong needs a reality show. Maybe a wife, a couple kids, then just have some cameras follow him around as he attempts to lead a normal life, living strong and all that. After all, if his confessional with Oprah doesn't work out, what's a guy with a recognizable face, a notoriously prickly demeanor and no apparent work skills to do? PHOTOS: Lance Armstrong through the years So far it looks like Armstrong is attempting to following the Pete Rose path to redemption -- the road the disgraced all-time Major League Baseball hits leader took when he was caught gambling on his sport and his own team as a manager.

Baseball legend Pete Rose was such a relentless competitor on the field that he earned the nickname "Charlie Hustle. " Now the former star is hustling into a whole new ballgame - the reality show. Rose, the all-time hits leader who has been banned from baseball and, so far, the baseball Hall of Fame for gambling on games while a major league manager, is hoping TLC's "Pete Rose: Hits and Mrs. " will help clean up his tarnished image. The six-part series, which premiered to a small audience over the weekend, is centered on the 71-year-old's engagement to former Playboy model Kiana Kim, who is about four decades younger than Rose.

Here is a transcript of Jodie Foster's acceptance speech in receiving the Cecil B. DeMille award at Sunday night's Golden Globes: "Well, for all of you 'SNL' fans, I'm 50! I'm 50! You know, I need to do that without this dress on, but you know, maybe later at Trader Vic's, boys and girls. What do you say? I'm 50! You know, I was going to bring my walker tonight but it just didn't go with the cleavage. "Robert [Downey Jr.], I want to thank you for everything: for your bat-crazed, rapid-fire brain, the sweet intro.

Elimination Night A Novel Anonymous New Harvest: 304 pp., $25 If the anonymous author of "Elimination Night," set behind the scenes of a singing-competition TV show very much - perhaps exactly - like "American Idol," is difficult to identify, the same cannot be said of most of the novel's characters. There's "erect-nippled" British judge Nigel Crowther, a.k.a. "Mr. Horrible," a pop producer who made a name for himself on "Project Icon" with his sneering, metaphorical insults.

The day after the rejection of several players into the Baseball Hall of Fame , Pete Rose -- not surprisingly -- had plenty to say. Rose, the major league's all-time leader in hits who has been banned from baseball and the Hall of Fame for betting on games, said he was not surprised that the Baseball Writers' Assn. of America declined to select a player for baseball's highest honor. The snubs were being attributed to the game's steroid era. "I knew last week that it was going to happen," said Rose about the snubbing of several top players, including Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens . "They're all friends of mine.