Kathy Griffin Tears into Reality Competition
as reported first by Zap2it.com
by Daniel Fienberg

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Kathy Griffin likes reality television more than any normal person probably should, a fact she'd readily admit. The comedian's stand-up routine, talk show visits and short-lived MTV series "Kathy's So-Called Reality" have been obsessed with little else for several years. This spring, Griffin was the winner on ABC's "Celebrity Mole: Hawaii" and starting on Monday, Nov. 3, she'll finally get her chance to host a reality series, when she trades barbs with the cast on NBC's "Average Joe." Being a cog in the reality machine hasn't made Griffin any less likely to lacerate the current crop of relationship shows. Promoting her own program, she still takes the opportunity to shred the competition, starting by taking several kicks at the dead horse that is FOX's "The Next Joe Millionaire." "The new Joe Millionaire is borderline retarded. I mean, he makes Evan Marriott look like a genius," Griffin declares, clearly just getting warmed up. "And he's not good looking.. Evan Marriott really looked like a model. The new guy is so stupid he doesn't even know the capital of Germany, he's losing his hair, he looks like Woody Harrelson's unattractive younger brother and he's kinda a jerk too. I think it's a problem when the guy who's Joe Millionaire, you're not rooting for him in any way and you don't want any of the girls to get him. In fact, by the end, I just hope that whoever he picks rejects him." Griffin speaks with a little more sadness about her disappointment in Bob Guiney, star of the latest installment of "The Bachelor." "Bachelor Bob is not as appealing this time, because he kinda thinks he's a playa and that's not as attractive as when he was the chubby underdog," she sighs. In fact, Griffin's favorite among the current crop of televised reality is the least real, as she confessed to being an avid viewer of Spike TV's just-completed "Joe Schmo Show." "At first I didn't like it because I didn't like the actors and they were too full of themselves, talking about their stupid characters and talking about themselves in the third person and all that crap," she admits. "But I really came to like it. Once again, they picked the perfect guy, who was likeable and then he'd be despicable then he'd win you back again. He was kinda smart, but was still kinda a slacker, loser type of guy." Griffin has her own development deal with NBC and is already looking into the future. "I would love to create some reality shows," she says. "I think it's so interesting how they can be outrageous, they can be ridiculously human. They can be like 'The Amazing Race' where you can't believe how brilliant they are. They can be like 'Survivor' where it's like basically you see civilization break down in 39 days." She has only one promise: "I definitely would not participate in any more reality shows," Griffin says. She almost sounds convincing.