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TLC has brought so much joy into our lives—Hoarding: Buried Alive, Sister Wives, I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant, and the list goes on—but now comes word of a true blessing that's about to be bestowed upon us by the network where different is always better. Preacher Wives will take place in Atlanta and follow the "outspoken ladies who work to ensure that their churches run as smooth as Southern-churned butter." Hallelujah! The show is being produced by True Entertainment, who also brought us The Real Housewives of Atlanta, so let's hope it won't be as snoozy as All-American Muslim and will lean more toward the Toddlers & Tiaras side of the crazy antics spectrum. More »
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On last night's episode of Toddlers & Tiaras, we met Kelly, whose 23-month-old daughter Natalie was competing in some random pageant inside of a drab hotel room (seriously, the venues always look like sad sets from an Eastern Block film). Natalie screamed and cried while she was being dressed, screamed and cried while she was having her hair done, and generally seemed rather spoiled. But it was clear that bad behavior ran in the family: Kelly threw a tantrum when her child was crowned "Princess" in her division. "Princess means that you're a loser," Kelly declared. (Does Disney know about this?) This particular pageant had announced that they were awarding Princess titles in addition to Supreme titles — meaning that just because you're crowned Princess doesn't mean you won't be Ultimate Queen Grand Wizard Royal Nacho Supreme Burrito or whatever. However! Kelly wasn't listening when the announcement was made. Hence the drama queen scene. The lesson she is teaching her daughter is that if you don't get what you want, you should curse and scream and throw things, which is almost certainly the best possible way to raise a responsible, generous, caring citizen of Earth. Anyway! In the end, Natalie did indeed win Novice Chalupa Supreme Queen, and Kelly got the giant crown she wanted. More »
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Now that TLC has presented its fascinating/funny/exploitative portrait of virgins, it's moving on to one of the most commonly mocked segments of our society: Geeks. As a nerd who wishes her fiancé could make such an impressive wookiee noise, I'm certainly not the target audience for this trailer, but I suspect we're supposed to be laughing at the idea of people who love cosplay and Star Wars hoping to find mates. If you've been to a Comic Con event you know TLC definitely could have found people who are weirder than the folks in this clip, but I still fear for my dorky brethren. More »
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The whole point of TLC's All-American Muslim — which follows families living in Dearborn, Michigan — is to humanize folks who live in the U.S. and practice Islam. They have close-knit relationships, love football, and feel anxious about the first day of school, just like any other Americans. But home improvement retailer Lowe's has pulled ads from the program following a complaint from the Florida Family Association. The Florida Family Association is allegedly devoted to "improving America's moral environment." Yet the group calls the show "propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values." More »
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When you first heard that Eden Wood was quitting pageants, and by extension, the TLC show that launched her into the pop culture vortex, you may have been wondering what another season of Toddlers & Tiaras would be like without her. Well, good news! They've casted your new favorite TV family, who look to drag shows for pageant inspiration. "We take a lot of inspiration from RuPaul," says Mom, "She's our favorite queen." My only concern after watching this clip is young Bob Riley's foot-and-a-half-long beaded rat tail. More »
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All-American Muslim's Nina Bazzy does not wear a hijab or abaya — she prefers her ensembles to be tight and short. She's a successful party planner, and wants to open a club, but her parents consider that to be preposterous, because she is a woman. Her mother told her that a woman needs to be home with her family; when Nina asked if it would be different if she were a man, the answer was yes, of course. It was interesting to watch the dynamic between Nina and her mother as Nina tried to get dressed to go to the mosque. She obviously wants to please her parents, but she also loves her low-cut stretch tanks and high heels, and feels like there's not a lot of freedom for a traditional/conservative Muslim woman. When she and the other castmembers sat on a couch discussing the rules of Islam and its restrictions as a religion, Coach Zaban said, "I feel that it's very simple and easy to follow." The camera cut to Nina, giving a subtle stinkeye. Coach Zaban doesn't have to cover his hair. No one is telling Coach Zaban what kind of business he can and cannot run. More »
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So TLC's one-hour special, Virgin Diaries, aired last night, and it was mesmerizing, intriguing, weird, sad and infuriating. Human beings have the right to make choices about what to do with their bodies. But man, it sure was cringe-inducingly awkward when Lisa, 30, told her blind date she was "still a virgin." He was just some dude she'd never met before, and just trying to get to know, while a camera filmed the whole thing. Lisa: "Still a virgin!" Andrew's eyes: "WTF SRSLY I FEEL SET UP." On the one hand, she is to be commended for staying true to herself and informing guys about her expectations and desires up front. But, on the other hand, Lisa and her friends — one a virgin and the other a "reclaimed virgin" — have placed so much importance on sex that it literally defines them. It's such a conversation-halter that the other important stuff — her sense of humor, her kindness, her non-relationship-oriented hopes and desires — might get overshadowed.

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TLC insists that it totally isn't mocking the folks featured on its upcoming special Virgin Diaries. The trailer makes that abundantly clear by intercutting shots of a virgin describing her hopelessly idealistic image of her wedding night with scenes of her yelling, "I'm scared," and "Ow, it hurts!" while she and her fiancé play on a seesaw. More »
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Monday we suggested TLC was exploiting adults who have never had sex in the special program Virgin Diaries. Today, the network's west coast vice president of production, Timothy Kuryak, tells ABC news: More »
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30-year-old virgins. A guy who solemnly admits he's "not a virgin entirely by choice." A couple who save their very first kiss for their wedding day. A first kiss so awkward that folks are openly face-palming as the bride and groom smooch at the altar. These elements can only mean one thing: TLC has a new show a-brewing. Yes, The Virgin Diaries will premiere this Sunday and will feature at least one couple who are so hopelessly adorable and, um, virgin-y that their liplock style can only be described as "unique." Virgin Diaries will start out as a one-time special, but if it takes off — which I can only assume it will — I can guarantee it'll be sandwiched in between Toddlers & Tiaras and I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant faster than you can say "Sister Wives." More »
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On last night's All-American Muslim, we saw Coach Zaban get invited to the White House for the annual Ramadan Iftar (fast breaking) dinner. The coach had a tough time deciding whether or not he should go, since football is so important to Fordson High and the dinner was happening the same night as the first practice with pads. In the end, he decided to go. More »
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On last night's season finale of Sister Wives, Robyn, the newest wife, gave birth to a baby boy, Solomon. Meri, who has been married to Kody the longest, but only has one child, Mariah, was extremely excited about the arrival of a new baby — she bought the unborn kid clothes and insisted that she be called, even in the middle of the night, if Robyn went into labor. Meri has spoken about her fertility issues on the show, and she noted that while she was happy about a new baby, it would be different than if it were her own child. Robyn did go into labor in the middle of the night, and had a home birth without any epidural, because, she explained, having a baby is "what God designed a woman's body to do." After she gave birth, she asked for some alone time with Meri. "I want to get you while you're good and emotional," Robyn said. And then she asked a huge question: "I want to know if you want me to be your surrogate." Cliffhanger! More »
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On last night's episode of All-American Muslim, we spent some time with Samira, who is struggling to conceive a child. She visited her imam — the leader of her mosque — to talk about IVF, but he had bad news, saying that if she used her husband's sperm, it would be okay, but using some other man's sperm to get pregnant was forbidden by God. (Samira and her husband both have fertility issues.) Samira decided that in order to be blessed with a child, she needed to try and please God — by wearing a hijab, which she hasn't worn since 9/11. She stopped wearing a headscarf after 9/11, she says, because "there are still people who view Muslims and view Islam as something that's scary." Samira still worries about going on vacation or being "in the middle of nowhere," and having people "freak out" because she is wearing a hijab. More »
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On last night's episode of Sister Wives, the Browns visited Tufts University, where they'd been invited to be part of a discussion about their religion and lifestyle. When asked if they were nervous or scared. Christine said she was "imagining an audience full of feminists." OH NO OH MY GOD ANYTHING BUT THAT. She continued: "They'll look at us and think that we live a suppressed, oppressed lifestyle." Well… yeah. Honestly, these women seem intelligent and communicative and happy. But their religion — invented in the 1820s — is a tool of oppression. Brigham Young himself wrote, "It is not the privilege of a woman to dictate the husband, and tell who or how many he shall take, or what he shall do with them when he gets them but it is the duty of the woman to submit cheerfully." The ladies on the show are not idiots, but the belief system they have been taught has a built-in patriarchal inequality. Mormon apostle Heber C. Kimball said, "I think no more of taking another wife than I do of buying a cow." Also, in the Mormon faith, a woman must be married to get into heaven. If oppression is the "unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power," then Mormonism is oppressive. (And so are many religions. The Browns belong to the Apostolic United Brethren Church, a Mormon fundamentalist church within the Latter Day Saint movement.) More »
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TLC draws in viewers by offering a glimpse into the lives of unusual people. There are the Duggars, Freaky Eaters, Hoarding: Buried Alive, The Little Couple, the saving-obsessed ladies of Extreme Couponing, and, of course, the makeup-spackled youngsters of Toddlers & Tiaras. But last night, All-American Muslim premiered, and the the program seemed to focus on how normal the residents of Dearborn, MI are. We were introduced to five (very) different families, and the only thing they have in common is religion. More »
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The four women on Sister Wives have certainly done a lot in terms of showing us how polygamous marriage works, at least as they practice it, and the difficulties inherent in it. They've also made some aspects of having sister-wives look quite appealing. Naturally, this has led to the question for many of us women who watch the show: what would it be like to have multiple husbands? In some ways, having a group of brother-husbands sounds fun, but, of course, it could also be a bit of a nightmare. More »
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Last night's episode of Extreme Couponing introduced us to Joel, a 16-year-old high school student who loves saving money. "Other teenagers like to play football," he says. "I like to coupon." He calls his elaborately organized coupon file box his "baby." Joel's stockpile is meager compared to some of the folks on this show — it's only worth about $1200, and includes some stuff he definitely doesn't need: Bikini-line razors, maxi pads and baby formula. But unlike some of the ladies TLC features — unlikeable, slightly insane, super-huffy shelf-clearers — Joel was pretty damn charming. He had so much fun while shopping! And at the register, he was very polite to the cashier and the store manager. Plus, when Joel's coupons took his purchase total from $652.20 to $50.35 — he did a gleeful little dance. Then he went home to have a glass of apple cider while sitting in a Jacuzzi and sleep on his 408 rolls of toilet paper. More »
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On last night's episode of Sister Wives, Kody Brown took his four wives to visit his hometown of Lovell, Wyoming. It was his first time going back "openly as a polygamist." He talked about having the "Scarlett P" on his shoulder, and the townsfolk did seem to be pretty judgy. One young woman was upset because she didn't want people to think her town is the birthplace of polygamy. Another older lady said that Kody and his wives were "good people" who have the "wrong idea." Things got really interesting when Kody hung out with some of his friends from high school. His old best friend Ken said Kody's religious beliefs were his own personal issue and "If he goes to hell, so be it." More »
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TLC's Extreme Couponing returned last night with a new episode in which we met Callie, or as she likes to be called, "The Cajun Couponer." Callie is a 28-year-old stay-at-home Mom from Louisiana with a husband, two sons, and (surprise!) an addiction to coupons. How do I know it's an addiction? Well, when drag your children along with you as you go dumpster-diving for coupons, it sets off a red flag. And seriously, when your son asks for "The Coupon Story," at bedtime, there may be a problem. But we followed Callie and her family through the process of hunting down coupons and then shopping for the biggest meal she's ever made (gumbo, of course). It was a major success: She walked out of the grocery store with $1,164.91 of stuff, and made $138.22 off of the transaction. More »
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It's obvious why April, who was featured on Extreme Couponing last night, wants to save money at the grocery store: She has seven teenagers at home. But the fact that she has a stockpile — thousands of products in her "bunker" — means she hoards. Making her a hoarder. Oh, she says she's not a hoarder: "Hoarders have dust." But come on. You're hoarding, April! You are hoarding. More »
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Big Sexy, a new TLC show, attempts to show that "not all fat girls want to be skinny." And that "it's not easy, living in a super-skinny world." All of the women involved work in fashion in some capacity, and seem to have varying levels of confidence and happiness. One woman says, "The last time I got laid, dinosaurs were roaming the earth." More »
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While the two families have nearly the same number of children (18), you shouldn't dare confuse the Bates family with the Duggars. Sure, they're lifelong friends, and have even appeared on the Duggars' reality show 19 Kids And Counting, but the Bates family lives a much more modest and simple life — far, far away from reality TV cameras. More »
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Derek, 5, has just graduated from preschool More »
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Meet Marilyn Mansfield, a woman who we assume took the names of Marilyn Monroe and Jane Mansfield and who also happens to own over 500 "reborn dolls." (Yes, those kinds of dolls.) So is it any surprise that TLC recruited her for their latest reality offering, My Collection Obsession? Of course it's not. More »
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TLC's Crazy For Pippa special aired last night, and even though we knew going in that there wouldn't be any actual quotes by Pippa or the royal family, we were still left feeling as though we'd witnessed something really special. Like, say, speculation by Pippa "experts" was about what, exactly, her voice might sound like. More »
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The network that brought the world Kate Gosselin, adult babies, four-year-olds inappropriately shaking their asses in Toddlers & Tiaras, and countless baby shows will take a quick break from their regular trashy programming to talk about Pippa Middleton. Who is this 27-year-old British party planner with an ass so great she's been dubbed "The Royal Hotness"? Crazy About Pippa will attempt to explore just that. This morning we got a preview of what's to come: lots of "Pippa experts" yammering on about how Pippa has "eclipsed her sister", how the world has a case of "Pippa Mania," and, of course, that ass. More »
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Say you are casually hanging out at home in the middle of a weekday with nothing to do. Would you pursue job leads or do craft projects or engage in some other worthwhile endeavor? Or would you turn on the TV instead? I thought so. And then would you be too lazy to flip to the Gem Shopping Network (it's real!) or The View, and just leave it on TLC, where it was because you fell asleep watching the latest episode of Hoarding: Buried Alive? Sure, why not? It seems harmless enough. After all, unlike TLC's evening parade of freakshows, the days are chockablock with programming about normal people having normal amounts of babies. How bad can that be? The answer is very bad. More »
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TLC — the network that mostly offers shows about what the New York Times refers to as "abnormal families" — is working on a series called All-American Muslim. Hmm. More »
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Last night TLC aired new series Extreme Couponing, which is just what it sounds like: Ladies going to extremes to save on their grocery shopping. J'amie — seen in the clip above — is a self-proclaimed Coupon Diva, which means she shops wearing lipstick, eyeshadow and heels. It's a bizarre experience to watch her buy sixty-two bottles of yellow mustard: Sure, it doesn't spoil, but why would you buy that much mustard? When are you going to have a chance to use that much mustard? Where the hell are you storing all that mustard? I was both impressed and vaguely nauseated by her exploits, especially when her husband noted, "I don't even eat mustard." Still, it is a tough economy, and J'aime is an inspiration of sorts. It's not easy to spend hours and hours clipping coupons, organizing files and checking on deals, and J'aime's checkout process at the register took two hours. It paid off, of course: Of her $1,902.63 grocery bill, J'aime paid a mere $103.72 in cash. Still, 62 bottles of mustard? You've definitely crossed over into "eccentric" territory. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times calls the show "a revenge fantasy and a heist flick all in one," but at times it felt like a pseudo-porn-y niche fetish film. The money shot is the receipt! J'aime even did a little dance of ecstasy after she paid a mere 5% of the retail value of her purchases. More »
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In its latest attempt to prove "learning" has no place within its title, TLC is has put out a casting call for "never nudes." Right now, some network employee is crossing her fingers and hoping that there are others who suffer the same affliction as Tobias Funke on Arrested Development. More »
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The upcoming finale brings our favorite lifestyle show to a close. Now what the fuck are we gonna do on Sunday nights? It's not like we can go hunt bears here in Chitown. Meanwhile, TLC's not commenting on the nix. More »
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TLC's My Strange Addiction had us at hello, but this does not mean we were prepared for the hairdryer addiction. Which is not what it sounds like. More »
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Sarah Palin's Alaska disinvited a media critic from its podcast this week — because organizers were worried about what Palin supporters might do if they got too riled up. More »
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Last night, the folks from TLC hosted an event aimed at showing media types how totally not political their upcoming reality show Sarah Palin's Alaska will be. We're not buying it. More »
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The Mama Grizzly That America Never Asked For normally makes me want to punch baby deer, but I was actually able to watch this clip from her upcoming reality show with the sound on. What. The. Fuck. More »
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Oh, wonderful. I love it when people I disdain get exactly what they want. Wait. Opposite of that. TLC (stands for The LightMyCollegeDegreeOnFire Channel) will air another 10-episode season of the Fundamentalist Point N' Gawk Hour starting in March 2011. More »
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Last night on the season finale of Sister Wives, Kody married his 4th wife, Robyn. More »
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"I'd rather be doing this than in some stuffy old political office," Sarah Palin says in the new trailer for her reality show. "I'd rather be out here being free." Promise? More »
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Last night's episode of Sister Wives focused on blending the fourth wife — and her children — into Kody's family. So far we've seen how the adults are dealing — but what about the kids? More »
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As if the trainwreck of a show didn't have enough drama with the one husband/four wives/13 kids thing, this sneak peek from the upcoming episode of Sister Wives features tears over one of the wives kissing her husband. More »
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