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Contestant blames MKR for going “too far” in depicting reality villains

An MKR contestant attributes hospitalisation to the stress of being depicted as a Reality TV villain.

Screen Shot 2014-05-09 at 1.27.26 am.jpgVillains, selective editing, and the vacuum that is post-Reality syndrome…. how often have we heard about contestants looking back on their time with disdain?

While I don’t doubt such complaints about being chewed up and spat out are without validity, we really need better a education so that fewer people are so disillusioned by the end of the experience.

Kelly Ramsay (pictured, right) , part of the Perth duo that made it to the finals of My Kitchen Rules, has told News Corp she’s not happy. She claims the editing of the pair as series’ villains was “still staining our reputation” and that she is broke.

She was admitted to a Perth hospital for exhaustion and stress at the weekend.

“I think they took it too far this year with the whole villain thing. All the show is real essentially, it’s a lot of editing and creative characters. Things are often taken out of context,” she said.

“You never saw us cry when anybody left, you never heard anything positive come out of our mouths. We said a lot of positive things and we cried on several occasions when people left the show. By taking that out it made us look like super-negative people.

“Some days you don’t cope with fame. I’m finding it harder now that we’ve lost.

“I thought all this negativity would follow with this great ending, that we were going to win and follow our dreams. Now we’ve lost it’s weighing a lot harder on us.

“We have no money, I have people trolling my work to fire me, I was in hospital on Sunday with exhaustion. It cuts your whole soul, it cuts your being.

“I went out for drinks and someone behind me said, ‘There’s that c*** from that show. Oh my God look at that face.’ It’s constant, I had it on the bus yesterday.

“We never bullied anybody. If anything we made more friends than most other contestants.”

A Seven spokeswoman said the network “does not condone bullying and at no time during the production of My Kitchen Rules was a complaint made regarding bullying.”

26 Responses

  1. Obviously there has been editing involved but Kelly still said those things, they came right out of her mouth so if she didn’t want to be portrayed as a meanie, then she shouldn’t have said mean things or pulled those nasty faces.

  2. @Ben M agreed, people are gullible.It reminds me a bit of an interview i saw with Maggie Kirkpatrick who played villian ‘the Freak’ on Prisoner, she said how people would come up to her in the street saying abusive things to her & she would have to remind them she is only acting & its just a fictional character. Although in this circumstance the show is classified ‘reality’ rather than drama so its blinds people to actual reality.

    There was also a report today that BB’s Tully is experiencing difficulties & has called for the producers to provide counselling for ex contestants, I somewhat agree with that, there should be a duty of care put upon the producers, not just using people up & spitting them out. Its all very well for people to say they should’ve known, but know one really knows what its like to be on tv until they experience it.

  3. But the thing is, all contestants that sign up for reality shows have to agree with being portrayed as the ‘villain’. So they chose to be portrayed this way.

  4. Agree with most bloggers here in that the cutaways to glum/gleeful looks depending on the situation were carefully inserted to promote the ‘mean girls’ look but unless it was scripted (which both participant and producer deny), some pretty ordinary things came out of their mouths and the expressions on their faces and tone of voice only accentuated their nastiness and bad sportsmanship..

  5. ‘Validity’ of claims/counterclaims was very rightly raised by David in this item, I must also stress that my comments are also ‘unvalidated’ and treated as such.

    Just after federal police raids on several Network 7 establishments, and what follows requires much validation in its authenticity, because a mate of one of my mates claims that the sister of a family friends brother, has apparently found some discarded police papers and items at the tip he works at.

    One such item seems to be a partly damaged video audition tape, of seemingly several potential contestants for an indeterminable reality show, this tape contains many hours of each of these ‘potentials’ being screen tested in different scenario’s covering the full gambit of personal emotions and the ability to switch these emotions on/off at will, but the ‘last minute’ of every individual final interview, always…

  6. Reality television is the concentrate of life. Every character skewed to either their worst or their best. Every big drama is squeezed with dramatic music bangs and whooshes and worried shots to emphasise a point. Trivial cooking problems can hang on a commercial break. “if I don’t get the chicken out of the oven in the next five minutes, I’ll be going home” it’s just a chicken, in an oven and what’s wrong with going home anyway. Surely by now viewers have a good sense of what reality TV is about, and take it with a big grain of salt. If you are ever thinking of going on a reality show, watch some different series first, and figure out if it’s really for you.

  7. Fair enough Bruce. I didn’t see it as I can’t abide this brand of rubbish TV, but can still imagine a fair amount of selective editing went on to portray them in the light the network decided they wanted and needed. Either way they’ve learnt a hard lesson and won’t be rushing back to be “tv stars” again and hopefully by making these public allegations they might educate and discourage a few more potential suckers.

    On one hand I have no sympathy for her, on the other I feel reality tv in this form is an exploitative, crass, cheap and nasty modern take on pantomime that appeals to and is made for the lowest common denominator in a blatant attempt to make the cheapest possible content than can appeal to the broadest possible audience to maximise ratings and profits…all at the sacrifice of the ethics and standards I feel are important when making telly.

  8. Well my dears, if you don’t say those things they can’t use it, can they, heh? They can’t make you say those things, you had to say it for them to use it. Selective editing my foot.

  9. @mr bumbaclaart – very aware that that can go on, but not in this case… C & K were clearly shown saying negative or bitchy comments about other teams pretty much every episode, and not cut and paste.

  10. @ Bruce Banner – have you not heard of the “Franken-grab” technique? Highly used in the reality tv world, it’s where an editor cuts up bits of various interviews to basically make the contestant say whatever they desire. Paired with a careful shot selection and one can twist the true nature of what was said to serve the programmes own nefarious intent.

  11. No surprises here. Unfortunately ethics don’t apply in the world of reality TV and in particular at Channel 7 (believe me, I’ve seen it first hand). There is no duty of care for the people they exploit to gain ratings and make money.

    To me the big surprise is that people seem to be totally ignorant about the highly constructed nature of these programmes and willingly subject themselves to be manipulated for the financial benefit of the networks.

  12. Unless they were given scripts to read and told to play a “mean” character, she has no-one to blame but herself. Every comment about the other teams (the all-female teams especially) were bitchy in some way.

    You make your bed and all that…

  13. I can see where she is coming from, but I’m sure there was a clause in her contract stating that they couldn’t control the editing, and still they chose to go on the show..

  14. She is depressed because she was not as good as she thought she was. Had she won and got a TV deal she would not be complaining. These people on MKR all play up to the cameras, they want fame more than they want to cook. The winners are usually the ones who are just being themselves

  15. I have no doubt that the selective editing makes contestants seem more evil than they are. However, there does have to be an element of nastiness to begin with. And as has been said before, surely they knew what they were getting themselves in to. Having said that, I’m sorry for them that they are being bullied and have had such a bad experience.

  16. Everyone by now must have a pretty good idea how these shows can be edited so the producers can’t be blamed for what the contestants themselves say. If you don’t want to be depicted as nasty then don’t say nasty things. Simple.

  17. If your reality show gets over 2 million an episode of course your going to get noticed in public and the includes all the haters out there as well your fans. If she couldn’t handle this sort of exposure both and the potential community reaction both positive and negative then she shouldn’t of applied for it in the first place. Gullible.

  18. I thought it was laughable just how thick the villain archetype was laid on these two girls – particularly Kelly. The real crime here is that people are dumb enough to buy into it, or at least let it negatively affect their perception of the girls in a real world setting. The drama in MKR was so hammy and fabricated that you could identify when a cutaway to their reactions was completely out of context, or when they had been coerced by producers to bitch and moan about the other teams.

    If you want to get out of a reality TV show unscathed, you better be a mum.

  19. It wouldn’t be great to hear uncomplimentary comments made about you when going out in public but I’m pretty sure anybody who’s been on tv has had the same.
    Unfortunately for Kelly the editing people seem to have had a lot to work with.

    Did Chloe & Kelly get anything for being runners-up? I don’t recall but if they didn’t they should.

    Maybe Kelly and Steve (from the block) could put a post reality contestant workshop together to help others when their show ends.

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