Find Out Why New Jersey, With Its ‘Loud and Proud’ Natives,’ Has Become Reality-TV Central With Shows Like ‘Jersey Shore’ And ‘Jerseylicious’

Jersey Has Become A Reality-TV Mecca

If you’ve read this blog at all, you know we’re from Jersey, and proud of it. Who knew that characteristic would make the Garden State appealing to reality-show producers.

We talked to the TV experts — including a gentleman who trains folks to get on, and be on, reality shows, Robert Galinsky — for our story on why ‘Joisey’ (as some morons still say, trying to mock us) has become a reality-TV mecca. It’s posted on NewJerseyNewsroom.com.

Galinsky, founder of the New York Reality TV School, told us that producers like the fact that Jersey natives are “loud and proud.” That makes for fun reality TV.

Which reality shows are rooted here? First there was the Bravo hit “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.” Then MTV’s controversial piece of garbage “Jersey Shore” made waves (get it) in Seaside Heights. On Wednesday New Jersey Italian American legislators called for Viacom to pull the plug on the trashy show.

On MTV2’s “School of Surf,” kids from Ocean City compete in the Red Bull’s Riders Cup.

TLC loves Jersey, with “Cake Boss” shot in a Hoboken bakery and “Table for 12” about a Marlboro family with two sets of twins and sextuplets.

And coming up next spring, in March, is Style Network’s “Jerseylicious,” about the owner and stylists at the Gatsby Salon in Green Brook. You’ll be hearing more about “Jerseylicious” shortly.

Big hair, leopard skin clothes, a lot of attitude and our own dialect — God, we love Jersey.

We Take Third Shot At Finding Out If Plastic Surgeon Dr. Robert Rey Will Keep HSN Gig, While Also Selling Product On ShopNBC

Call us crazy, but we’re taking a third shot to try to find out if Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Rey will continue to appear on HSN now that he’s got a gig at rival ShopNBC.

Rey, star of E! Entertainment Television’s “Dr. 90210,” has been selling Shapewear, fancy undies and bras, on HSN for some time. But last weekend he went on  ShopNBC selling a skincare line, Sensual Solutions.

We don’t offhand recall a time when a vendor was selling goods on two home shopping networks at the same time. We want to know if Rey’s tenure with HSN is over.  

So far, we have sent three e-mails to HSN corporate, which states it will only take questions  from “a media professional with a specific request.” No response yet. Maybe HSN doesn’t think The Homeshoppingista is a media professional.

Not for nothing, and not to toot our own horn, but we will when we must. We went to one of the best J-schools in the country, Medill.  We helped launch Crain’s New York Business. We won one of the most prestigious awards for business journalism, the Gerald Loeb Award, for a story on the impact of AIDS on the fashion industry.

We covered the cable industry for 16 years at Multichannel News, writing stories about the business and programming such as HBO’s “The Sopranos.”

And we are still reporting on the cable business, the multi-billion dollar home shopping segment, with this blog. QVC and ShopNBC are totally owned or partially owned by two key media giants, John Malone’s Liberty Media and NBC.

In between job hunting, we are also writing for the growing Web site NewJerseyNewsroom.com, with a recent profile on Jersey’s Kurt Sutter, creator of the FX hit “Sons of Anarchy.”

We believe this all qualifies us as a media professional. 

We have e-mailed Rey twice, no response. But then we learned today that he has a PR firm that handles the media, and we shot an e-mail to them. Maybe they will answer our question. 

And we even e-mailed ShopNBC this morning, asking them if they know if Rey will remain on HSN.

Once again, we’ll let you know what we hear.