| A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila | |
|---|---|
| Format | Competitive reality show Dating game show |
| Created by | Riley McCormick |
| Developed by | SallyAnn Salsano |
| Directed by | Scott Jeffress |
| Starring | Tila Tequila |
| Opening theme | I Love U |
| Ending theme | I Love U |
| Composer(s) | Tila Tequila |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 10 (+ 2 specials) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Sally Ann Salsano 495 Productions |
| Running time | 60 minutes (including commercials) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | MTV Logo |
| Original run | October 9 – December 23, 2007 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | A Shot at Love II with Tila Tequila That's Amoré! |
| External links | |
| Website | |
A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila is an American reality television dating game show similar to the TV show The Bachelor.[1] It premiered on October 9, 2007 on MTV starring Tila Tequila.[2] The series is a bisexual-themed reality dating show where 16 straight males and 16 lesbian-identified female contestants live in Tequila's house and compete for her attention and affection. The contestants were not aware of Tequila's bisexuality until the end of the first episode, after ten contestants had been eliminated. The remaining contestants, both male and female, then shared the same home for the remainder of the series.[3] The ten episode series is produced by 495 Productions and MTV.[4] A Shot at Love II premiered on April 22, 2008.[5][6][7]
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The show debuted at No. 1 in its time period across all of cable in the network's target demographic of persons 18-34, averaging a 2.0 rating. It became MTV's second highest-rated series premiere for the year, behind Life of Ryan (August 27, 2007) and tied with Newport Harbor: The Real Orange County (August 15, 2007).[8]
The first season finale had 6.2 million viewers, which at at the time was MTV's most watched series telecast.[9]
The show was the subject of a heated online debate. An article critical of the show appeared on The Christian Post on September 13, 2007.[10] Tequila wrote a response in her blog on September 28, 2007, criticizing churches for "bashing" the gay community while thanking God for saving her life.[11] Criticism of the show has come from the Culture and Media Institute,[12][13] Media Research Center[14] and Parents Television Council, which named two episodes of the show the "Worst Cable Content of the Week".[15][16]
Fox News and others stated that Tequila had a steady boyfriend and that the show was a sham,[17] and that she is not bisexual. They cite New York Post's Page Six article.[17][18][19] Tequila stated:
First of all, let me just say that whomever they are getting their 'sources' from needs to be fired real fast! I find it absolutely absurd that they would even make such an ignorant statement such as 'She's made out with some girls in her past, as all girls have, but she is not bi at all.' ... That is such an absurd stereotype to place on all women and it just shows people how ignorant people can be![20]
On December 30, 2007, the winning contestant of the season, Bobby Banhart, posted a message on MySpace stating, "She never called me after the last show and no one would give me her number."[21][22][23]
Tequila offered her own reasoning for why they broke up:
We couldn't see each other for 2 months after [the finale], and we only talked on the phone. Just naturally, people kind of move on with their lives. We tried our best to keep in touch and keep it going, but after a while, all of this camera stuff, he just couldn't handle it. [sic][24]
Tequila later came out as a lesbian (as opposed to a bisexual) and stated that she wanted to pick Dani Campbell but the producers made her pick Bobby.[25]
The following table lists the roster of contestants for each episode, ordered based on Tila's call-out order.[29][30]
| # | Contestants | Episodes | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 11 | ||||||||||
| 1 | Alex | Alex | Alex | Ashli | Ryan | Dani | Amanda | Amanda | Bobby | Dani | Bobby | ||||||||
| 2 | Amanda | Amanda | Amanda | Bobby | Amanda | Ryan | Bobby | Dani | Dani | Bobby | Dani | ||||||||
| 3 | Ashley | Ashley | Ashley | Ryan | Ashli | Brandi | Ryan | Bobby | Amanda | Amanda | |||||||||
| 4 | Ashli | Ashli | Ashli | Amanda | Michael B. | Domenico | Dani | Ryan | Ryan | ||||||||||
| 5 | Bennie | Bobby | Bobby | Vanessa | Domenico | Amanda | Domenico | Domenico | |||||||||||
| 6 | Bobby | Brandi | Brandi | Dani | Brandi | Steven | Brandi | ||||||||||||
| 7 | Brandi | Dani | Dani | Ashley | Vanessa | Vanessa | Vanessa | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Brenda | Domenico | Domenico | Sara | Steven | Bobby | Steven | ||||||||||||
| 9 | Chaos | Eddie | Eric | Michael B. | Dani | Michael B. | |||||||||||||
| 10 | Dani | Eric | Krystal | Domenico | Bobby | Ashli | |||||||||||||
| 11 | Domenico | Grace | Michael B. | Steven | Ashley | ||||||||||||||
| 12 | Eddie | Krystal | Rebecca | Brandi | Sara | ||||||||||||||
| 13 | Ellie | Lala | Rob | Rebecca | |||||||||||||||
| 14 | Eric | Marcus | Ryan | Eric | |||||||||||||||
| 15 | Grace | Michael B. | Sara | Alex | |||||||||||||||
| 16 | Greg | Rebecca | Steven | Krystal | |||||||||||||||
| 17 | Keasha | Rob | Vanessa | Rob | |||||||||||||||
| 18 | Krystal | Ryan | Marcus | ||||||||||||||||
| 19 | Lala | Sara | Steffanie | ||||||||||||||||
| 20 | Lance | Steven | Grace | ||||||||||||||||
| 21 | Marcus | Steffanie | Eddie | ||||||||||||||||
| 22 | Michael B. | Vanessa | Lala | ||||||||||||||||
| 23 | Michael R. | Keasha | |||||||||||||||||
| 24 | Rami | Brenda | |||||||||||||||||
| 25 | Rebecca | Chaos | |||||||||||||||||
| 26 | Rob | Ellie | |||||||||||||||||
| 27 | Ryan | Scout | |||||||||||||||||
| 28 | Sara | Greg | |||||||||||||||||
| 29 | Scout | Lance | |||||||||||||||||
| 30 | Steven | Michael R. | |||||||||||||||||
| 31 | Steffanie | Rami | |||||||||||||||||
| 32 | Vanessa | Bennie | |||||||||||||||||
The following table explains Tequila's reasons for asking each contestant to leave.
| Men | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Reason for elimination | Episode eliminated | |
| Bennie | Cute, but not her type.[31] | Episode 1 | |
| Rami | Could not remember him.[31] | Episode 1 | |
| Michael R. | Reason not stated in episode. | Episode 1 | |
| Lance | Reason not stated in episode. | Episode 1 | |
| Greg | Too focused on sex; she was looking for more than that.[31] | Episode 1 | |
| Eddie | Respects his virginity, but felt he is also too innocent.[32] | Episode 2 | |
| Marcus | Connected at first, but caused too much drama.[32] | Episode 2 | |
| Rob | Will make some woman happy someday, but not her.[33] | Episode 3 | |
| Alex | Did not feel they had a connection.[33] | Episode 3 | |
| Eric | Did not think they would make it as a couple.[33] | Episode 3 | |
| Ashley | Seemingly fell in love with her too quickly; she felt something was not right about him.[34] | Episode 4 | |
| Michael B. | Reason not stated in episode. | Episode 5 | |
| Steven | Connected more with the other people in the house than himself.[35] | Episode 6 | |
| Domenico | Connected more with the other people in the house than himself, but credited him for his personality.[36] | Episode 7 | |
| Ryan | Felt that his and her paths were too different, and that his family was too traditional and she could not fit into that lifestyle.[37] | Episode 8 | |
| Women | |||
| Name | Reason for elimination | Episode eliminated | |
| Scout | Did not remember her.[31] | Episode 1 | |
| Ellie | Too shy.[31] | Episode 1 | |
| Chaos | Did not connect with her.[31] | Episode 1 | |
| Brenda | Reason not stated in episode. | Episode 1 | |
| Keasha | Felt that she is "a demolition project".[31] | Episode 1 | |
| Lala | Did not like having men competing and being around them.[32] | Episode 2 | |
| Steffanie | There for two days and still did not know her.[32] | Episode 2 | |
| Grace | Did not feel they would be a good fit.[32] | Episode 2 | |
| Krystal | Did not click with her.[33] | Episode 3 | |
| Rebecca | Kissed Brandi while in the house and seems to have objections with monogamy.[33] | Episode 3 | |
| Sara | Beautiful girl, but just did not have that connection she was looking for.[34] | Episode 4 | |
| Ashli | Did not want to put her in a position where she felt uncomfortable.[38] | Episode 5 | |
| Vanessa | Reason not stated in episode. In the following episode, however, due to her physical attack on Brandi during eliminations in Episode 6, it was alluded that she was not the right person.[35] | Episode 6 | |
| Brandi | Left on Episode 6 in the heat of the moment after Vanessa's attack. Came back on Episode 7. However, she was not accepted back into the house because of the feeling that her return would jeopardize the show's integrity for the other contestants and the fear that she would walk out on Tila again.[36] | Episode 6/7 | |
| Amanda | Had a deeper connection with Bobby and Dani, or as Tila said, "There's no more keys left."[39] | Episode 9 | |
| Dani | Mentioned loving Dani, but being in love with Bobby.[40] Off screen, said she eliminated Dani to make sure their friendship "never ended" like dating show romances usually do.[41] | Episode 10 | |
A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila - The Complete Uncensored First Season was released on April 15, 2008.[42] The DVD contains the ten episodes, the reunion listed as episode 11, but does not contain the special episode "One Shot Too Many". It also includes some extended and deleted scenes.
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