Reality TV players with local connections include, from the left: Amber Brkich, Matt Kennedy Gould, Jenna Morasca, Ian Rosenberger and Erin Elmore. Click photo for larger image. Related Stories: Reports of the death of reality TV are greatly exaggerated Western Pennsylvania's stars of reality television Six degrees of separation

LOS ANGELES -- If we can't bring the stars to Pittsburgh, we'll export Pittsburghers to, well, just about any place under the stars if they're willing to appear on a reality TV show. Or so it seems.

Although it can be argued that "reality" has been a legitimate television genre since the early 1970s, the current revival dates to ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" (1999), the first edition of CBS's "Survivor" (2000) and Fox's "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" (2000).

In the first five years of reality TV's re-energized existence, many of its most prominent stars hail from Western Pennsylvania.

In the nine editions of "Survivor" to date, two of the show's winners came from our region: Amber Brkich (who played the game's Australian edition and later won in the "All-Stars" season) and Jenna Morasca (winner of "Survivor: Amazon").

Brkich's fame was guaranteed an extension beyond the initial 15 minutes -- for some reality stars, it's more like five minutes -- when her "Survivor" boyfriend, Rob Mariano, proposed to her on live television last May during the "All-Stars" finale. They'll appear as a team in the next edition of CBS's "The Amazing Race," premiering next month, and may have their wedding televised.

The next local on the "Survivor" roster will be 23-year-old Ian Rosenberger, who grew up on a horse farm near Ambridge.

In video footage at www.cbs.com, Rosenberger says, "I can talk a fat man out of his last bag of Doritos." In his interview, presumably taped before the competition began, Rosenberger says he plans to use his flirting skills, and he's not averse to playing rough: "Not lying, cheating and stealing in this game is like not collecting $200 when you pass 'Go' in Monopoly."

Rosenberger's "Survivor: Palau" premieres at 8 p.m. Thursday, the same night another episode of "The Apprentice" (9 p.m. NBC) airs featuring Peters native Erin Elmore.

In the immortal words of Spike TV's "Joe Schmo Show" star, Mt. Lebanon native Matt Kennedy Gould, "What is going on!?!"

Casting a wider net

Let's face it, many reality stars are from bigger cities, such as Los Angeles and New York, and no newspaper there is writing about that trend. But those cities, simply by their size and the industries they foster, are more likely to have a greater number of fame-seekers.

"With the larger cities, your biggest fear as a producer is you find people who've come to the big city to make it big," said "Joe Schmo Show" executive producer Rhett Reese, "people who want to find an agent and make a career by being a 'star.' Those are the last kind of people we want to look for."

Mike Darnell, Fox's executive vice president of specials, alternative and late night programming, said casting outside New York and Los Angeles continues to grow in importance.

"There is no question you go all over the country now," he said. "What you're looking for [in a city like Pittsburgh] is maybe some unique properties you don't get in New York or Los Angeles. There's a small-town thing that's interesting, too, which we're starting to come upon."

The O&O effect

With so many Pittsburghers to appear on CBS's "Big Brother" and "Survivor," it's natural to wonder if the network tries to populate its reality shows with contestants from cities where the network owns broadcast channels. Are contestants cast from cities with owned and operated stations to stimulate cross-promotion between the network and the station and encourage more local viewers for both?

Monty Brinton, CBS via AP Castaways Rupert Boneham, left, Brighton's Amber Brkich, Rob Mariano and Jenna Lewis competed against one another in "Survivor: All-Stars" last year. Click photo for larger image.

In Pittsburgh, CBS owns KDKA and WNPA, the city's UPN affiliate. CBS honcho Leslie Moonves has always maintained that there is no correlation between players selected and cities with CBS-owned and -operated (O&O) stations. Cincinnati, traditionally the market with the highest "Survivor" ratings, has had two locals as contestants, and its CBS affiliate is not an O&O.

"Survivor" executive producer Mark Burnett has his own explanation for casting Pittsburghers: "I really enjoyed 'Flashdance,' " he deadpanned at a CBS party last month. He denied that he casts "Survivor" with O&O stations in mind. "I'm totally intuitive, so it's all about my gut instincts."

"You have a good 'Survivor' gene pool around there," said Tom Shelly, another of the show's executive producers. "We just look for the best people we would like to watch on the show and the people who get it and will be good at the adventure and be adventurous."

Allison Grodner, executive producer of CBS's "Big Brother," said O&O cities do provide more potential contestants for her show because they help stage casting calls for the series.

"We love getting people from all over the country," Grodner said. "Apparently there are no real people left in L.A., which I think has always been the case."

Big Brother is watching

Sometimes producers will drag their casting nets in Pittsburgh because they have an affinity for the area.

Arnold Shapiro, executive producer of CBS's "Big Brother" since the show's second season, first targeted Pittsburgh because he was familiar with the city, home of his former in-laws, Charlie and Millie Valentich of Penn Hills, with whom he remains close.

"For me it just started as a personal thing," Shapiro said. "Pittsburgh is kind of on our radar now because we've had some good luck with people from Pittsburgh."

"Big Brother" has featured three players from Western Pennsylvania, and none of them "blended into the woodwork," Shapiro said. He noted he never chooses contestants based on where they're from, but, he said, "You just have some colorful people in Pittsburgh, and they wound up on the show and probably will continue to do so."

(Casting for "Big Brother 6" is ongoing at www.cbs.com/primetime/bigbrother_application.)

"Joe Schmo" executive producer Rhett Reese said his grandmother lived in Ben Avon, and when casting began for "Schmo," he knew he wanted to look for a star in Pittsburgh and Columbus, where he grew up.

"My mom's whole side of the family is from Pittsburgh," Reese said. "The people tend to be very genuine and tend to wear their emotions on their sleeves. They tell you what they're actually thinking, and that's really, really important in reality TV."

In addition to casting Mt. Lebanon's Gould as the unwitting star of "The Joe Schmo Show," Reese said Gould's backup -- in the event he bailed or figured out all the other "Schmo" contestants were actors and he was the only "real" person -- was also from Pittsburgh.

"So much of our business is driven by sitting someone down in a chair and asking them, 'Tell me about that last scene,' 'Tell me what just happened,' " Reese said. "If they're guarded or at all polite or if they're not genuine, those sound bites are no good."

We're just more real

And what makes Pittsburghers more genuine? We could devote a whole series of articles to that phenomenon, but all that matters when it comes to reality TV is that Pittsburghers, by and large, are no shrinking violets.

"They're able to get people [from Pittsburgh] who are more comfortable in their daily lives here," said Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office. "People here aren't looking to be discovered like in New York and L.A. They might be in some fantasy of theirs, but it's not their overwhelming desire to become an actor. Look at 'American Idol.' Some of those people who are showing up just want to be on TV. I don't think that happens as much here."

Keezer's office estimates that 16 reality shows have filmed in the Pittsburgh region in recent years, including TLC's "Trauma: Life in the E.R." and "Trading Spaces," ABC's "Wife Swap" and syndicated shows "Ambush Makeover," "Street Smarts" and "ElimiDATE."

Upper St. Clair native Amanda Naughton was discovered by the makers of "Joe Schmo 2" at a bar she worked at in Washington, D.C., but she said her Pittsburgh background might have given her a leg up.

"Pittsburgh is known as a friendly area," she said. "It encourages people, without knowing it, to be friendly and outgoing, which is attractive when you're looking to cast people who will be somewhat likable on TV."

Not that reality producers only want to cast likable -- after all, someone has to play the villain -- but outgoing is a key requirement.

"Schmo" star Gould, who's back living in Mt. Lebanon and looking for work after a one-year post-"Schmo" stint in Los Angeles, said Pittsburghers are good at both feeling and expressing their feelings without compunction.

"Erin, she cried on the first episode [of the 'Apprentice']. It took me two episodes to cry [on 'The Joe Schmo Show']," Gould said, laughing. "It gets old saying it, but people here are real kind of people, and that's attractive to casting directors."

Gould said he was picked for a reality show because he's "just a regular person, but I'm not afraid to stand up for myself. I think that's what people around here offer."