From Average Joe to The Amazing Race: Snakkle Catches Up with 12 Reality Stars

adam mesh average joe 2003 tv show photo

Adam Mesh of Average Joe, 2003

Take one beauty queen and tell her you are going to set her up with a series of handsome suitors. Instead, introduce her to a series of guys who don’t exactly look like they stepped straight off the set of a daytime soap. Before she decides on her one true love, throw in a few good-looking guys to mix it up. Will the beauty queen choose average over attractive? It turns out, no. In 2003, NBC brought us Average Joe, where the lovely Melana Scantlin chose handsome Jason Peoples over Adam Mesh, the last Joe standing. Beauty won over brains, after all.

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Adam Mesh—Today

Adam Mesh, a stock trader, went on to appear in 2004’s Average Joe: Adam Returns, where he chose “average” saleswoman Samantha Trenk. In 2006, Mesh married girlfriend Jessica Malca. Today, he is the CEO of the Adam Mesh Trading Group, a stock trading coaching program. He has been featured in Fortune and on Fox Business and CNBC.

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MTV

Angelina Pivarnick of Jersey Shore, 2009

Bartender Angelina Pivarnick rose to national prominence as one of eight cast members of the first season of the MTV hit Jersey Shore. Calling herself “the Kim Kardashian of Staten Island,” she left production during season 1 after refusing to work at the cast’s T-shirt shop. She returned briefly for season 2 but left after altercations with fellow castmates.

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Angelina Pivarnick—Today

Pivarnick continues to make television appearances, including the talk show Father Albert. She appeared on the VH1 show Couples Therapy with psychologist Dr. Jenn Berman to discuss problems with her boyfriend, Chris Nirschel. She has also appeared on Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion. She's also released multiple singles. How does Pivarnick feel about her time on Jersey Shore? As she told Fox News, “I’m glad I did Jersey Shore, but I’m also sick of being associated with it.”

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Brian Dunkleman of American Idol, 2002

Brian Dunkleman is a comedian/actor who first rose to prominence as Ryan Seacrest’s cohost during the first season of American Idol. He quit—or was pushed out, according to some—after the first season. After the show went on to enormous popularity and great success for Seacrest, Dunkleman admitted, years later, that it had been a mistake to leave the show.

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Brian Dunkleman—Today

When asked in 2010 if he still watches American Idol, Dunkleman replied, “No, I don't watch American Idol—that'd be like getting divorced from somebody and then hanging out with them.” Dunkleman went on to make appearances on several television shows such as Ghost Whisperer and Las Vegas. He starred in the Web show American Dunkleman and hosted Sky Ball League. He now hosts The Dunk Tank podcast.

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Evan Marriott of Joe Millionaire, 2003

What happens when true love has a price tag? In 2003, Evan Marriott was Fox’s Joe Millionaire, a handsome, rich bachelor who wooed a group of hopeful women on several lavish dates. But the joke was on the women who believed their “true love” was wealthy, as Marriott was really a construction worker from Orange County, California.

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Evan Marriott—Today

After Joe Millionaire, Marriott split the winnings with his “love” Zora Andrich and went back to work as a contractor in Orange County. Currently, he’s promoting The Real Joe Millionaire Challenge, a health and fitness program. Recently, Marriott revealed to Snakkle his true feelings on fame. “I’m not really a television person, and I’m not a fame whore,” he told Snakkle in an exclusive interview. “The money was great, but the people constantly in your business—that will get to you after a while if you’re not used to it.” Just call Marriott the anti-Kardashian, if you please.

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Jon and Kate Gosselin of Jon & Kate Plus 8, 2008

Small-town couple Jon and Kate Gosselin achieved national fame with the success of their TLC show, Jon & Kate Plus 8. The show detailed their chaotic life raising twins and sextuplets. It also detailed their contentious, strained relationship.

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Michael Tran/FilmMagic

Jon Gosselin—Today

By 2009, amidst allegations of cheating, Jon and Kate were divorcing. Jon Gosselin soon hit the party circuit with new girlfriend Hailey Grossman, the daughter of his wife’s plastic surgeon. After months of unemployment, Gosselin found work as a construction worker, installing solar panels in Pennsylvania. More recently, Gosselin is reported to be working at a restaurant. As Gosselin told the tabloid Star Magazine via Radar Online, “I’m in a much better place in my life right now, I’m just hanging out with friends, meeting new people, and trying to focus on my kids.”

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Omarosa Manigault of The Apprentice, 2004

Omarosa Manigault played the villain in the first season of NBC’s The Apprentice, vying for a position with Donald Trump. She soon made a career of being a confrontational television personality, going on to appear on several shows, including Battle of the Network TV Reality Stars (2005), The Surreal Life (2005), and Celebrity Apprentice (2008).

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Omarosa Manigault—Today

Omarosa has never left the spotlight. In 2011, the divorcee partnered with Donald Trump again for a reality dating series, Donald J. Trump Presents the Ultimate Merger. Has the reality star known for confrontation turned over a new leaf? Manigault was ordained as a minister at her home church, the Weller Street Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. “I intend to continue my seminary studies and to fully discover what God's plan is for my life and ministry,” says the former reality villain. In 2013, she revisited her reality roots on Celebrity Apprentice: All Stars.

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Paige Davis of Trading Spaces, 2003

Paige Davis brought home redecoration into our living rooms in 2001, when she first appeared as the host of TLC’s Trading Spaces. She was dropped from the show in 2005 when TLC decided to go with a hostless format, though there were allegations that she had been let go after posing in some risqué pictures for Broadway Bares/Equity Fights AIDS. Davis returned to Trading Spaces in 2008.

paige davis trading spaces 2003 tv show photo red carpet 2011

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Paige Davis—Today

A Broadway veteran, Davis appeared in 2009 in the Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt musical I Do! I Do! at The Old Globe in San Diego. She is a spokesperson for RC Willey, a home store in the western United States. Currently, Davis is hosting Home Made Simple for OWN. “We show tips and essentials to make your home more personal,” she told Gayle King about her new show.

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MTV

David “Puck” Rainey of The Real World: San Francisco, 1994

David “Puck” Rainey rose to prominence as the notorious bad boy of The Real World: San Francisco in 1994. An eccentric bike messenger, he most notably clashed with housemate and HIV-positive cast member Pedro Zamora, whose career as an AIDS educator was a subject of derision for Rainey. He was later evicted by his roommates.

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MTV, Kevin Winter/Getty Images

David “Puck” Rainey—Today

Today, Rainey’s life seems just as complicated as in his Real World days. After his eviction, he returned to MTV to appear in Road Rules: All Stars and Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Sexes in 2002, where he married the mother of his son, Betty. He was accused of domestic violence in 2003, but charges were dropped. In 2009, he pleaded no contest to domestic violence charges. In 2010, he injured himself and his son in a car accident, for which he was later charged with a D.U.I. In 2011, he was arrested again for domestic violence charges on his wife. As of 2013, due to his legal troubles, Rainey is forbidden to leave Los Angeles.

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20th Century Fox Film/Everett

Randi Coy of My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé, 2004

In 2004, Randi Coy was a 23-year-old elementary school teacher who signed on to Fox’s My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé. The premise of the show was that Randi was offered $250,000 if she could convince her family that obnoxious Steve was her fiancé. Her family would be awarded an additional $250,000, as would Steve and his family, if they all appeared at Randi and Steve’s wedding just 12 days later. As it turns out, the joke was on Randi. Steve and his “family” all turned out to be actors in on the joke. When the truth was revealed to a tearful Randi—at the altar—she and her family were each awarded $500,000.

20th Century Fox Film/Everett

Randi Coy—Today

After the show, Coy quit her teaching position to move to Los Angeles. There, she resumed teaching both elementary school and fitness classes. Today, she teaches fitness at The Ballet Physique Fitness Studio in Littleton, Colorado.

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Richard Hatch of Survivor: Season 1, 2000

Richard Hatch (no, not that Richard Hatch) was the first winner of the hugely successful CBS reality show Survivor. The corporate trainer was also the villain on the first season, accused of manipulating his competitors by constantly walking around naked. Hatch walked away, clothed, with the $1 million prize.

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Richard Hatch—Today

Hatch went on to make several more appearances on reality TV, including Battle of the Network Reality Stars (2005), Survivor: All Stars (2004), and Celebrity Apprentice (2011). Unfortunately for Hatch, he may have won the $1 million prize on Survivor, but he failed to win over Uncle Sam. He was convicted in 2006 for failing to pay taxes on his Survivor winnings and was sent to jail. He was released in 2009, only to return to prison again in 2011 after he failed to refile his due taxes. Hatch maintains his innocence, telling E! News, “It's very, very difficult to be absolutely innocent and continue to be persecuted the way I have been.” He was released on December 12, 2011.

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Rob Frisbee and Brennan Swain of The Amazing Race: Season 1, 2002

Best friends and lawyers Rob Frisbee and Brennan Swain won the first season of CBS’s The Amazing Race in 2001, taking home $1 million. Brennan was described as an “adrenaline junkie,” while Rob was credited as being more organized.

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Rob Frisbee and Brennan Swain—Today

Today, both Frisbee and Swain continue to work as attorneys. Frisbee made post-Amazing Race appearances on shows such as Politically Incorrect. According to Swain’s biography, the patent attorney “excels at every sport he tries” and remains “an action and extreme sports enthusiast, certified race car driver, adventure racer, musician, and world travel expert.”