Hot Gallery: These Small-Screen Couples Have Had Some Very Showy Romances
What could be more natural when two people are thrown together in a thoroughly unnatural reality-TV setting than for them to find true love? Well, okay, maybe not always true love—but the heightened reality of reality TV certainly has led to some wild (and some pretty weird) romances. For example, Heidi and Spencer from MTV's The Hills are still going strong and have the new E! special After Shock: Heidi and Spencer airing so we can check in on their romance.
Here are some of our other favorite reality-TV showmances of all time...
By Nina Hämmerling SmithThis is another twosome that seemed too weird to be true: Hughbanks, the squeaky-voiced college student from Kansas, and Stein, the funny-guy New Yorker who secretly performed strange tasks as America’s Player on Big Brother 8. (Check him out on Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego back in 1992—featuring a young Neil Patrick Harris!) But then again, how weird is it to have every. single. moment. of a new romance broadcast and recorded for all the world to see? It’s a unique situation, even among reality shows, in that Big Brother contestants are viewable 24 hours a day over the live video feed, not just during broadcast show times.
Update: Though the couple made an appearance on the next season of Big Brother—to host a love-themed competition—they have since parted ways. Hughbanks is a marketing director and MBA candidate in Wichita, Kansas. Stein is an actor; he appeared in Night Club, starring Ernest Borgnine, Mickey Rooney, and Natasha Lyonne.