Pretty juicy article revealing lots of stuff. I like the show - though the knock offs ( S W Texas, etc) are really bad and obviously fake, I felt the original was pretty decent and plausible.
It was a fun show to watch but after a while, it’s really the same thing over and over again. I assumed some salting of the units were going on, but the suit Hester filed implies much more than I would have guessed.
Quelle surprise! reality shows are in fact not reality.
Apparently one of the gross examples he uses is something he himself benefited from. Kinda weird.
— Alan
Its a whistle-blower lawsuit. Evidently this Fall the cast has been very concerned about being sued…there is probably something else in that regard potentially brewing that has not been revealed, and this enables them to get in front of it.
First–big surprise! Reality Shows stage some stuff for dramatic purpose and huger surprise–they send folks out for makeovers to have them look more telegenic.
Secondly though, I’m not sure Dave Hester is your most impartial judge of the show. Dude mismanaged his money and business and went broke (all the while proclaiming his “high roller” status on the show). He tried to negotiate more money out of the show to pay off debts and creditors and when he got rebuffed there resorted to this kind of extortion and what seems like a very frivolous lawsuit to try to induce a settlement.
Color me unimpressed. Show remains a compulsively watchable guilty pleasure, all the better for the absence of this odious human being on it.
Thanks for the summary. I watched a handful of episodes and loathed that guy, I’m glad he got his comeuppance.
I wouldn’t want to watch it if I knew they were salting the storage units. That part I want to be honest. I don’t care about makeovers.
A&E denies this vigorously.
Fakery on a reality show? Whaaaaaat?!?!
IIRC, many of the other storage locker shows (Auction Hunters, Storage Hunters, Hunter Wars, etc) have admitted to salting lockers, but AFAIK, Storage Wars continues to deny it.
Given the kind of stuff (and the occasional bust) on Storage Wars, I dont’ think it’s improbable that they don’t. A little inside information from the storage company, and judicious editing (it looks like they only show like 20% of the units the open in a day), would get the results they show pretty easily.
Now, it’s clear that they occasionally talk up what they find for dramatic purposes, and they occasionally massively over-value things. But that’s a different issue.
I don’t know. I occasionally watch this show as a guilty pleasure when I’m staying somewhere without a DVR but, from the get go, it’s seemed obviously staged to me. The character interactions and interviews seem pretty phony and I just assumed that they salted the lockers. Everything Hester says in his suit confirms my impressions from watching the show.
I guess I’m a little unclear as to why he thinks that salting the lockers would be illegal, and why he feels he would need some type of legal shield.
I’ve never seen this particular show (I don’t think), but I once saw a clone. Is there some kind of cash prize given to one of the teams? Is there an actual competition involved where outsiders can enter?
Brandi has fake titties…?
It’s a very entertaining show but yeah, it’s obviously fake. If it wasn’t, they would have to film hundreds of auctions to create each episode. Every locker has something interesting worth an appraisal inside.
Go read the hidden reviews of Dave Hester’s auction house on Yelp, apparently the business had lots of problems. Beyond being unprofessional and incompetent, it also wasn’t properly licensed to operate so the county shut it down.
Next we’ll learn that all those chicks aren’t actually in love with Bret Michaels or “The Bachelor.”
Well, here’s the thing. Actually not every locker has something really interesting, usually every auction has something interesting. The others either hit on something interesting in a locker, they strike out, or they hit on something they say is interesting that will make them money, but probably isn’t. The dollar value amount they assign to everything (“I can make $500 off of this [insert name of junk]”) is the most bogus part of this show I feel.
Dave going bankrupt is actually somewhat amusing seeing how the guy operates. Oooh, karma.
— Alan
That’s another one that blows me away. My wife watches that from time to time and it is so obviously faked and scripted that I can’t imagine why anyone would think of it as anything other than an oddly formatted soap opera.
Only reality/competition show I’ve ever managed to sit through more than five minutes of was The Sing Off on NBC. Amateur acapella groups singing each week before knowledgeable judges, rated based on objective music theory and technical prowess in addition to intangibles like style and vivacity, and even the losers were celebrated, assisted, brought back for reunions, and even allowed recording time at Ben Folds’ studio. No fake drama or fake fights (not any of either, really), just intro, music, judging, end.
It was by far the most pleasant, level-headed, and enjoyable thing I’ve seen on TV in years.
So of course it got axed in favor of a double-season of The Voice.
I still like Hell’s Kitchen, so there. :)