NBC exec: Heidi and Spencer "everything that's wrong with America"

Although he's not above attempting to milk them for ratings, new NBC reality programming chief Paul Telegdy apparently isn't a fan of The Hills stars Spencer and Heidi Pratt, who attempted to rejoin the network's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! on Wednesday night's live broadcast after quitting the reality competition late Monday night.


"They are everything that's wrong with America...they are insincere, lazy, entitled and they claim the devil has possessed them," Telegdy said in a statement issued to American Idol host Ryan Seacrest's syndicated radio show.

Like many viewers, Telegdy is skeptical of the couple's claims that they are suddenly feeling contrite for their I'm a Celebrity behavior, which included boasting that they were "super-celebrities" who were above the show's Costa Rican jungle campsite living conditions and belittling the celebrity status of the rest of the show's cast.

"They are back and this time they are contrite...yeah right. What they don't realise is that they are now going to be examined and their value system utterly deconstructed," stated Telegdy, a U.K. native who joined NBC from Dancing with the Stars' BBC Worldwide America production company early this year.

Wednesday night's live I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! broadcast featured Heidi and Spencer asking to be allowed to return to the show and co-host Myleene Klass revealing that in addition to needing the approval of the rest of the cast in order to be able to return to the competition, they would also have to participate in a task that "[won't] make it easy for you."


"We're going to send you back to The Lost Chamber and we want you to spend the night there," Myleene told Spencer and Heidi, referring to a critter-filled structure the couple had briefly entered while participating in a food challenge before they quit. 

"We want you to spend the night there alone... and after completing that challenge we are then going to speak to your campmates and if they feel, after you've successfully done that, that they want to have you back -- they might not even want you back in camp -- then you can go," Myleene added as Spencer sat silently and Heidi laughed nervously.

I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! co-host Damien Fahey then surprised the remaining celebrities -- who had just been joined by Daniel Baldwin, the brother of pre-existing participant Stephen Baldwin, on Tuesday night -- by entering their camp and asking them to decide whether Heidi and Spencer could return to the competition.

"I knew it, it's an act!" Janice Dickinson shouted.

"If Heidi and Spencer spend the night in The Lost Chamber will you take them back?" Damien asked the celebrities in the live broadcast's closing minutes.  "Take a few minutes, just talk it out among yourselves and I'll be back and we'll get an answer from you."


However the broadcast ended with Damien never returning to the camp to get the cast's formal answer.  Instead, it ended with the 10 celebrities taking a vote in which only three -- Janice, John Salley and Stephen Baldwin -- initially stood in favor of letting Heidi and Spencer return to the competition.

Viewers will see footage of what unfolded after last night's broadcast during tonight's live broadcast, which will also evict the season's first celebrity based on the results of home viewer voting conducted the last two days.

"They are going to spend the night somewhere in isolation and guarded with lots of surprises...but not traditional reality [stunts]," Telegdy said in the statement.  "These people really are going to bare their souls."

I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!'s next episode will air this evening at 8PM ET/PT.






About The Author: Steven Rogers