| A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Created by | Riley McCormick |
| Developed by | SallyAnn Salsano |
| Directed by | Scott Jeffress |
| Presented by | Tila Tequila |
| Opening theme | "I Love U" |
| Ending theme | "I Love U" |
| Composer | Tila Tequila |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 12 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | SallyAnn Salsano |
| Running time | 60 minutes(including commercials) |
| Production company | 495 Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | MTV |
| Release | October 9 (2007-10-09) – December 23, 2007 (2007-12-23) |
| Related | |
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A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila is an American reality televisiondating game show similar to the TV showThe Bachelor.[1] It premiered on October 9, 2007 on MTV hosted byTila Tequila.[2] The series consists of abisexual-themed reality dating show where 16heterosexual men and 16lesbian contestants live in Tequila's house and compete for her attention and affection. The contestants were not aware of Tequila's bisexuality until the end of the first episode, after ten contestants had been eliminated. The remaining contestants, both male and female, then shared the samehome for theremainder of the series.[3][4]A Shot at Love II premiered on April 22, 2008.[5][6][7]
The show debuted at No. 1 in its time period across all of cable in the network's targetdemographic of persons 18–34, averaging a 2.0 rating. It became MTV's second highest-rated series premiere for the year, behindLife of Ryan (August 27, 2007) and tied withNewport Harbor: The Real Orange County (August 15, 2007).[8]
The first season finale had 6.2 million viewers, which at the time was MTV's most watched series telecast.[9]
The show was the subject of a heated online debate. An article critical of the show appeared onThe Christian Post on September 13, 2007.[10] Tequila wrote a response in her blog on September 28, 2007, criticizing churches for "bashing" the gay community while thanking God for saving her life.[11] Criticism of the show has come from at least three conservative media organizations:Culture and Media Institute,[12][13]Media Research Center[14] andParents Television Council, which named two episodes of the show the "Worst Cable Content of the Week".[15][16]
Fox News and others stated that Tequila had a steady boyfriend and that the show was a sham,[17] and that she is not bisexual. They citeNew York Post's Page Six article.[17][18][19] In 2007, Tequila responded to the claims made by Fox and denied them stating "I find it absolutely absurd that they would even make such an ignorant statement,"[20] but in 2018 (11 years later) she admitted that the Fox News report was true and that she indeed had a boyfriend while the show was being filmed and aired, stating that she was never actually gay or bisexual, and described her presence on the show as being "gay for pay".[21]
On December 30, 2007, the winning contestant of the season, Bobby Banhart, posted a message on MySpace stating, "She never called me after the last show and no one would give me her number."[22][23][24]
Tequila offered her own reasoning for why they broke up:
We couldn't see each other for 2 months after [the finale], and we only talked on the phone. Just naturally, people kind of move on with their lives. We tried our best to keep in touch and keep it going, but after a while, all of this camera stuff, he just couldn't handle it. [sic][25]
The following table lists the roster of contestants for each episode, ordered based on Tila's call-out order.[29][30]
| # | Contestants | Episodes | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 11 | ||||||||||
| 1 | Alex | Alex | Alex | Ashli | Ryan | Dani | Amanda | Amanda | Bobby | Dani | Bobby | ||||||||
| 2 | Amanda | Amanda | Amanda | Bobby | Amanda | Ryan | Bobby | Dani | Dani | Bobby | Dani | ||||||||
| 3 | Ashley | Ashley | Ashley | Ryan | Ashli | Brandi | Ryan | Bobby | Amanda | Amanda | |||||||||
| 4 | Ashli | Ashli | Ashli | Amanda | Michael B. | Domenico | Dani | Ryan | Ryan | ||||||||||
| 5 | Bennie | Bobby | Bobby | Vanessa | Domenico | Amanda | Domenico | Domenico | |||||||||||
| 6 | Bobby | Brandi | Brandi | Dani | Brandi | Steven | Brandi | ||||||||||||
| 7 | Brandi | Dani | Dani | Ashley | Vanessa | Vanessa | Vanessa | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Brenda | Domenico | Domenico | Sara | Steven | Bobby | Steven | ||||||||||||
| 9 | Chaos | Eddie | Eric | Michael B. | Dani | Michael B. | |||||||||||||
| 10 | Dani | Eric | Krystal | Domenico | Bobby | Ashli | |||||||||||||
| 11 | Domenico | Grace | Michael B. | Steven | Ashley | ||||||||||||||
| 12 | Eddie | Krystal | Rebecca | Brandi | Sara | ||||||||||||||
| 13 | Ellie | Lala | Rob | Rebecca | |||||||||||||||
| 14 | Eric | Marcus | Ryan | Eric | |||||||||||||||
| 15 | Grace | Michael B. | Sara | Alex | |||||||||||||||
| 16 | Greg | Rebecca | Steven | Krystal | |||||||||||||||
| 17 | Keasha | Rob | Vanessa | Rob | |||||||||||||||
| 18 | Krystal | Ryan | Marcus | ||||||||||||||||
| 19 | Lala | Sara | Steffanie | ||||||||||||||||
| 20 | Lance | Steven | Grace | ||||||||||||||||
| 21 | Marcus | Steffanie | Eddie | ||||||||||||||||
| 22 | Michael B. | Vanessa | Lala | ||||||||||||||||
| 23 | Michael R. | Keasha | |||||||||||||||||
| 24 | Rami | Brenda | |||||||||||||||||
| 25 | Rebecca | Chaos | |||||||||||||||||
| 26 | Rob | Ellie | |||||||||||||||||
| 27 | Ryan | Scout | |||||||||||||||||
| 28 | Sara | Greg | |||||||||||||||||
| 29 | Scout | Lance | |||||||||||||||||
| 30 | Steven | Michael R. | |||||||||||||||||
| 31 | Steffanie | Rami | |||||||||||||||||
| 32 | Vanessa | Bennie | |||||||||||||||||
The following table explains Tequila's reasons for asking each contestant to leave.
| Men | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Reason for elimination | Episode eliminated | |
| Bennie | Cute, but not her type.[31] | Episode 1 | |
| Rami | Could not remember him.[31] | Episode 1 | |
| Michael R. | Reason not stated in episode. | Episode 1 | |
| Lance | Reason not stated in episode. | Episode 1 | |
| Greg | Too focused on sex; she was looking for more than that.[31] | Episode 1 | |
| Eddie | Respects his virginity, but felt he is also too innocent.[32] | Episode 2 | |
| Marcus | Connected at first, but caused too much drama.[32] | Episode 2 | |
| Rob | Will make some woman happy someday, but not her.[33] | Episode 3 | |
| Alex | Did not feel they had a connection.[33] | Episode 3 | |
| Eric | Did not think they would make it as a couple.[33] | Episode 3 | |
| Ashley McNealy | Seemingly fell in love with her too quickly; she felt something was not right about him.[34] | Episode 4 | |
| Michael B. | Reason not stated in episode. | Episode 5 | |
| Steven | Connected more with the other people in the house than himself.[35] | Episode 6 | |
| Domenico | Connected more with the other people in the house than himself, but credited him for his personality.[36] | Episode 7 | |
| Ryan | Felt that his and her paths were too different, and that his family was too traditional and she could not fit into that lifestyle.[37] | Episode 8 | |
| Women | |||
| Name | Reason for elimination | Episode eliminated | |
| Scout | Did not remember her.[31] | Episode 1 | |
| Ellie | Too shy.[31] | Episode 1 | |
| Chaos | Did not connect with her.[31] | Episode 1 | |
| Brenda | Reason not stated in episode. | Episode 1 | |
| Keasha | Felt that she is "a demolition project".[31] | Episode 1 | |
| Lala | Did not like having men competing and being around them.[32] | Episode 2 | |
| Steffanie | There for two days and still did not know her.[32] | Episode 2 | |
| Grace | Did not feel they would be a good fit.[32] | Episode 2 | |
| Krystal | Did not click with her.[33] | Episode 3 | |
| Rebecca | Kissed Brandi while in the house and seems to have objections withmonogamy.[33] | Episode 3 | |
| Sara | Beautiful girl, but just did not have that connection she was looking for.[34] | Episode 4 | |
| Ashli | Did not want to put her in a position where she felt uncomfortable.[38] | Episode 5 | |
| Vanessa Romanelli | Reason not stated in episode. In the following episode, however, due to her physical attack on Brandi during eliminations in Episode 6, it was alluded that she was not the right person.[35] | Episode 6 | |
| Brandi Ryan | Left on Episode 6 in the heat of the moment after Vanessa's attack. Came back on Episode 7. However, she was not accepted back into the house because of the feeling that her return would jeopardize the show's integrity for the other contestants and the fear that she would walk out on Tila again.[36] | Episode 6/7 | |
| Amanda Ireton | Had a deeper connection with Bobby and Dani, or as Tila said, "There's no more keys left."[39] | Episode 9 | |
| Dani | Mentioned loving Dani, but being in love with Bobby.[40] Off screen, said she eliminated Dani to make sure their friendship "never ended" like dating show romances usually do.[41] | Episode 10 | |
Among the contestants, the comedian and television personalityAmanda Ellen Soloman Ireton after the show went on to appear on other MTV television showsHang Over Show andThat's Amore,[42]WETV'sSecret Lives of Women,CCTV'sThe Rack, andEntertainment Television'sThe Soup andExtra.
She hostedCBS's reality showBig Brother – The Reunion Special as an interviewer. She starred inKarmina'sThe Kiss music video.[43] Furthermore Ireton wasMTV's columnist and video blogger forA Shot at Love 2.[42]
A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila – The Complete Uncensored First Season was released on April 15, 2008.[44] The DVD contains the ten episodes, the reunion listed as episode 11, but does not contain the special episode "One Shot Too Many". It also includes some extended and deleted scenes.
