I love bad TV. And what’s worse than MTV’s “The Real World/Road Rules Challenge,” which combines three bad TV staples (“The Real World,” “Road Rules,” and people doing idiotic stunts for prizes) into one frothy package? The Challenge also has a gift for choosing all the most loathsome and annoying former contestants and cramming them into one show.
Until recently, “Road Rules” Australia veteran Susie Meister was largely off of my hate radar screen. During the last Challenge, she was unfairly ganged up upon by other “alpha girl” contestants who didn’t like Susie’s clean-cut persona. Susie, you see, is a born-again Christian. She’s also perky, loves “The Brady Bunch,” and wears her blonde hair in pigtails. Although most of the contestants’ idea of recreation is getting drunk and hooking up with each other, Susie has a husband back home. Her values didn’t endear her to the other girls on the show, especially when she fended off a rival castmate’s insults with, “I’ll pray for you.”
Something has changed since the last Challenge, though. This time, Susie was ready to scheme and make alliances in order to win. She encouraged her teammates to throw a challenge and let her win so she wouldn’t have to go into the inferno (a head to head battle where the loser is kicked off the show) against a stronger competitor. She insulted a cast member on camera, calling the other girl fat and “insane.”
Once a girl who made a point of wearing wholesome swimsuits instead of prancing around in string bikinis, Susie’s website now features a photo of her in a leopard-print nightie. When a couple of the male contestants sneaked into the girls’ room to play a prank, Susie wasn’t content to chase the guys out of the room- she physically hit Real World Paris alum Ace several times, but then claimed she’d felt like she was in danger.
It’s a pretty quick turnaround from quoting scripture to threatening other contestants, isn’t it? In a recent interview with the website Buddy TV, Susie said this when asked about her faith: “What I find to be the hardest part is just the ego of it all. You start to actually believe that you are really important, so you have to really keep that in check because let’s face it, it’s fun to be on a reality TV show–but it is what it is.” Hey, Susie? Might be time to take your own advice.
