The Pickup Artist (TV series)
The Pickup Artist is an American reality television dating themed game show that aired on VH1.[2] The show was hosted by pickup artist Mystery (Erik von Markovik) and his wings J-Dog (Justin Marks) and James Matador, with Tara Ferguson replacing J-Dog in season 2. The first season featured eight male contestants that had previously been unsuccessful in love and relationships. Throughout the show the contestants are tutored in the art of the "pickup" as taught by Mystery and his wings. In each episode the men were given challenges that involved picking women up in different situations, such as on a bridge during the day or in a nightclub. As the show progressed the men were instructed to pick up women of varying levels of difficulty, such as in the second to last challenge of the first season where the men had to pick up a stripper, described by Mystery as "the ultimate challenge."[3] The winner of the first season was Alvaro "Kosmo" Orlando.
| The Pickup Artist | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Reality Game show |
| Created by | 3Ball Productions |
| Starring | Mystery (Erik von Markovik) James Matador (Stan Tayi) J-Dog (Justin Marks) Tara Ferguson |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 16 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | J. D. Roth Todd A. Nelson Adam Greener Doug Wilson Clair McCabe Michael Hirschorn Jeff Olde Suzanne Murch |
| Producer | Angela Malloy |
| Editors | Taatshing Hui Tim Preston |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 43 mins. |
| Production company | 3Ball Productions |
| Distributor | RDF Rights[1] |
| Release | |
| Original network | VH1 |
| Original release | August 6, 2007 – November 30, 2008 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The second season featured nine contestants and aired in October 2008,[4] with the second season's winner being 27-year-old Simeon Moses.
Seasons
| Season | Premiere Date | Finale Date | Winner | Runner-up | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | August 6, 2007 | September 24, 2007 | Alvaro "Kosmo" Orlando | Brady Sprunger | Austin, Texas |
| 2 | October 12, 2008 | November 30, 2008 | Simeon Moses | Matt Radmanovich | Phoenix, Arizona |
Contestants
| Name | Age | Status/Reason on Show | Eliminated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kosmo (Alvaro Orlando) | 23 | Freezes up around women | Winner |
| Brady | 25 | Lacking in self-confidence | 7th |
| Joe D. | 25 | The "friend" to girls | 6th |
| Pradeep | 22 | Over analyzes and talks too much | 5th |
| Joe W. | 24 | Starts off strong but often fails fast | 4th |
| Scott | 26 | Gets very nervous and stutters around women | 3rd |
| Fred | 45 | 40-year-old virgin, plus 5 | 2nd |
| Spoon (Steven Poon) | 27 | Does not know how to approach women | 1st |
Episode Progress
| # | Episode | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| 1 | Kosmo | Joe D. | Joe W. | Kosmo | Pradeep | Kosmo | Brady | Kosmo |
| 2 | Brady | Brady | Kosmo | Joe D. | Kosmo | Brady | Kosmo | Brady |
| 3 | Fred | Kosmo | Pradeep | Joe W. | Joe D. | Joe D. | Joe D. | |
| 4 | Joe D. | Joe W. | Joe D. | Brady | Brady | Pradeep | ||
| 5 | Joe W. | Scott | Scott | Pradeep | Joe W. | |||
| 6 | Pradeep | Pradeep | Brady | Scott | ||||
| 7 | Scott | Fred | Fred | |||||
| 8 | Spoon | Spoon | ||||||
- The contestant won immunity.
- The contestant was chosen as a wingman and had immunity.
- The contestant was eliminated.
- The contestant quit the competition.
- The contestant won the title of the Pickup Artist.
- Note 1: Episode 1 had no elimination.
- Note 2: Alvaro changed his name to Kosmo in Episode 2.
- Note 3: Contrary to statements made earlier in the episode, no wing men were allowed to be selected in Episode 5.
- Note 4: Episode 8 was a recap episode.
Contestants
| Name | Age | Also Known As | Status/Reason for coming on the show | Episode Eliminated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simeon Moses | 27 | The High-Pitched Hottie | Cried when his girlfriend dumped him | Winner |
| Matt Radmanovich | 26 | The guy with foot in his mouth | Flew across the country and his girlfriend dumped him upon arrival | Episode 8 |
| Greg Fellows | 26 | The Loner | Hasn't had a date in 5 years | Episode 7 |
| Rian Turner | 28 | Patron Saint of the Overlooked | A virgin who hasn't even had a girlfriend | Episode 6 |
| Brian Ly | 21 | The guy who kissed a girl | Kissed a girl | Episode 5 |
| Todd Pabst | 26 | The Girl's Best Friend | Has had sex | Episode 4 |
| Karl Meyer | 21 | The Brokenhearted Kid | His only girlfriend broke up with him and broke his heart | Episode 3 |
| Kevin Feng | 21 | Strike-out King | The only girlfriend he's ever had cheated on him | Episode 2 |
| Alex William Shelley | 22 | Women think he's gay | Virgin, lives with his parents | Episode 1 |
Episode Progress
| # | Episode | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| 1 | Brian | Brian | Greg | Rian | Simeon | Matt | Simeon | Simeon |
| 2 | Greg | Greg | Matt | Brian | Matt | Simeon | Matt | Matt |
| 3 | Karl | Todd | Brian | Matt | Greg | Greg | Greg | |
| 4 | Kevin | Rian | Todd | Simeon | Rian | Rian | ||
| 5 | Matt | Matt | Simeon | Greg | Brian | |||
| 6 | Rian | Simeon | Rian | Todd | ||||
| 7 | Simeon | Karl | Karl | |||||
| 8 | Todd | Kevin | ||||||
| 9 | Alex | |||||||
Reception
The initial viewer ratings were disappointing, debuting with only 673,000 viewers.[5][6] Viewer ratings picked up by the season's end, resulting in the series being picked up for a second season.
Critical reception for the series was mixed, with The A.V. Club panning the second season's opening episode.[7]
Controversy
Controversy began to cloud The Pickup Artist after revelations that some of the contestants' livelihoods were not as they were listed on the VH1 show profiles.[8] Alvaro "Kosmo" Orlando had been referred to as a game programmer, but he actually had been an aspiring actor for the previous four years - working out of Miami, New York, and Los Angeles.[9] Runner-up contestant Brady Sprunger was characterized as a shy photographer, but he had been working for a modeling agency, the Los Angeles-based Action Agency, for five full years prior to the show's taping.
According to Psychology Today, the empirical feeling "that some teachings of pick-up artists are grounded in theory does not negate the callous and objectionable nature of the field.",[10] so that it belongs to pseudoscience[11] without empirical evidence of truth.[12]
See also
References
- Notes
- Parker, Robin (October 5, 2007). "RDF Rights takes on VH1's Pick Up". Broadcast: 12. Retrieved March 6, 2010.
- "VH1 Is Negging Us All". avclub.com. The A.V. Club.
- 'The Pickup Artist' Finale Airs Tonight Archived July 18, 2012, at the Wayback Machine BuddyTV
- The Pickup Artist 2: Mystery is Back Crushable
- Levin, Gary (August 14, 2007)."Nielsens: Big bucks, big start for '10'". USA Today. Retrieved on September 13, 2007.
- 'The Pickup Artist' Ripples in Reality Archived July 21, 2012, at the Wayback Machine BuddyTV
- The Pickup Artist 2: If You Don't Go For Tired Openers The A.V. Club
- A Look Back at the First Season of 'The Pickup Artist,' Plus Kosmo Speaks Out Archived July 21, 2012, at the Wayback Machine BuddyTV
- "The Pick Up Artist: King Kosmo Konfesses! VH1 Blog"
- "The Psychology of the Pickup Artist". November 11, 2014. Archived from the original on June 6, 2018.
- Steadman, Ian (June 4, 2014). "The sexist pseudoscience of pick-up artists: the dangers of "alpha male" thinking". New Statesman. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
- "Mistery Method on Google Scholar". Archived from the original on May 9, 2019. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
- Sources
- "VH1 show teaches men how to meet women". Powerfully Confident. August 1, 2007. Archived from the original on January 13, 2017. Retrieved August 4, 2007.