The Best Reality TV Stars of 2013 (So Far)

In the world of reality TV, there are a few rules of thumb to follow if you want a successful series: get your cast to drink a lot, fight a lot, and be as outrageous as possible to get that special trainwreck-style viewing. People not want to watch, but, try as they might, they can't turn away.

But rules are made to be broken, and there are a few reality stars that manage to retain their popularity despite being (relatively) likable, cool people who wouldn't get drunk and harm you. These folks are anomalies, and as such they deserve recognition; it's not easy keeping classy around people throwing themselves at bottles of vodka to get more screen time.

As we're now past the mid-point of 2013, we thought it appropriate to celebrate the reality stars who exhibited either extreme of behavior in an exemplary fashion—those that are bad in the best ways possible, and those that are good in the most respectable ways possible. You know, the Best Reality Stars of 2013 (So Far).

Written by Tanya Ghahremani (@tanyaghahremani)

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The cast of the UK’s Geordie Shore is comprised of some of the most annoying individuals ever seen on reality television.

This is precisely what makes them some of the best reality stars on TV this year: They’re so terrible, you cannot help but hate-watch. We first told you about England’s Jersey Shore counterparts back in 2011, when the show premiered on MTV UK—the show mirrored Jersey Shore enough for MTV to claim it as a spinoff, but even we couldn’t have predicted that one day the antics of Newcastle’s finest would surpass that of Snooki and co. in terms of trashy goodness. Yes, Geordie Shore is the superior show.

This isn’t completely Jersey Shore’s fault, though; Geordie Shore has the advantage of airing in the UK, where television censors are far more lax. That means MTV can cram more of the cast’s drunken nights, their ill-intentioned hookups, and massive brawls into one episode than it could in an entire season of Jersey Shore. Everyone seems to know what time it is, and delivers the fights, sex, and rage in steaming heaps.

At least, we hope the members of the cast are self-aware, because if not, their behavior is troubling and someone should go check on them or something.

Max's role as the skeptic on Catfish: The TV Show is an extremely important one, but let’s be real—what would the series be without Nev Schulman? Nothing, since Nev is the one who coined the term “catfish” to describe a person posing as someone else online in the first place. The dude deserve some credit—and it helps that he’s a fairly likable presence on the series as well.

Despite being a victim of a catfish himself, Nev hasn’t seemed to have lost his hope that just one couple on the show could have a happy ending (though it’s a rare, rare thing). Because of htis Max is constantly at his side giving much-needed doses of realism. It’s, dare we say, sweet to watch Nev's hopeless hope.

One of the reasons Catfish: The TV Show works so well is the flawless chemistry between co-stars Nev Schulman and Max Joseph.

Nev, as we mentioned, is the heart of Catfish because of his capacity for sympathy, and Max is the cynical realist on hand to keep things grounded. He wear

Max doesn’t even hold back in front of the people seeking their help—in the pilot episode, for instance, Nev and Max are speaking with a girl named Sunny who believes she's bagged herself a hot model guy online. She proceeds to tout his intelligence by telling them that he’s in school studying to be an anesthesiologist. He’s taking classes online. Nev says nothing about how this would be impossible to do, but Max sure does, giving her a look that undoubtedly says, “How dumb could you possibly be?” Gotta respect the honesty.

Abby Lee Miller is scary. Yes, she knows what she’s doing when it comes to teaching the kids in her studio how to dance—there’s no denying that—and as a means-to-an-end exmple of pedagogy, she deserves some props. But, damn, does she have to be so terrifying when she teaches?

Short answer: Yes (if you're in the audience, that is). People don’t watch Dance Moms for the dance moms—they watch it for Abby Lee’s meltdowns. This is what makes good reality. You want to watch a woman scream at children. You want to watch a woman who looks like she might eat those children, given the chance.

As reality stars generally fall into the category of "just famous for being famous," Newlyweds: The First Year star Tina Sugandh's genuine talent is refreshing. Sugandh is an internationally famous Indian pop star who was discovered at the age of 15 while living in New Jersey. Now, at 35, she's a biz veteran who has written and recorded prolifically, and even worked with producers like Lester Mendez. She's a legitimate celebrity.

On Newlyweds, she and her husband, Pandoodle president Tarz Ludwigsen, allowed cameras into their home to chronicle the first year of their marriage, from the wedding day to the one-year anniversary. As the first year of any marriage is bound to be filled with its ups and downs, it was a gutsy move, but somehow both managed to embrace it—even their complete lack of sex—and remain likable and interesting despite of the intense circumstances.

Whereas drama ran rampant on this season of Shahs of Sunset (thanks mostly to GG and MJ), former full-time-cast-member-turned-guest-star Sammy was a reliable source of calm.

He wasn’t in the series this season all that often (which surely helped), but when he was—primarily during a memorable trip to Cabo, and a failed dinner party at Reza’s house—he wanted nothing to do with the drama swirling around him, and often attempted to curb the fighting before it got too far. Reality television is great for the trainwrecks, but sometimes it’s nice to watch a genuinely nice person. Sammy is a reminder that people doesn’t always suck.

Though it’s clear that a large amount of the dialogue on this Toronto-based show is scripted, we can’t help but find it addicting. One of the main reasons? Home designer Hilary Farr, a regular on the series alongside realtor David Visentin.

If you’ve never seen the show, here’s a basic rundown of the episode structure: In the beginning of each episode, we’re introduced to a couple who is toying with the idea of moving into a bigger home. Visentin shows them a few vacant properties in their price range that offer them the space and/or features they desire, while Farr works on completely renovating their entire home from top to bottom in an effort to give them everything that they’re looking for in the same space they’re ready to run from. The couple then has to decide whether or not to move into one of the new spaces, or stay in their current home, with its new, elevated value. As the title says: Love it or list it.

While David Visentin's job is undeniably difficult—catering to the demands of clients who have unrealistic expectations—Hilary Farr, bless her heart, manages to nearly always knock his potential home options out of the park with her renovations. There may be no drama, catfights, or drunken shenanigans on this reality series, but there is real talent, and for that we’ve gotta show love.

Of all the Real Housewives shows, the Beverly Hills version is undoubtedly the classiest—as classy as reality television can be, anyway. The women still get into screaming matches like the cast members of New Jersey and Orange County, but, unlike on those shows, the Beverly Hills women are still able to retain a certain air of elegance. Or maybe their faces are all just so botoxed that it’s hard to differentiate between their angry reactions and their passive expressions.

The frontrunner for classiest cast member on Beverly Hills? Hands down, it's Lisa Vanderpump. The London-born scene-stealer was successful long before she joined the Bravo program, and in addition to dabbling in acting, writing a column in Beverly Hills Lifestyle magazine, and promoting a skincare line called Epione, she currently owns two successful restaurants in the Los Angeles area: Villa Blanca in Beverly Hills, and Sur in West Hollywood.

What sets Vanderpump apart from her bleached co-stars, however, is that she seems to understand that drama is what the viewers want to see. She rages because she knows you want it. That's smart.

Mob Wives is a perpetual drama machine, a power source that's clean-burning and self-sustaining. Sure, you're saying. Isn't everything else? You're not wrong, but what sets Mob Wives apart is Big Ang, the Switzerland of reality TV.

The gruff-voiced Staten Island-native manages to remain in most people’s good graces and stay out of fights, despite being friends with everyone involved. Did anyone know that was possible in the world of mobsters, let alone reality television? She’s impossible to hate on, and her catchphrases and priceless expressions (like this one) make for appointment viewing.

These qualities earned Big Ang her very own spinoff—Big Ang premiered on VH1 last summer to excellent ratings, and season two filmed in Miami to follow Big Ang opening another branch of her Staten Island bar, The Drunken Monkey. Thank you, Based God.

Bravo’s real estate-themed Million Dollar Listing New York is the best reality series you’re not watching this year. At first glance, it looks like it belongs on HGTV along with shows like House Hunters, but give it a chance and you'll see that there's enough entertainment here to warrant a time slot on network TV. This is mostly because of Fredrik Eklund, a natural star.

He’s a successful broker in NYC—so successful, he says, that he sold over a billion dollars worth of property last year—but that’s not all. He’s also starred in numerous gay pornographic films, where he went by the name of Tag Eriksson. Later, he wrote a book about the adult film industry that was a bestseller in his native Sweden, so he’s an accomplished writer, too. He is a renaissance man for our times.

One of the best things about Fredrik is that he doesn’t try to hide the fact that he’s done gay porn in the past. He knows that people will find out, and opts to embrace his hardcore past.

Take this scene, for example, involving Ryan and Fredrik both speaking to a potential client who's interested in putting her apartment on the market. Ryan, in an effort to persuade her to be his client and put Fredrik down, tells her that Fredrik used to do gay porn. She’s shocked, but Fredrik immediately tells her that it’s true, and then proceeds to continue to talk about how he sold $1 billion in property last year, compared to Ryan’s $100 million. “In order to be successful in New York City, which is a cutthroat business, you have to sell yourself,” he tells the camera, as he gives the woman his card. Can’t hate the guy for playing the game—respect is due.

With the addition of real-life Barbie girl Lilly Ghalichi, this season of Shahs of Sunset should have been the most annoying yet. Thanks to GG, though, that wasn’t the case—her midseason meltdown at the expense of fellow cast member Asa managed to make the series appointment viewing television in just over two minutes.

This scene is everything: Angry with Asa for what she interpreted as an insult directed at her sort-of boyfriend, GG rips her earrings off (#protip) and proceeds to threaten her much taller co-star in a blind rage. First, her threats are only verbal (“I will fuck your ass up, bitch!”), but as she’s coaxed on by an amused Asa (“You’re a toothpick with a wig!”), she legit charges at her co-star in the middle of a pool party. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), she’s held back by multiple people, then literally carried out of the party before she can start a Jersey Shore-level fight.

With just one almost-brawl, GG managed to single-handedly save a whole season of her show.

Reality stars aren’t celebrated for their talents. Sure, most can throw down on camera and give a good, booze-fueled display of hysterics when it’s called for, but what do they actually do? They're famous for being famous.

Refreshingly, this is definitely not the case for The Real Housewives of Atlanta’s NeNe Leakes. She first popped onto our radar as the most entertaining and over-the-top cast member of the Bravo franchise's Atlanta incarnation, but it’s not her ability to produce the shrillest screech and the most sassy, hilarious catchphrases that impressed us this year. Homegirl’s actually proven to be a competant actress, from her guest spot on the Glee, and her regular role on the now-canceled NBC comedy The New Normal. We never thought anyone would put RHOA star Kim Zolciak’s efforts to break into the non-reality entertainment biz to shame, but life’s full of surprises.

Furthermore, she was still one of the most interesting cast members on RHOA this season, despite spending the majority of her time in Los Angeles filming The New Normal. This past season could have been the show’s most annoying yet thanks to Kenya Moore and her guy drama, along with her obsession over the subtle differences between Miss USA and Miss America. Thanks to NeNe, however—and the fact that she didn’t hesitate before sending her co-stars home when they were over two hours late to her dinner party in the Hollywood Hills because of “traffic”—the season was salvaged.

Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage are two of the coolest guys on television. They're both smart and gifted in the field of special effects—Hyneman, in fact, was an animatronics technician on the movie Flubber. Despite making the dreams of Robin Williams come trume, they’re also responsible for the most thorough exploration of skepticism on television.

Where would we be without the MythBusters episode where they proved that MacGyver was a phony, or the episode in which Savage singed off his eyebrow trying to figure out if the myth that cell phones shouldn’t be used at gas stations was true? We don’t know, and we don’t want to know.

They’re also directly responsible for a higher volume of explosions on cable television, and for that we can't thank them enough.

Here Comes Honey Boo Boo was the breakout reality show of 2012. Garnering more viewers in one night than a telecast of the Republican National Convention on Fox News, the TLC series has become a major part of modern pop culture in America, like it or not. (It's easier just to like it and not worry about the state of American dignity—we lost that with Abu Ghraib.) Thus, we will go down in history as the generation that made a 7-year-old Toddlers in Tiara alum—who says things like “You better redneckognize!”—and her family filthy rich.

The show's tiny breakout star is, of couse, Alana Thompson, better known to viewers as Honey Boo Boo. She’s annoying, but she’s also just a kid who doesn’t know any better. Meaning, her antics and countless catchphrases have to be treated as entertainment rather than some sign of the apocalypse. Plus, she's more open-minded about homosexuality than most right-wing politicians, and that’s something to applaud.

One of the best dumbest new reality shows this season was, without a doubt, Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte’s series, What Would Ryan Lochte do. Really, if you watched Lochte during the Olympics last year for even just a few minutes, it was painfully clear that he was bred for reality television.

Luckily, when his series premiered on E!, it didn’t disappoint—Lochte said so many stupid, quotable things twe took it upon ourselves to chronicle them each week. With soundbytes like, “This is so much fun watching my family scirm. Squirm. Scirm. Did I say scirm?” and, “She is a—shit, I forgot the name of it. What’s that thing called where you do six events at the Olympics? Pentathlon? Or decathlon? Or octagon? Shit,” we were never without a shortage of material. Jeah!

What would Project Runway be without Tim Gunn? Short answer: Canceled.

Long answer: Tim Gunn is the moral support for the sleep-deprived, stressed-out fashion designer contestants who surely have recurring nightmares about host Heidi Klum chasing them around the Fashion District with one of their worst designs while screaming, “Auf Wiedersehen! Auf Wiedersehen!”

Without Gunn's help, someone would have surely killed another contestant for using one of the sowing machines, and murder is where we draw the line when it comes to good reality television. Plus, his catchphrase “Make it work” has changed more lives than the countless inspirational phrases from PBS’s Bob Ross.

At first glance, Gordon Ramsay comes off as a bit of an asshole. (Of course, he's an asshole who gets shit done, and we respect that.) Look a little deeper, though, and it becomes apparent that Ramsay isn’t such a bad guy.

Here’s the thing: The dude is a pro at cooking and running restaurants, and he does genuinely care about his field. He comes off as an meanie on the four shows he has here in the states—Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Hotel Hell, and MasterChef—but take one look at, say, the UK version of Kitchen Nightmares, or the British series Gordon Behind Bars (where he taught prison inmates how to cook) and it’s easy to see that Ramsay really loves what he does.

The asshole persona gets ratings, and you’d be mad, too, if you were going to people’s shitty restaurants to help them get better and they gave you a hard time. Take this year’s infamous “Amy’s Baking Company” episode: Both Amy and her husband, Sami, were the most ungrateful, annoying, poisonous people to ever grace the series, and Ramsay tried to help them even after they insulted him time and time again for critiquing Amy’s culinary abilities. How Ramsay hasn’t just pulled out all of his hair from the stress of dealing with ridiculous people like this is beyond us.

Mama June is, without a doubt, the best mother on reality television today. She feeds her kids something called "Sketti"—butter and ketchup melted in a microwave that's poured over pasta—but when it comes to the family’s finances, she’s not wilding over the newfound cashflow like most other suddenly famous reality stars would.

Earlier this year, reports surfaced that June asked TLC to put every paycheck the family receives into trust funds for all the children, accounts they’ll only be able to access when they turn 21. The only major purchase the family has made since becoming famous is a car—a used 2005 Ford Expedition—and they continue to live off paychecks that her husband makes from his job as a contractor. As she told TMZ back in January: “I want my kids to look back and say, 'Mama played it smart. Not like those other reality TV people.' You're never gonna see me drive a Range Rover or a Mercedes. I'll drive one if someone else pays for it. Never gonna live above my means.” Admirable.

Though it’s hard to compete with Tyra Banks’ iconic “We were all rooting for you” speech on The CW’s America’s Next Top Model, Naomi Campbell manages to provide a suitable rival on Oxygen’s new modeling competition series The Face. She does this without breaking a sweat. Remeber, this is the same woman that threw a cell phone at her housekeeper.

On the series, Campbell has no problem calling out both the contestants and her fellow hosts/coaches Coco Rocha and Karolina Kurkova on their bullshit—and their lipstick.

In a season highlight, Campbell commented that "she’s absolutely not going to listen" to anything that Rocha has to say because of the color lipstick she was wearing, then tells her, “Check your lipstick before you come and talk to me.” It’s scenes like this that remind us why reality television is so great.

When we were first introduced to Vinny Guadagnino’s “original guido” Uncle Nino in a 2010 episode of Jersey Shore, we knew this man was destined for greatness. Despite being significantly older than most of the Shore crew, plus the fact that he was wearing an unbuttoned dress shirt with a gold chain, he had no problems partying and flirting like the twenty-something cast members. In fact, he probably did it better than any one of them, managing to flirt with JWOWW without her punching him in the face. Seriously, just look at this guy’s Twitter: Every single tweet starts with “Ooooh!!!”

So, imagine our elation when we discovered that Uncle Nino himself would be included in his nephew Vinny’s new MTV talk show, The Show With Vinny. Though the series—which features Vinny interviewing celebrities as they have dinner with him and his family at his mother’s Staten Island home—could easily get by ratings-wise on it’s unique concept alone, the presence of Uncle Nino, his velour tracksuits, and countless stories about his life in Staten Island make it absolute appointment viewing. Take this clip, for example, in which he points out a home as he’s driving and tells the camera that he built the fireplace in that house, and that he was also having sex with the customer’s wife. Modern romance!

Also, he thinks a ‘selfie’ is called a ‘Sophie’, and he’s friends with Mob Wives star Big Ang. Crossover, anyone?

Of course, a list of the year's best reality stars of the year would not be complete without Lord Disick himself. Seriously, watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians for the actual Kardashians is like putting ketchup on prime ribs: Stop it right now, you’re doing it wrong. The real reason you should be watching the series is that guy right up there.

Though he’s been featured as Kourtney Kardashian’s significant other for the entirety of the series and its numerous spin-offs, somehow Scott manages to retain his likability while exhibiting behavior as preposterous as that of the family he associates himself with. Last year, he had no problem parading around London with a gaudy Henry VIII-esque fur coat and a Chuck Bass-inspired cane while proclaiming that he’s now to be called “Lord Disick"; this year he was featured front and center in a promo for Kanye West’s new album, Yeezus, portraying American Psycho character Patrick Bateman and killing Kim Kardashian’s best friend, Jonathan, with an axe.

Despite all this, though, Disick is still different from his Kardashian co-stars for one simple reason: He recognizes how ridiculous they all really are, and he vocalizes it, often. By doing this, Scott is the embodiment of most viewers, namely the ones who can’t fathom why this is E!’s most popular program yet still can’t stop watching for reasons unknown. Who would have thought Keeping Up with the Kardashians could be so philosophical?

If you haven’t seen the “Amy’s Baking Company” episode of Kitchen Nightmares yet, this is an order: Stop whatever you’re doing right now, and click this link.

Yes, Samy and Amy are possibly the two vilest people to ever grace the airwaves on a reality television show. They so were unimaginably insane, it’s a wonder their business didn’t close years before Chef Gordon Ramsay was ever called in to help “save” it. In the aforementioned episode, we’re introduced to Samy and Amy, who claim that their restaurant is flawless, but due to online bullies, they’re losing business and money.

As Gordon Ramsay comes to find out, however, their food is not flawless. They’re just yelling at and kicking out anyone who complains about the dishes in the restaurant. Furthermore, and perhaps most shocking, they don’t let the waitresses take home any tips, and Samy won’t allow any of the staff to touch the cash register other than himself. When Ramsay attempts to rehabilitate the restaurant, Amy and Samiy cause multiple, massive scenes.

In the end, Ramsay decides to leave. It’s not worth helping them if he’s running the risk of being stabbed by one of Amy’s butcher knives.

Due to the insanity, the episode received a massive amount of coverage across the Internet, and was only exacerbated when the two had a breakdown on Facebook and started threatening to call the cops on anyone who badmouthed their food online. It’s the most attention an episode of Kitchen Nightmares has ever received, and for that, we think Samy and Amy deserve a tiny bit of cred—yes, they’re crazy and everything, but they’re also already winning at reality television. Just try and deny you wouldn’t watch a whole show starring these two. Amy even already has a criminal record, so she's got a headstart to being a true reality star!

Stevie J may make questionable decisions when it comes to relationships, but we have to admit: It’s impossible to hate on him when he's just so damn entertaining.

For instance, there’s no question that he’s been an asshole playing both Mimi and Joseline, but then he goes and does something like wear a T-shirt that reads “I AM GOD” to a therapy session with the two of them. How can you not love that? Or how about that time he found out Nikko gave Mimi a Rolex watch, and he decided he just had to one-up him, so he went ahead and gave Mimi a brand new BMW? Amazing. That's how reality television should be done.

Plus, he’s talented. A three-time Grammy award-winning songwriter, producer, and musician, Stevie used to be an in-house producer for Diddy’s Bad Boy enterprise, where he worked with some of the biggest names in the game. Currently, he’s part of a band he formed with Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta cohort Benzino called The Magnificent 757s.

Duck Dynasty is an anomaly. Most reality shows reach success by showing their cast members as drunken messes with insanely bad tempers and a penchant for starting massive brawls. A&E’s Duck Dynasty, on the other hand, doesn’t have to, and it still manages to break ratings records.

How is this possible? Everything we’ve been shown up to this point has suggested that people just love to watch trainwrecks—that’s why even three years later, Alexis Neier’s drugged up, devastated call to Vanity Fair writer Nancy Jo Sales on E!’s now-canceled reality series Pretty Wild is still one of the most quoted scenes in reality show history. Duck Dynasty manages to hold more viewers, though, while retaining some quality and heart. That’s primarily due to this guy right up there.

Within a family that's lovable and simple, despite their massive wealth, Uncle Si routinely manages to steal every scene he’s in by demonstrating his famous “icy stare.” And say things like this: “Hey, look here, back in ’nam my icy stare became so famous, hey, I was approached by a professor in a wheelchair. He said something about I had X genes and introduced me to his friends. They was a bunch of weirdos.”

He's also prone to sharing some one-of-a-kind wisdom, like, “Hey, look here, you can’t be worried about an inch of fabric. Hey, there’s way more important things to worry about. Hey, Y2K, shark attack, lead paint, Dakota Fanning, smallpox, Woodstock, moonshot, Watergate, punk rock, rock and rollers, cola wars…” Something has always seemed off that about Fanning girl.