Jun 25 2009 03:22 PM ET

'I'm a Celebrity...': The real winners were Spencer and Heidi

Last night, Lou Diamond Phillips won the inaugural season of NBC's trashtacular I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here (nearly as annoying to type as it was to watch). In lieu of a treasure chest of wampum or a bug spray sponsorship, the La Bamba star arranged for a donation to be made to his charity of choice: the Art Has Heart Foundation, which helps low-income high school students. Awww. Good (aka Phillips) finally triumphed over Evil (aka Speidi, Janice Dickinson). And thousands (or dozens, or however many people were still watching) cheered.

But let's get real. The actual winner of this show was never going to be the person who "won." That's like saying bikini mud wrestling is really about pinning the opponent, or pretending the MTV Movie Awards are about celebrating the actor's craft. The series was all about exposure, about how far a gaggle of half-forgotten celebs would be willing to go for a moment of last-gasp fame. And by those rules, the clear winner was Team Speidi. From their first-episode meltdowns to their post-show publicity tour, Spencer and Heidi made sure all eyes were on them. And it worked. They used the show to get a 30-second extension on their 15 minutes and walked away from it with the victory, if not the actual prize.

What do you think, PopWatchers? Were Spencer and Heidi the real champs of the show, or does LDP deserve more respect for being a diamond in the rough? If they do this show again next summer, are you watching?

More on I'm a Celebrity…
'I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!': Josh Wolk's Pop Culture Club
'I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!': How long will YOU be there?
'I'm A Celebrity…': The cast kinda blows on purpose. I think.
'I'm a Celebrity…' loses a million viewers from premiere

Comments (1-30) of 34 Add your comment

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  • orville

    Inagural season? I was under the impression that NBC had tried this show at least once before. And, yes, with the sort of publicity the show got this year, they’re definitely going to try it again.

  • Joe J

    YOU PROMISED NO MORE SPEIDI!!! That was like 2 days ago and you already broke your promise. What gives?
    http://www.joeonthetube.com

  • LiLa

    I hadn’t heard of Speidi before this show so they did accomplish something. But now that the show is over, so are they. That’s all.

  • Loretta

    I also hadn’t heard of Speidi before and hope to not see them in anything again. I was able to fastforward through them last night and was glad to see good triumph over evil.

  • pai

    Didn’t watch every show, cause who needed to when they recapped everything every time. But LDP was impressive. Speidi… you just kinda wished they would join the real world. Or at least get smacked down some. I thought LDP and Torrie were very cool. Even Sanjaya was impressive. And Patti Blago … although how she’s a celebrity, I’ll never know since I never knew of her until the show. Salley was impressive until he moped about being in the bottom two one day.

  • Jerks

    The only reason these nitwits have any fame at all is because you, and other entertainment sites, keep featuring them on your site! STOP IT! They are everything that is wrong with America and YOU keep their awful celebrity alive.

  • Adam

    I would have to agree, saddly. Speidi knew how to grab the attention, and kept it on them. Now she’s gonna do Playboy, and The Hills coming back next season.
    MTV should be thanking NBC big time
    http://tvdonewright.com/2009/06/25/dexter-season-four-teaser/

  • Lea

    Poor Lou DP. He’s such a good actor. It pains me that he’d be on this. Thankfully, I have a full DVR so I haven’t had the joy of watching this programme.

  • MsDaisy

    Sorry, but Heidi and Spencer are still losers.

  • Deb

    Speidi are jerks but Spencer isn’t stupid, her certainly understands how to get them in the spotlight. He should consider a career in Personal Relations…wait, then he would have to get a real job…never mind.

  • Al Fredo

    I challenge the conclusions from this. Yes; it did prolong Speidi exposure (and EW is guilty of contributing there). But my guess is that all it did was turn a majority of people off to their nonsense rather than create new interest among people who have never heard of them.

  • ej

    Joe…Unfortunately Ew never promised to stop covering Speidi..that was E!..hopefully all networks will follow suit..it pains me to see their faces

  • mahovolich13

    Maybe if we all stop paying attention and talking about these two wastes of space they might go away. E! started it let’s see who is next.

  • darclyte

    Actually, the real winner was Holly Montag. I bet almost NOBODY knew who she was and not only was she really nice (especially compared to her sister,) but she also competed well, WANTED to be there, and made a real connection (on whatever level) with Sanjaya that I think will help at least allow people to think of her in a positive light. I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t get some kinda gig out of this…like hosting a “love connection” type show or something.

  • Janie

    Great give them more of an ego boost. They are true losers and should never be allowed any attention. The real winners of the show were Holly- who proved to be nothing like her moron sister and kicked butt out there and Sanjaya- who ended up being the strongest person out of the bunch and was a complete delight to watch on TV.

  • Elizabeth

    The show was dreadful, if my son had it on in the family room I would leave the room or read. I had never heard of those two spoiled brats before. Spencer (I guess that’s his name) is gross. Ugly and totally unappealing.

  • ostade

    The real loser is Adam Markovitz.

  • SLB

    “Speidi” are the biggest losers i’ve ever seen and i thank god for DVR. I fast forwarded everytime their ugly faces came on the screen. I refuse to watch them in anything. They aren’t famous, they’re not worthy of any kind of attention, and, they are two of the most disgusting people i’ve ever seen.

  • Sharon

    Please EW, follow E’s lead & stop reporting on Speidi. It’s pretty obvious from the comments that nobody likes them. Isn’t George Clooney doing anything these days? Or even Paris Hilton?

  • SLB

    I would rather read about Holly (Heidi’s sister). I still can’t figure out how those two are actually related. Holly was such a sweet, nice, humble person. Maybe she’s adopted.

  • jon silva

    Instead of Speidi, I think they should be call Douchunt!

  • jon silva

    Or how about Cundouche instead of Speidi

  • samsldy

    I think all the of media should do as E! did and ban them from further news unless something really newsworthy happens to them.

  • BunBun

    What? who wrote this? Have you not been paying attention at all? If anything they lost more than the rest. They went from C list celebrities who some love to watch or love to hate to F list celebs that most of America (including a kindly “weatherman”) wants to drop like a bag of dirt. Even E! (sorry to mention the competition) held a recent poll in which they were voted off the island of E!’s tv coverage and if they don’t cover them..then who will? Wow this is the most off the mark popwatch piece I’ve ever read. The real winners..America because of their rampant trashy behavior they are quickly going to fall of of fame/infamy’s light.

  • anna

    What a couple of imbiciles, let’s hope they NEVER procreate! And I guess the “devil’s making her do playboy”. Please, both of you, go off to a cave and go away…

  • DanOregon

    Someone should ask Omorrossa how her career is going. They’ll be doing minor league baseball “theme nights” and county fairs by next year.

  • sprocketkf

    who cares about speidi!
    have real fun with your friends with a hilarious new iphone app:
    http://www.imouth.me

  • Debra

    All I can say about Speidi(THEY ACTED WORSE THAN A 2 YEAR OLD)and Ihope to never see them again. A word to he wise Spencer knocking something out of a person’s hand could (and would) in my case have you having to pick yourself up. GROW UP!!!!!

  • David coronado

    I HATE Spencer & Heidi! MEDIA: Stop covering them. And guess what, they’ll fade away quickly. They are self-absorbed brats who are “famous” for being famous. STOP talking about them. Like a pet they’ll go away!

  • Nona

    The show was awful – what little I saw. Those married publicity crazed idiots should be banned from all media FOREVER.

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