Top 10 Celebrities Who Ruined Their Careers on Reality TV

Top 10 Celebrities Who Ruined Their Careers On Reality TV

How did it all go so wrong? Welcome to WatchMojo UK, and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the top 10 celebrities who ruined their careers on reality TV.

For this list we’re looking at celebrities whose careers suffered a major setback because of their actions on British reality TV shows.

#10: Rebecca Loos

A second cousin of “Good morning Britain”s Piers Morgan, Loos enjoyed a brief moment of notoriety after claiming in 2004 to have had an affair with David Beckham. Any chances of her carving out a distinguished career in the public spotlight, though, were swiftly ruined after her infamous showing on Channel 5’s “The Farm”. This now-infamous scene sees an embarrassing tutorial followed by an act of stimulation that brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “hands-on experience”. All in, it prompted the RSPCA to complain to OFCOM, though the pig itself raised no objections.

#9: Zara Holland

After winning the Miss Great Britain title in 2015, things went disastrously wrong for Zara Holland when she appeared on dating reality show, “Love Island”. After getting intimate with a fellow contestant on camera, she was controversially stripped of her beauty pageant crown for supposedly failing to be a positive role model. Holland claims that the incident “destroyed her life”, and once revealed that she had turned down numerous TV jobs because she feared being always known as the woman who’d had sex on TV.

#8: John McCririck

During McCririck’s career as a horse racing pundit, he became one of the sport’s most flamboyant and recognisable characters. But when he appeared on “Celebrity Big Brother” in 2005, he showed another side to his personality. Viewers slated him for his sexist opinions, and for this display of petulance when he lost his Diet Coke privileges. McCririck’s career suffered as a result, and in 2012 he was eventually dropped by Channel 4 because the public reportedly saw him as more of a pantomime actor than a serious journalist.

#7: Ken Morley

Actor Ken Morley became a household name for playing shop owner Reg Holdsworth in “Coronation Street”. However, he has also appeared in reality shows including “Celebrity Fit Club” and “Celebrity Masterchef”. But it was his behaviour in 2015’s “Celebrity Big Brother” that brought his career to an ugly and abrupt halt. After upsetting both the public and the other housemates with his racist and sexist language, Morley was swiftly given the boot by CBB bosses. Afterwards, he apologised for his conduct, yet he still tried to excuse his words as just “banter”.

#6: Paul Danan

Former “Hollyoaks” star Danan appeared on the first series of “Celebrity Love Island” in 2005. His erratic behaviour saw him argue with both his fellow contestants and the programme’s hosts, so much so that he was eventually escorted off the set by security staff. Danan later claimed the show had ruined his career, and that he intended to move to America where no one would know who he was. But he returned to our screens in 2017’s “Celebrity Big Brother”, where he proved that the years had done little to mellow his character.

#5: Jo O’Meara

Following S Club 7’s split in 2003, singer O’Meara tried to ignite her solo career by appearing on “Celebrity Big Brother”. Unfortunately, she made headlines for all the wrong reasons as part of a group of housemates that were accused of bullying actress Shilpa Shetty. After the show, O’Meara supposedly received death threats, yet she remained unrepentant about her behaviour. And since then, her singing career has been limited to nightclubs and holiday camps, though she did reunite with S Club 7 for a short-lived 2015 UK tour.

#4: Gillian McKeith

Nutritionist McKeith was once a TV regular, best known for her bizarre interest in people’s poos. Then, in 2002, she appeared on “I’m A Celebrity” where she became notorious for another reason entirely: “Faintgate”. McKeith seemed to pass out twice on the show, though most viewers were unconvinced by her theatrics, and even Gillian allegedly admitted to another contestant that her collapses were faked. Since then, she has been largely absent from UK screens, trying instead to carve out a career across the Atlantic.

#3: George Galloway

In 2006, ‘Gorgeous George’ Galloway entered the Celebrity Big Brother house hoping to share his political message with a wider audience. But his credibility was left in tatters after a disastrous showing in which he paraded about in a red leotard and enacted this weird feline roleplaying task with Rula Lenska. In the general election that followed, Galloway failed to reclaim his seat in Parliament. And whilst he subsequently won the Bradford West by-election, he achieved just 1.4% of the first preference votes in his 2016 bid to become London Mayor. Far from purr-fect.

#2: Christopher Biggins

Biggins’ career perfectly demonstrates the highs and lows of reality TV. In 2007, he briefly became the nation’s sweetheart when he won “I’m A Celebrity”. So, almost a decade later, he was the favourite to win “Celebrity Big Brother”. But he was evicted after just nine days for using offensive language. Along with calling AIDS “a bisexual disease”, Biggins upset a Jewish housemate with a joke about Nazi concentration camps. If you’ve seen him since, it was probably in a pantomime, though Biggins claims to be happy “just doing small parts”.

#1: Roxanne Pallett

After a successful career on stage and screen, Pallett was reportedly paid a whopping £750,000 to appear on “Celebrity Big Brother” in 2018. But she became public enemy number one after falsely accusing housemate Ryan Thomas of punching her repeatedly. The video evidence contradicted her story, and Pallett eventually apologised for what she called a “horrible mistake”. After she quit the show, she claimed she’d turn her back on showbusiness. However, her profile fell even further when she appeared on “Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls” just days later. In the pre-recorded show, she was shown quitting in a state of panic – but by then she’d lost all sympathy from viewers.