A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila


A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila is an American reality television dating game show similar to the TV show The Bachelor. It premiered on October 9, 2007 on MTV starring Tila Tequila. The series consists of a bisexual-themed reality dating show where 16 heterosexual male men and 16 lesbian female women contestants live in Tequila's house and compete for her attention and affection. The contestants were not aware of Tequila's bisexuality until the end of the first episode, after ten contestants had been eliminated. The remaining contestants, both male and female, then shared the same home for the remainder of the series. A Shot at Love II premiered on April 22, 2008.

Ratings

The show debuted at No. 1 in its time period across all of cable in the network's target demographic of persons 18–34, averaging a 2.0 rating. It became MTV's second highest-rated series premiere for the year, behind Life of Ryan and tied with .
The first season finale had 6.2 million viewers, which at the time was MTV's most watched series telecast.

Criticism and controversy

The show was the subject of a heated online debate. An article critical of the show appeared on The Christian Post on September 13, 2007. Tequila wrote a response in her blog on September 28, 2007, criticizing churches for "bashing" the gay community while thanking God for saving her life. Criticism of the show has come from at least three conservative media organizations: Culture and Media Institute, Media Research Center and Parents Television Council, which named two episodes of the show the "Worst Cable Content of the Week".
Fox News and others stated that Tequila had a steady boyfriend and that the show was a sham, and that she is not bisexual. They cite New York Post's Page Six article. In 2007, Tequila responded to the claims made by Fox and denied them stating "I find it absolutely absurd that they would even make such an ignorant statement," but in 2018 she admitted that the Fox News report was true and that she indeed had a boyfriend while the show was being filmed and aired, stating that she was never actually gay or bisexual, and described her presence on the show as being "gay for pay".
On December 30, 2007, the winning contestant of the season, Bobby Banhart, posted a message on MySpace stating, "She never called me after the last show and no one would give me her number."
Tequila offered her own reasoning for why they broke up:
In March 2018, Tequila uploaded a video to Youtube to confess she was neither lesbian nor bisexual; she only pretended to be in order to create ratings for A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila and had a boyfriend while filming the show. Additionally, she associated homosexuality with the Devil and referred to former contestants of the show as degenerates and disgusting.

Spin-offs, supplements, seasons 2 and 3

  • A Shot at Love: The Hangover is a supplementary show that shows clips and interviews guests as a recap to the show. It premiered on November 13, 2007 on MTV starring Ryan Stout. The show's debut averaged a 2.85 rating.
  • A Shot at Love II with Tila Tequila – The second season premiered on April 22, 2008, and follows the same bisexual-bachelorette formula. The premiere date was announced on Tila Tequila's Spring Break Fantasy Couple. It is set in a Hollywood Hills mansion. It was planned to be aired after That's Amoré! Tequila announced at her Masquerade party, Tila Tequila's New Year's Eve Masquerade, that MTV greenlit her for a second season. During the Masquerade, she revealed that she and Bobby parted ways, which prompted suspicion that she would be the bachelorette during season two of A Shot at Love. News articles confirmed this.
  • That's Amore! – Nesci's third spin-off featured former contestant Ashley as his consigliere. It premiered on MTV on March 2, 2008.
  • A Double Shot at Love – A third season spin-off premiered on December 9, 2008, with the Ikki Twins replacing Tila Tequila as the host.
  • Double Shot at Love with DJ Pauly D and Vinny – A fourth season Jersey Shore hybrid spinoff was announced for a 2019 premiere, with DJ Pauly D and Vinny Guadagnino as the hosts.

    Episodes

  • Ep. 1 Surprise! I Like Boys and Girls
  • Ep. 2 Can't We All Just Get Along?
  • Ep. 3 Under the Covers
  • Ep. 4 A Broken Heart
  • Ep. 5 I Always Get What I Want
  • Ep. 6 The Cat Fight
  • Ep. 7 A Second Chance?
  • Ep. 8 Welcome To The Family
  • Ep. 9 Three's A Crowd
  • Special: One Shot Too Many
  • Ep. 10 I Choose...
  • Special: The Final Round

    Contestants

The following table lists the roster of contestants for each episode, ordered based on Tila's call-out order.
  • Contestants surviving elimination in the first two episodes are arranged alphabetically, while eliminated contestants are arranged based on the order Tequila announced that their shot at love had ended.

    Eliminations

The following table explains Tequila's reasons for asking each contestant to leave.
  • Some reasons were not stated in the episode in which they aired.

    Amanda Ireton

Among the contestants, the comedian and television personality Amanda Ellen Soloman Ireton after the show went on to appear on other MTV television shows and That's Amore, WETV's Secret Lives of Women, CCTV's The Rack, and Entertainment Television's The Soup and Extra.
She hosted CBS's reality show Big Brother – The reunion special as an interviewer. She starred in Karmina's The Kiss music video. Furthermore Ireton was MTV's columnist and video blogger for A Shot at Love 2.

DVD release

A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila – The Complete Uncensored First Season was released on April 15, 2008. The DVD contains the ten episodes, the reunion listed as episode 11, but does not contain the special episode "One Shot Too Many". It also includes some extended and deleted scenes.