Reality TV

Reality TV My old Baker House dormmate, Ed Miller 00 (a.k.a. Ed Miller, Noted Poker Authority), will be on the Bravo reality television show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Yes, tonight (Tuesday, June 20) at 10 p.m., Ed will get made over by the Fab Five as part of their new season in Las Vegas (see photo of Ed before, with Carson Kressley at right). The episode is being advertised with the tag line, Turn a Poker Dud Into a Five Card Stud. Ed double majored in Electrical Engineering Computer Science and Physics at MIT. After graduation, he took his skills to Microsoft, but has since moved to Las Vegas, where he became a professional poker player and currently is an author. He has published three books and one DVD set about Texas Hold Em: Ed recently spoke to the MIT Alumni Association about his MIT experiences: Miller said MIT helped him develop the analytical and communication skills he needed to write about the logic, math and probability inherent in the game. Most people who write poker books arent as technically minded, so sometimes they have trouble expressing what they think about and what they do in a precise way, he said. My MIT education has taught me to think logically about poker, its taught me to think from a technical perspective, and its much easier to communicate that way with other people. Ed wont be the first MIT alum involved with reality television. Some others: Another of my dormmates, Ankur 03, was on Season 2 of Beauty and the Geek. My current housemate, Lisa 04, was one of five MIT students featured on the Discovery Channels Crop Circles: Mysteries in the Fields. Cameron 04 and Rayna 06 were featured on an episode of TLCs A Makeover Story. Andrea Wong 88 is the executive at ABC who is responsible for all reality programming, including Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. A bunch of Mechanical Engineering students were on the Archimedes Death Ray episode of MythBusters. Randal Pinkett S.M. 98 M.B.A. 98 Ph.D. 02 was hired on season 4 of NBCs The Apprentice. Jennifer Johnson 98 decided not to sign a contract to appear on MTVs The Real World: Boston (season 6). Chris Vu 04 (a.k.a. Vudoo Soul) was a semifinalist on season 2 of American Idol. Professor Henry Jenkins frequently writes about, among many other things, reality television.