By RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com, filed January 9, 2015
Syleena Johnson, an Atlanta-based R&B singer, has worked through her professional issues on TV One's "R&B Divas," her family issues on OWN-TV's "Iyanla: Fix My Life" and now her marriage on WE-TV's "Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars," debuting on January 9 at 9 p.m.
Reality TV apparently can be therapeutic - AND you get paid to boot!
Johnson and her husband Kiwane Garris were having intimacy issues, exacerbated by young kids. "Once we had the kids, we became robots, walking past each other," Johnson said over lunch earlier this week at Houston's near Lenox Square Mall. They were already in therapy but heard great things about Elizabeth and Jim Carroll's marriage counseling prowess.
"My life is an open book already," Johnson said.
And she convinced her much more private husband to go along with this.
So on TV, they take lie detector tests, jump in water (he can't really swim), mock date other people on the show with differing communication styles, live through a fake divorce in a fake courtroom ("I go crazy in the courtroom!" she said) and dig into some of their deepest, darkest issues.
"We realized we have our own individual problems that block us from dealing with each other," Johnson said. She said she also learned that they need to schedule intimate time together because otherwise, given their busy schedules, it never happens. And while that doesn't sound romantic, it's effective.
For two weeks for the show, they said they had to interact with other reality stars with no Internet, no phone, no TV. They largely got along with most of the other people - even the infamous couple Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt of "The Hills" fame. Based on the teasers, "Speidi" are obviously the "big get" for WE-TV.
"They get a bad rap because of their past," Johnson said, empathetically. "They were really kids and were hurt by 'The Hills.' Half the things they said and did were scripted."
Johnson has had a few R&B hits, having worked with the likes of Kanye West and Common, but in this reality home, she was relatively unknown. ("R&B Divas Atlanta" is a big hit for TV One but a big hit on TV One is not like a big hit on CBS or MTV.)
One thing that drove them nuts is that some of the people could only talk about reality TV. Aviva Drescher was especially aggravating, bitching and moaning about losing her job on Bravo's "Real Housewives of New York."
"We rarely talked about people's jobs," Johnson said. "It got really annoying after awhile."
Except for Aviva, she has stayed friends with the other women on the show, which includes couples attached to "Bad Girl's Club" and 'Survivor."
"We had a lot of fun in the house," she said. "We'll see how it plays out."
She drank a lot of wine on the show, gaining 15 pounds. "I never gained that much weight in such a short time before," she said. "I blame it on stress."
And while some of the couples didn't always seem totally forthcoming, Johnson felt she laid it out on the table. "In retrospect, I wish I had kept some things to myself," she said.
She sensed some of the people were there more for the TV time than for their marriage. "People are truly addicted to the camera," she said.
Johnson has plenty of fish in the fire besides reality TV. She's finishing up a book. She's planning a tour with David Hollister. She is a certified nutritionist and has a workout video for mommies trying to get their bodies back in shape after having babies. She is seeking acting roles. And she is still awaiting the fate of "R&B Divas Atlanta" for a fourth season.
"I don't want to do reality TV forever," Johnson said. "But I'll do it for the right shows."
TV preview
"Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars," 9 p.m., Fridays, beginning January 9, 2015, WE-TV
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