Mine was from Pawn Stars and relates to valuable books from the late 19th century.
They said that one way to tell a first edition of many of the most famous (and valuable) books now from that period such as Dracula and Dorian Gray, was that the covers will always be yellow. Yellow was the colour that a publisher printed in, when they wanted to make a provocative statement.
Sounds trivial but it is exactly one of the things to know, if you somehow come across one in a charity store or at a car boot sale. Might be the difference between a book worth £10 and £10,000.
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Watching Big Brother one year, I saw a contestant change their bed, their duvet to be more specific.
They flipped the duvet cover inside out, got their hands inside the duvet cover and grabbed the furthest corners, grabbed the corners of the actual duvet with these hands and then flip the cover over the duvet.
Mind. Blown.
How not to run a double-glazing business 😛
I learnt that East Anglia isn’t abroad.
JVN from Queer Eye taught me how to properly trim my beard.
That I had Binge Eating Disorder, from My 600lb life. Since had a diagnosis, but got no help as there isn’t any available.
I don’t normally like reality TV shows but in the past year I’ve watched all seasons of Race Across the World and the UK, US, and AUS versions of The Traitors.
Amazing telly, all of them! I think I learnt the most about human behaviour from both and also about other cultures.
Watching one of the many Cash In The Attic/Bargain Hunt type shows, I noticed a collection of football programmes go for some good money.
I had a rummage through the garage and found shoebox stacked with ones I’d collected as a kid.
I could have sold them individually myself but I simply didn’t have that time, so I sold them to a collector as a job lot. Probably missed out on about 15%-20% of their worth because of that. But they provided me with enough money to cover the gas bill that winter.
From watching “property brothers” that reciprocal saws are a thing, and if you have even a cheap one, you can reduce anything in your house or garden made of wood or light metal, plastics to small pieces without needing anything else
I learned about escape goats
In the OG Queer Eye from about 20 years ago, on one episode they recommending rolling the sleeves of t-shirts up once or twice to make them look more fitted, and I still do it to this day.
I don’t know if it was on the show but every time I wash my hair I think of Khloe Kardashian saying to wash your back after you rinse out your conditioner to prevent back acne.
Sort Your Life Out by Stacey Solomon (BBC iPlayer show)
The held up the end of the vacuum cleaner hose while drilling screws into the wall to suck up the dust instantly, preventing it from falling all over the place, game changer for home improvement things (helpful to have 2 pairs of hands though)
Travel Man with Richard Ayoade taught me that Amman (the capital city of Jordan) has been continually inhabited for at least 200,000 years, and there’s evidence that suggests it has been inhabited for 400,000 years. You can’t even say that humans have lived there that long, because homo sapiens didn’t even exist at that point. Blew my fucking mind.
From Grand Designs and all the DIY SOS type programmes – spend money on thermal glass. And lots of things not to waste money on.
Also, check your contraception before embarking on an ambitious house renovation…
Not a reality show but I saw an interview with Anne Hathaway years ago and the host gave her a cupcake
She unwraps it, rips the bottom off and puts it on top of the frosting
The host is stunned and shes like “oh yeah if you do it this way you get frosting in every bite and it doesnt get all over your face”
That’s how I eat cupcakes now
Thank you Anne
not reality tv, but dot cotton taught me how to fold socks properly.
To never go on a reality TV show
How to use salt and vinegar to clean the hob. Thanks Aggie!
Edit – typo
Antiques Roadshow taught me, multiple times, that sellotape yellows with age, and can stain/ruin crockery
That people are more concerned about themselves than others.
Ray Mears. How to light a fire without matches or lighter.
Don’t use river rocks in fire pits. From Alone.
Antiques Roadshow. Check the bottom of stuff that looks old, if it’s doesn’t say ‘dishwasher safe’ then it could be valuable.
To not shove a wine bottle up your clacker
That I can turn off the TV remotely as well as at the wall.
Not quite reality tv but Rip Off Britain taught me about spotting the difference between fake and real fur trims.
Apparently it’s now cheaper for Chinese manufacturers to use rabbit or fox fur rather than make fake fur. Some high street stores got caught out by their manufacturers and I also discovered my cheap pair of gloves from the market had real fur (always thought it was impressive fake!! Went straight in the bin couldn’t face wearing them afterwards)
Tips are to look at the ends of the hairs, fake fur is usually blunt and real is tapered to fine point. Also part it and check how it’s attached. Fake will be on a woven webbing type material, real fur will be attached to skin.
Culinary Genius, a show from 2017 I’d never heard of until I saw it on Pluto.
Generic cooking contest except round one is ‘how to properly prepare a vegetable’ and round two is ‘how to properly butcher or prepare meat’ with a demonstration given by a top chef.
There are so many little tips I’ve picked up from it. I never knew I was chopping butternut squash in the least efficient way possible.
It made me realise how few other cooking shows actually go through the basics like that instead skipping the chopping to go straight to gourmet spice mixing or something.
Top Gear – I think – demonstrated how to open locked car doors with packing straps. I learned this in the 1990s, and successfully retrieved keys locked in a Saxo in 2007ish. I doubt I’ll ever use it again but it was handy that time.
I learned that David died.
I don’t know if it’s necessarily useful, but I learnt (learned?) a lot about Iran and Persian culture from watching Shahs of Sunset.. and then not sure if it counts as a reality show but I have learned loads from Top Chef
how to avoid a soggy bottom
Sue Perkins taught me how to dice onions on a day time cooking segment.
Sore point. At the very beginning of Big Brother they had proper psychologist’s who explained why people were doing things, they called it ‘group dynamics’. It explained a load to me
I started to understand working in a group, why I was doing stuff.
Then, everyone started complaining about all the psychology stuff, how ‘boring’ it all was.
Needless to say they dropped it.
I was really getting into psychology and have at least kept an interest in it
It’s quite important if you want to get along with people!