Hot Gallery: These Small-Screen Couples Have Had Some Very Showy Romances

Surreal, indeed. It was love—or something—at first sight when the six-foot model-actress and the diminutive Public Enemy rapper met on the third season of VH1’s The Surreal Life. (You don’t want to miss their very first “close encounter”; skip ahead to the 9:45 mark.) Their housemate Charo compared their incendiary connection to two fighting chickens in Mexico. In fact, the odd duo were so bizarrely watchable together that they landed their own spinoff, Strange Love (which had a totally fab throwback-style animated intro). Update: It was, in fact, too strange to last: Despite their obvious attraction, the relationship between the Amazonian Nielsen and her Foofy Foofy fizzled. Flav took Nielsen to Vegas in an attempt to win her back from her fiancé, Mattia Dessi, an Italian former model who’s 15 years her junior; Dessi and Nielsen are now married. Flav continued his search for love on several seasons of yet another spinoff, Flavor of Love, before proposing to the mother of his son Karma, Liz Trujillo. Earlier this year, the two appeared on Celebrity Wife Swap, where they switched partners with Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider and his wife, Suzette.

The viewing audience first got to know Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt when they costarred on the hit MTV reality show The Hills. Montag and BFFrenemy Lauren Conrad had a falling out, partly over Pratt, but Montag and her man stuck it out. If you watched the show and are looking at the picture above thinking, Wait, that doesn’t look like the same girl, you’re right—it doesn’t. Montag has spoken about her numerous plastic surgeries; she told ET she’s had “three different faces.” By 25, she already had an eyebrow lift, her ears sewn back, her jaw sawed down, her nose “corrected,” and fat injections in her cheeks and lips, as well as a boob job.

Update: Pratt and Montag are still together, although she said that all the plastic surgery nearly ruined her marriage. “Obviously I wish I didn’t do it,” Montag told the Daily Beast. “I would go back and not have any surgery.” She has since had a breast reduction to replace them with C cup implants. Montag released several singles and music videos (directed by none other than her husband), including “Higher,” which has Montag rolling around in the surf, vamping in a pink bikini. Montag appeared in the reality series Famous Food; Pratt did voice work for an animated Ryan Reynolds movie. The pair was on the British version of Celebrity Big Brother in January 2013.

Brenchel, as they’ve (somewhat inelegantly) been nicknamed, are one of those couples you either love or love to hate. Their romance began when they were both contestants on Big Brother 12 and continued when the couple reappeared on Big Brother 13, which Reilly would go on to win. Reilly—famous for her emotional breakdowns and “most annoying laugh ever”—is an event hostess; Villegas is a doctoral student in biomedical physics at UCLA.

Update: Villegas proposed to Reilly on Valentine's Day 2011, and the pair were contestants on The Amazing Race 20. "We thought we would do well on The Amazing Race because... we don't have to worry about getting along with everybody the whole time,” Villegas said to People magazine. “We can just compete.” And she was right, they placed in 3rd. The two married in September 2012.

This is another twosome that seemed too weird to be true: Hughbanks, the squeaky-voiced college student from Kansas, and Stein, the funny-guy New Yorker who secretly performed strange tasks as America’s Player on Big Brother 8. (Check him out on Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego back in 1992—featuring a young Neil Patrick Harris!) But then again, how weird is it to have every. single. moment. of a new romance broadcast and recorded for all the world to see? It’s a unique situation, even among reality shows, in that Big Brother contestants are viewable 24 hours a day over the live video feed, not just during broadcast show times. Update: Though the couple made an appearance on the next season of Big Brother—to host a love-themed competition—they have since parted ways. Hughbanks is a marketing director and MBA candidate in Wichita, Kansas. Stein is an actor; he appeared in Night Club, starring Ernest Borgnine, Mickey Rooney, and Natasha Lyonne.

Rebecca Cardon was already a reality-TV veteran when she joined the cast of Work Out as a trainer at Jackie Warner’s Sky Sport and Spa in Beverly Hills. Cardon competed in season 6 of The Amazing Race with her ex-boyfriend Adam Malis before signing on for Work Out. Warner and Cardon’s flirtatiousness soon turned to a dating relationship, though Warner said that Cardon tended to “latch on like a tree monkey”—which Cardon took as a compliment. Update: By season 3, Warner had moved on to another relationship. Warner now has a series of workout DVDs, books, nutritional supplements, and online workout regimens, and starred in another reality series, Thintervention with Jackie Warner, in which she offered tidbits of advice like “Sugar is the devil.” Cardon has appeared on the Home Shopping Network as the spokesperson for the Ab Rocket and was the cast personal trainer for Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

Hot dance routines, shiny minidresses, sharp suits... how could this winning combo not produce some hot couples? Dancing with the Stars is the natural breeding ground for showmances. During the series’ sixth season, American Pie and That ’70s Show star Shannon Elizabeth was paired with pro Derek Hough, and the two turned out to be great partners both on and off the dance floor. Update: Several months after the show ended, Elizabeth and Hough tweeted that their relationship was over. Hough went on to win Dancing with the Stars five times, with Nicole Scherzinger, Jennifer Grey, Kellie Pickler, Amber Riley and Brooke Burke, who is now the cohost of the show. Elizabeth appeared inAmerican Reunion and has several upcoming movies.

What started off as a strong alliance on Survivor: All-Stars turned out to be so much more. The reigning showmance couple of all time, “Boston” Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich have appeared on multiple seasons each of Survivor and The Amazing Race, as well as several single-season reality shows and specials, like Around the World in 80 Ways. Brkich and Mariano were the final two contestants of the All-Star season, and he proposed to her during the live finale. She ended up earning the million-dollar prize, but the win seemed pretty anticlimactic given the bigger news of the night. Update: In 2005, their wedding was filmed and broadcast in a two-hour special called Rob and Amber Get Married. The couple have three daughters, Lucia, Carina and Isabetta.

Okay, so they were actually on a show about finding love, but Rehn and Sutter made our list because their showmance is one that, despite all the airtime, seems more “romance” than “show.” Rehn was disappointed when she became the runner-up for the first season of The Bachelor, but that was clearly a blessing, as she went on to become the first Bachelorette and chose firefighter Ryan. Update: Rehn and Ryan’s wedding was broadcast in a three-part series in 2003. Max, their first child, was captured in all his adorable babyness for a Bachelor update show in 2008. Their daughter, beautiful Blakesley, was born a year later. The family lives in Colorado. In January 2014, the pair will renew their vows for a live special on ABC.

Saved by the Bell star Mario Lopez was paired with five-time national champion Karina Smirnoff for her debut season of Dancing with the Stars. The pair soon demonstrated their chemistry with week after week of exciting routines and in-synch performances, though they eventually came in second place. They were both clearly more broken up about having to part ways. So they didn’t—for a while, at least. Update: Smirnoff and Lopez stayed together for two years before calling it quits. Smirnoff went on the record to say that the breakup was mutual. She won the mirror ball trophy with actor J.R. Martinez. She's since been paired with singer Gavin DeGraw, Apolo Anton Ohno and Corbin Bleun. Lopez, the host of Extra,America’s Best Dance Crew and The X Factor, published several books, including Mario and Baby Gia, a children’s book dedicated to his daughter with wife Courtney Mazza. They also have a son, Dominic.