Details Behind The Hit Plastic Surgery Reality Show Botched
When it comes to plastic surgery, there are those unlucky few who unwrap their procedures only to find a horror story underneath. That's where Botched comes in, a TV series that attempts to fix those surgeries that go horribly wrong. But there is more to the show than cement fillers and faulty implants.
From Kylie Jenner's lip fillers being the second-requested procedure to "corrections" not always working out as planned, here are some behind-the-scenes tidbits from Botched.
#1 Requested Procedure: Kim Kardashian's Behind
According to Dr. Nassif and Dr. Dubrow, Kim Kardashian's derriere is the number one most requested procedure. Apparently, a lot of people are looking for her hourglass figure, jumping right into what the two doctors call a very dangerous procedure.
During an interview with Fox News, the two Botched doctors explained why they think the procedure should be outlawed. They said, 'We think that this operation should be banned. It's just too dangerous. The blood vessels in the [rear] are very fragile and very small. There's a very short distance from the blood vessels that lead to your heart and lungs. Don't do it."
Dr. Nassif And Dr. Dubrow Met Through Mama Nassif
Fixing messed-up plastic surgeries is enough to bring two people together. And that's kind of how Dr. Nassif and Dr. Dubrow met. The two are long-time friends whose relationship goes back to 1999, way before they began Botched together.
During an interview with Page Six, Dr. Nassif explained that his mother thought the two doctors should meet. He said, "1999, when I opened up my office in Beverly Hills, I got a call from my sister and my mom. They go, 'We met this funny Dr. Terry Dubrow in Newport Beach.'" His mother insisted they meet, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Even Though It's On TV, A Botched Surgery Can Go Wrong
Every surgery correction that comes through Botched isn't necessarily an easy fix. In fact, some of Dr. Nassif's and Dr. Dubrow's patients go through a harrowing experience only to come out with another botched surgery.
According to an interview Dr. Dubrow did with TooFab, "Sometimes we had blood supply problems, tissue got infected -- we got some serious problems. We needed leeches; we needed antibiotics, we needed hospitalization." Unfortunately, even though the surgery is being showcased on reality TV, the reality is that those little mishaps come with the territory of going under the knife.
E! Only Approved Eight Episodes For Season One
When E! first snagged the rights to Botched, the network wasn't entirely sure how their viewership was going to respond. The sometimes visually gory series was going to be unlike anything they produced before. So, instead of spending money on a lot of episodes, the network decided it was going to film and air eight.
The good news for the network is that they didn't botch their investment with Botched. The plastic surgery correction reality series was a huge hit! So much so that they decided to push the second season to 20 episodes.
Second-Most Requested Procedure: Kylie Jenner's Lips
When Kylie Jenner posted the first picture of herself after getting her lip filler, it pretty much broke the internet. Many people became obsessed with her pout and were flocking to plastic surgeons, asking for the youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner clan's lips.
As it turns out, Dr. Nassif's and Dr. Dubrow's patients are no different. According to the two doctors, Kylie Jenner's lips, or more specifically, her lip fillers, are the most requested procedure by their patients.
People Pay Up To $100k For A Botched Surgery
When people appear on Botched, they're there, hopefully, to correct a past surgery that went horribly wrong. Unfortunately for them, those surgeries aren't free, even if they are being filmed for reality television. In fact, according to Dr. Dubrow and Dr. Nassif, some of the surgeries can cost up to $100,000.
During an interview with Allure, Dr. Dubrow explained that with all of the materials, not to mention the multiple areas of the body they tend to work on at once, corrective surgery isn't cheap. He said, "So the procedure, revisional surgery of the type we do, would vary between $30,000 to probably $90,000 or $100,000."
After Season One, Application Numbers Shot To The Thousands
The first season of Botched turned out to be a striking success. People were skeptical, at first, with only 500 people applying to be on the plastic surgery correction show. But after its huge following, more and more people applied for the second season.
For the second season, the showrunners had to choose 46 patients for the 20-episode season -- out of 6,000 applications! That is a tremendous jump from the previous season's measly 500. And that's also a lot of people who have fallen victim to botched plastic surgery.
At First, Dr. Terry Dubrow Wasn't Sure About Doing The Show
When Dr. Terry Dubrow was first approached about being a surgeon on Botched, he wasn't exactly jumping at the opportunity. Yes, it would give him and his practice a lot of exposure, but that exposure came at a very high cost.
The show would showcase all of his work, no matter the outcome. During an interview with The Daily Beast, Dr. Dubrow said, "As a plastic surgeon, you're not judged by the before vs. after. You’re judged just by the after." He didn't want to join the show only to get his reputation tarnished. Of course, he eventually agreed.
Oli London Spent Over $100k To Look Like A K-Pop Star
BTS mega-fan Oli London has spent over $100,000 to look like k-pop singer Jimin, London's definition of perfection. As it turns out, perfection comes at quite a hefty cost, one that set him back a few grand and wouldn't allow him to actually get corrective surgery when he appeared on Botched.
When London appeared on the show, Dr. Dubrow and Dr. Nassif had to turn him away, stating that he's had so much work done to his nose there's hardly any cartilage left, making another rhinoplasty surgery very dangerous.
They Don't Glamorize Plastic Surgery
Dr. Nassif and Dr. Dubrow not only do a great job correcting the botched plastic surgeries for patients that walk through their door, but they also educate them. One of the biggest differences between Botched and other plastic surgery shows is how the two doctors discuss the dangers of undergoing plastic surgery.
During an interview with Dr. Dubrow, he explained how Botched is different from other series, saying, "The difference between this show and other plastic surgery shows is that we're not glamorizing plastic surgery. In fact, we’re providing a scare about plastic surgery.”
Patients Get An "Appearance Fee"
People who make it onto Botched get more than correction surgery out of the deal; they also receive a tiny appearance fee for their troubles. The network, E!, provides patients with a fee that they can use towards their surgeries, all of which cost more than a pretty penny.
While it isn't public knowledge how much the patients are paid to appear on the show, Dr. Nassif and Dr. Dubrow say that the surgeries they do on the show are high-risk and expensive, and the network wants to help the patients out even a little bit.
All Applicants Must Be At Least 18 Years Old
When it comes to appearing on Botched, perspective applicants hoping to be patients aren't going to get too far unless they're legal adults. That is, they have to be at least 18 years of age to even think about getting on the show.
If a patient isn't at least 18-years-old, like many surgeons, Dr. Nassif and Dr. Dubrow will turn them away. The doctors have a point, since teenagers aren't even fully grown yet and shouldn't be on a reality show correcting plastic surgery that they've previously had. That's just a recipe for more disaster and confidence issues.
The Doctors Don't Allow Selfies Or Celebrity Photos
If there is one thing Dr. Nassif and Dr. Dubrow hate, it's when patients bring in filtered pictures of themselves or air-brushed pictures of celebrities. According to the two doctors, they have to talk down their patients and explain that the pictures are unrealistic expectations.
According to Showbiz Cheatsheet, the two doctors call it "selfie dysmorphia, so we'll have patients come in, and their skin looks flawless because of filters and with the face tune. And so we do the same thing, just like we used to have patients come in with celebrity photos. We basically say, 'that’s not realistic. It’s not going to happen.'"
Dr. Paul Nassif Got A Facelift In 2019
After losing a lot of weight in 2018, Dr. Paul Nassif decided to hang up his white medical jacket and become a plastic surgery patient himself, undergoing a facelift because his "droopy jowls" were really bothering him. And the fact that his friend, Dr. Dubrow, called him a "flying squirrel" probably didn't help matters!
During an interview with Page Six, Dr. Nassif explained his decision to get a facelift, saying, "The excess skin, especially in my neck, was driving me crazy. It's something that I personally wanted to do for myself. It doesn’t matter if I am married to someone 105 or Brittany; I would have done it.”
To Many Times Under The Knife = Turned Away From Botched
For some people, plastic surgery becomes addictive. After their first surgery, they begin chasing physical perfection, something that Botched doctors Nassif and Dubrow strongly advise against since it's unrealistic and, at times, harmful to the body.
That's why they turn away people who have gone under the knife one too many times. The two doctors don't want to feed into a patient's need for unrealistic perfection, and they also don't want to be the cause of something going horribly wrong, as is sometimes the case for people who go through a lot of plastic surgeries.
Some Patients Are Brought In As Cautionary Tales
Not all of the applicants for Botched are brought in to receive corrective surgery. Some of them are brought onto the reality show solely to be cautionary tales to the viewers, people whose original plastic surgeries went so wrong that even Dr. Dubrow and Dr. Nassif aren't able to fix it.
During an interview with The Daily Beast, Dr. Dubrow said, "There are a lot of cases on the show where we bring in people and say, 'That's not fixable, but let’s air their stories as a cautionary tale.'"
The Correction Odds Are 50/50
The chances of patients going on Botched and having their corrective surgery go exactly as planned is close to zero. There is a lot that goes into fixing something like plastic surgery. And Dr. Dubrow and Dr. Nassif aren't shy about letting patients know the truth of their odds.
According to the two doctors, the chances of someone coming out of the corrective surgery with their new look exactly what they want and have pictured is around 50%.
Dr. Dubrow And Dr. Nassif Aren't Allowed To Ask For Advice
When someone is signing on to Botched, they're putting a lot of trust in the expertise of Dr. Dubrow and Dr. Nassif. According to The Richest, the two doctors aren't allowed to look at textbooks for different ways to go about procedures or ask another doctor for their opinion.
Pretty much, they're on their own, and the Botched patients have to trust they know what they're doing. That's a whole lot of pressure for not only the doctors but for the patients who are going under the knife!
The Show Was Dr. Paul Nassif's Idea
While working on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Dr. Paul Nassif was in talks of doing his own plastic surgery show. At the time, there hadn't been a good reality show based around plastic surgery since Dr. 90210. But Dr. Nassif wanted the show to be something a bit different than the typical before-and-after surgery show.
During an interview with Celebuzz, Dr. Nasiff said, "We wanted to do something where we're really helping people, more of a human interest, life-changing, but at the same time add some shock value into it." And thus, Botched was formed!
Allegedly, A Patient Couldn't Blink After Their Corrective Surgery
Dr. Dubrow and Dr. Nassif make it a point to air cautionary tales on the show while discussing the dangers of plastic surgery. Even so, patients don't always listen, and surgeries don't always come out as pictured, resulting in lawsuits. Well, one lawsuit came through as a result of a double-botched nose job performed by Dr. Nassif.
According to his patient, the rhinoplasty, or nose job, left him (allegedly) unable to blink. The patient filed a lawsuit against the reality star.
