Flavor Flav & "Flavor of Love" Creator Reflect on Reality TV Past 10 Years Later --- "It Was a Really Tough Start"

Following the events of "The Surreal Life" and "Strange Love," which chronicled Flav's relationship with Brigitte Nielsen, the rapper tried his hand at dating. "Flavor of Love" stuck close to formula that made "The Bachelor" such a success, but threw the rapper and a group of even more unpredictable women into the mix.

The series was huge for VH1, spawning two more seasons and spinoffs including "I Love New York" and "Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School."

While reality shows with stars attached are the norm these days, that wasn't always the case.

Both Flav and Cris Abrigo, the creator of "Flavor of Love" and king of celebreality shows, appear on "The Steve Harvey Show" this week for their "Where Are They Now?" week -- where Cris opens up about the struggle he once faced booking some of these series.

"During the time I was in reality television, no celebrities had really been on reality TV. It was really unknown people, regular people, like 'Survivor,'" explains Cris. "We decided to take an approach, get some celebrities, some icons and put them on television. It was so new, that we would call managers and agents and say that we were interested in their client and they would literally tell me to 'f—- off' or hang up on me or [say] no client of theirs was ever going to do reality TV."

"It was a really tough start in breaking this genre, until we were able to hit it on 'The Surreal Life,'" he adds.

"When they told you to F off, you did the right thing. You Flav-ed off," exclaims the clock-loving star. "Look at you, number one now!"

While Flav didn't end up with any of the women from the show in the long run, he says he is still with the lady he showed up with to the Season 3 finale, Liz Trujillo.

"I had a fiancee [at the finale]. I brought her on the show and my little son, we had just had a baby," he explains. "His name is Karma. My son Karma, he's 9 years old now! My girl, she's at home, just chilling. We're still together, after 12 years. I'm good."

But what about ladies like Pumkin, Bootz and Hottie? Check out the gallery above to see what they all look like now!