9 men was the cast and camera crew I think. The "reality" show apparently follows a group of "investors" - I don't think you could make a reality show about a group of people going on Shark Tank, for a start you'd have an argument over which show owns the rights to footage and that's before you get to who controls the script...
The apology just looks like something that's been run through legal first, unlike the script/plan for the show.
The more interesting thing is that if the explanation is correct (and from news photos of the "device" it looks much much more like a pump and vacuum plumbing than a timer / pressure switch and explosive) where the heck did the TSA's statements like "cause panic with the intention of turning that panic into a reality show" come from?