| Here they are! The reality shows not good enough to be featured in the ever-so-important spring and fall ratings periods. They will reside, or more accurately fester, on your television this summer. Enjoy!
‘NERDS WITH BABES’ SHOWS
· Beauty and the Geek
Currently airing on the WB; premières June 17 on CTV.
Fresh from his successful involvement in MTV’s Punk’d, Ashton Kutcher serves as executive producer on this wacky tag-team game show. Seven gorgeous girls who are academically challenged are paired up with brainy guys short on charisma and style. The team members learn from one another while competing in challenges that will ultimately lead to one duo taking home a $250,000 cash prize. The WB is billing it as "television’s newest social experiment." Hey, and if it makes the world a better place, where swimsuit models can do their own taxes and rocket scientists know how to dress with flair, I’m totally behind it.
· Average Joe: The Joes Strike Back
Premières June 21 on NBC.
Fat guys, weird guys and, I assume, a couple of smelly guys, all compete for the affections of a dazzling, red-haired professional model. Some legitimately attractive dudes are thrown in the mix as well, but I’m sure they have no chance of making it to the end. Yeah, right. What’s the point of this whole thing? Do we really need to be reminded that attractive people generally prefer to date other attractive people? Thanks for trotting out the obvious, NBC.
‘MUSIC ACTS THAT USED TO MATTER’ SHOWS
· Hit Me Baby One More Time
Now showing on NBC.
Canadian stadium rockers Loverboy and former teen queen Tiffany have been on it. Wang Chung and Vanilla Ice will be on it. This is the contest-based reality show where past-their-prime music acts go head-to-head to demonstrate who looks less desperate for a second stab at stardom. Actually, what they do is sing their signature hit and a currently popular song, and a live studio audience decides who is the night’s winner. But you know this is really a struggle to determine who looks less pathetic. Is it too soon to have that Clay Aiken American Idol guy on the show?
· Rock Star
Premières July 11 on CBS.
Past supergroup INXS has waited the better part of a decade to try and replace its dead lead singer Michael Hutchence, who hanged himself in a Sydney hotel room in 1997. Reality TV mastermind Mark Burnett (Survivor, The Apprentice), has now convinced the Aussie rockers to conduct their search on television. Several contestants, both male and female, will compete to see which one will be a part of the high-profile band’s next album and world tour. For some reason, the INXS boys are not interested in any of the half-forgotten wretches featured on the aforementioned Hit Me Baby show. I wonder why?
THE THING WITH TOMMY LEE IN IT
· Tommy Lee Goes to College
Premières August 16 on NBC.
He’s been a rocker with Mötley Crüe. He’s been a sex-tape star with former wife Pamela Anderson. Now tattooed bad boy Tommy Lee will be seen as a real-life college student at the University of Nebraska. Can Lee balance academics with his provocative extracurricular activities? And will Oingo Bongo play his dorm room Halloween party? Oops, sorry, that’s a question for Rodney Dangerfield in the movie Back to School. You’ve got to love it when marginally entertaining ’80s films become reality-show premises. |
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