The Remote Island

Do We Really Need "More To Love"?

Posted by Lindy Parker

 

Remember Joe Millionaire, y'all?  That dopey, blue-collar construction worker that posed as a jet-setting millionaire and had us all asking the question, "Would you still love me if I were poor?"  Now Fox is ordering up a new show that has us asking, "Would you still love me if I was unattractive?"  To which the auditioning contestants reply, "You mean you think we're unattractive?"     

This can't be a good idea, can it?  

"For six years it's been skinny-minis and good-looking bachelors, and that's not what the dating world looks like," Fox president of alternative Mike Darnell said. "Why don't real women -- the women who watch these shows, for the most part -- have a chance to find love too?"
Well, nice to know the Fox programming executives think women other than Tila Tequila deserve a shot at love.  (Pause while we roll our eyes). 
The project has a similar format to "The Bachelor," where a group of woman compete for one man (producers describe him as a "Kevin James-type"). It marks the first time Darnell and Fleiss have teamed for a series in about nine years. The duo's previous dating show was the controversial, groundbreaking 2000 special "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" which set the format template for ABC's "Bachelor" and a legion of imitators.

"More to Love" was inspired by the recent ratings success of "Bachelor" and the popularity of NBC's "The Biggest Loser," which Darnell credits with shattering an industry assumption that TV viewers only wanted to watch highly attractive people. (Hollywood Reporter)

Okay, we appreciate the effort to put people of all shapes and sizes on TV.  We do.  But, is putting a group of people on a reality show and publicizing it as a show with fat/unattractive/normal-sized contestants the way to go?  Isn't that just a spectacle waiting to happen (Littlest Groom, anyone)?

Previously:

Stay Classyfied: MTV Wants To Give YOU a Shot At Love

Awkward Tuesday: Is The Bachelor Fixed, Fact or Fiction?

Number of Times We Teared Up During “Biggest Loser Families”: 7

The Biggest Loser Isn't a TV Show; It's a Lifestyle

 


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Posted Mar 30 2009, 02:00 PM
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Comments

buy wow gold said:

I think it's reality and that's the best way to show it. But the question is, would anyone dare to audition for that role?

April 15, 2009 5:54 AM

About Lindy Parker

Lindy Parker has worked as a ghostwriter, editor, dance instructor and a purveyor of dreams, one beer at a time. She now writes for nerve.com's TV blog, "The Remote Island." She loves Charles Dickens and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and also, straight-to-video releases with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. It's possible she reads more teen fiction than she should. She hails from Los Angeles, her hometown and soul mate, but she lives in Brooklyn, the fling she'll never forget.

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    Lindy Parker has worked as a ghostwriter, editor, dance instructor and a purveyor of dreams, one beer at a time. She loves Charles Dickens and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and also, straight-to-video releases with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. It's possible she reads more teen fiction than she should. She hails from Los Angeles, her hometown and soul mate, but she lives in Brooklyn, the fling she'll never forget.

    Olivia Purnell left Ohio for sunny Los Angeles; then found that she couldn’t ignore New York City’s call, and brought herself to Brooklyn where she has worked with GenArt, BlackBook, the School of American Ballet, and finished an M.A. in Creative Writing from N.Y.U. She loves one-liners with sting and hates the stench of the subway in the summer. That said, she can’t get enough of either.

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