Reality TV: A New Lease On Life For Aging Rock Stars

Growing Up Twisted, a new reality television show, premieres Tuesday, July 27th at 10 PM on A&E. Who does it star? Twisted Sister's outspoken lead singer, Dee Snider.

That's right! Dee's traveling down the same hard rock road paved by Bret Michaels, Sebastian Bach, fellow A&E mate Gene Simmons, and the man who started it all, Ozzy Osbourne. This show will focus on Snider's family: Suzette, Dee's wife of twenty-eight years (bravo, guys!); 27-year-old son Jessie, a past host of several music shows; 21-year-old son Shane, a stand-up comedian; 20-year-old son Cody, a filmmaker; 13-year-old daughter Cheyenne, a singer/cheerleader/student; and an ageless and nameless dog with a pink mohawk.

Here's a short commercial for the show:



So will you watch it? I loved Twisted Sister as a kid, so I'll definitely check out an episode or two.

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We Are All Queens

I fell in love with RuPaul's Drag Race last spring. For the uninitiated, the best way I can describe it is to imagine if you tossed the cult film Paris Is Burning , a heaping spoonful of America's Next Top Model, and maybe a sprinkle of Bad Girls Club into a blender. Oh, and and add a dozen or so drag queens.

Tonight, Logo debuts its summer spin-off: RuPaul's Drag U. There's one little twist. Instead of competing against each other, the queens from both seasons one and two will help "biological" women find their inner drag queens. This should be fun.



Read interviews with some of the "faculty members" here.

Bravo Searches For The Next Big Art Star

As someone who was an art student for approximately fifteen minutes before she realized she couldn't draw or paint even well enough to pass her work off as "abstract," of course I had to watch the latest offering from the Bravo juggernaut, Work Of Art: The Next Great Artist.

Bravo takes an "if ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to reality TV. Work Of Art follows the same template as Top Chef and (now on Lifetime) Project Runway: take a dozen or so talented people, give them weekly tasks appropriate (or not) to their chosen field, and whoever fails is asked to pack his knives and is "Aught!" Adjust for a little art world pretense, and you have Work Of Art. (Even the telltale bad critique "bong!" at the judging panel stays the same.) Interesting enough, Sarah Jessica Parker is the producer. From Bravo's site:

Bravo’s latest stroke on the reality canvas brings Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Sarah Jessica Parker and her production company, Pretty Matches, together with the Emmy-nominated Magical Elves (Top Chef, Project Runway) and Eli Holzman, to produce Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, an hour long creative competition series among contemporary artists. Work of Art: The Next Great Artist will bring together fourteen aspiring artists to compete for a solo show at the prestigious Brooklyn Museum and a generous cash prize.

The first three episodes will be in the bag by the time this post is up. So far, I like this show, but I'm of the opinion that Bravo can do no wrong (I mean, aside from catfighting housewives).

Work Of Art airs Wednesdays 10 PM EST/9 PM CST.

Reality Be Gone

It's the dawn of a new era for Hollywood: they must be officially out of drunks and drug users because it was announced yesterday that VH1 is postponing Celebrity Rehab because they can't find enough celebrities in need of its services. Hooray for Hollywood! But I do feel sorry for the countless tabloid writers and bloggers who make money from kicking celebrities when they're down.

But it got me to thinking... What if we ran out of teens and twentysomethings in search of a recording contract? No more American Idol! What if we ran out of single people that have no problem looking for "love" in front of millions of people? No more Bachelor!

So now it's your turn: what reality show do you wish would run out of contestants so you never have to see it again?

Go!