MySpace, the social-networking site that most Americans now only remember as the inspiration for the suffix of FaceSpace, the fake social-networking site that exists solely in the Law & Order universe, was once a thriving, squirming community, full of likes and dislikes, displays of all-caps passion, and pronouncements that "I don't want kids." Then everybody moved to Facebook, leaving their MySpace profiles to rot, abandoned and alone on a deserted stretch of Internet.
Occasionally, though, those that got out would wonder: Is there still life inside MySpace? What would those left-behind MySpacers be like? Would they have evolved differently over their time in isolation, like the albino screamers in The Descent? Would they be a society made up of half cannibal punks, half medieval enthusiasts, like the quarantined Scots in Doomsday? No, as it turns out, the people left behind on MySpace morphed into something even more disturbing: bland TV enthusiasts.
From Variety:
The future of "Married on MySpace" couple Elle and Tito will play out on SiTV.
The selling point was the charismatic couple of Elle and Tito, who won over online auds.
The 13 episodes of "Married on MySpace," which ran from March through August, generated more than 15 million views, 500 threads on forums and more than 1 million votes from MySpace users, making it the most-watched original series ever produced by MySpace. Elle and Tito also made 340,000 friends on the site.
MySpace users had a connection to Elle and Tito considering they were able to cast the couple that would star in the show, vote on which dress Elle should wear, choose the couple's rings and pick the wedding location.
Making trivial wedding decisions for strangers, posing these strangers like living paper dolls, thinking about strangers' weddings, looking at photograph after photograph of wedding rings and debating "Hmmm. Should I have Tito wear the classic yellow gold or the blingy platinum?"—this is entertainment in the forgotten land of MySpace. What a warped, bleak world those 1 million MySpacers live in.
But there's more:
MySpace sparked to the TV show because "they're taking something to the next level and building on the following and the main cast to make something new," said Jason Kirk, VP of video and entertainment at MySpace.
"The Married Life" will officially bow on SiTV on March 29, but to promote the series, the network will air three introductory episodes in December, using footage from "Married on MySpace."
As a cross-promotional move, MySpace will air original webisodes, culled from footage from the TV show, a day before each TV episode runs throughout the series' season.
MySpace is now planning a second season of "Married on MySpace" to bow next year with a new couple, and it has "Coupon Mom," backed by Endemol and other sponsors, upcoming.
What is this "Coupon Mom," and what does she want from us, the normals? Clearly, the MySpacers worship her as some sort of god, with Elle and Tito as lesser seraphim. What will happen when her preachings are shown to the outside world??
Still, it is good to see the Married On MySpace couple try to escape the confines of their insulated community. Hopefully, they'll have better luck than Hector & Julie, the couple from Hitched On HamsterDance, or Bob & Anna, the couple from Married By An Apple Newton Personal Digital Assistant.