Former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards and his much younger wife finally get the reality show they deserve

As part of TV's shift away from off-puttingly elitist shows about angry New Jersey people and toward the more egalitarian experience of Southerners totally not giving a fuck, A&E has announced the Feb. 27 debut of a reality series about colorful former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards, whose entire political and personal life spent not giving a fuck has been leading to this exact moment. Those years of living as flagrantly and flamboyantly as possible will pay off with The Governor's Wife, which stars the 85-year-old Edwards and his 34-year-old wife Trina, a woman whom Edwards first met as a prison pen pal while serving eight years for racketeering charges—charges he accrued during his four terms as governor of Louisiana, which Edwards ruled like a king, and whose affection for him seemed to grow in direct proportion to how rascally corrupt and arrogant he became. (Witness Edwards' successful run against David Duke in 1991, which spawned the unofficial campaign slogan, "Vote For The Crook. It's Important.")

Naturally, the show will center on Trina "as she attempts to fit into the former governor’s upscale world and busy social life"—like A&E's similarly Louisiana-set rags-to-riches-to-reality-TV series Duck Dynasty, but with bribes and gambling instead of duck accessories. It will also find her wrangling not only her own teenage sons from a previous marriage, but also Edwards' much older daughters: "Anna, a 62-year-old, four-time divorcée and Victoria, a 60-year-old ex-showgirl." And obviously, it will find Trina "fending off skeptics who think she's a gold digger"—a defense that will surely strengthened by the fact that she just landed a reality show called The Governor's Wife. But first and foremost, of course, it's about the love.

 
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