VH1 is making yet another stab at rebranding itself for the ever-evolving “youth” market, with Variety reporting that the network’s current line is that it’s “the place where pop culture comes to party.” (The word “frothy” is also being used.)
As part of that cultural hootenanny, the network is renewing its partnership with RuPaul’s Drag Race—which it started airing last month, taking over for Logo as the show’s first-run home—and announcing a slate of new, mostly unscripted shows. Some of these are pretty standard cable reality fare, like a Ricky Martin-starring celebrity lifestyle series, or Baller Wives, exploring the day-to-days of Miami-based basketball spouses. But there’s also Scared Famous, in which a bunch of supposed celebrities live together in a spooky house, and the scripted Daytime Divas, a drama based on Star Jones’ thinly veiled anti-View attack novel, Satan’s Sisters.
The most interesting new show—from an “Oh god, these young’uns” point of view, anyway—is ’90s House, a Real World-esque reality show in which ’90s person Lance Bass will preside over a house full of Generation Z-ers who’ve had their smartphones and wifi taken away. The show promises to “reboot” all the coolest ’90s moments its young cast members absolutely will not remember, as they desperately try to figure out dial-up internet so they can Alta-Vista “Who the hell is Lance Bass?”