As our own Josh Modell noted in his review of the Kid Nation prémiére this week, reality TV works best when it's a thinly veiled schadenfreude delivery machine. With that in mind, here are a couple of new shows that should provide Josh and his fellow misery-lovers plenty of opportunity to revel in the stupidity of others:
Buoyed by the success [Really? People actually watch this?—ed.] of The Real Housewives Of Orange County, Bravo is currently in production on Manhattan Moms, a new series "examining the relationships and foibles of upper-middle-class mothers as they shuttle between their professional and personal lives in the city and their recreational lives in the Hamptons." Finally, a show we can all relate to.
With its shows like The Surreal Life offering celebrities the final stop on the way to complete career flameout and others like Breaking Bonaduce and Shooting Sizemore catching fat, bloated phoenixes as they struggle to pull themselves out of the ashes, VH1 has decided to cut out the middleman and set up Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew, starring Loveline's Dr. Drew Pinsky as he attempts to help former stars of VH1 "Celebreality" shows break the addictions to drugs and alcohol that agreeing to be on a "Celebreality" show caused in the first place.
Useless factoid learned while "researching" this Newswire post: Jason Heller totally needs to get away to his Hamptons retreat. Like seriously.