Now that "The Bachelor" has limped its sorry ass back into the public consciousness -- thanks to the craziest! finale! ever! -- we can expect a new raft of vaguely nauseating, strangely hypnotic, definitely soul-sucking shows in which women compete for the divine privilege of humiliating themselves.
The latest cringe-inducing endeavor from our subtle, classy friends at Fox is "More to Love," an overweight dating show that has so far inspired such headlines as, "Fox's new reality show helps fat people find love." (How kind of them!)
"Most of the country isn't a size 2," says creator Mike Fleiss, the man behind "The Bachelor." "This is a show for the rest of us."
There's a few reasons to believe that the proper response to this show is to take one hand and slap it firmly to forehead. (Not the least of which is how "the rest of us" who are not "a size 2" came to translate into "fat people." Huh?) The show is co-created by Mike Darnell, who has been called the PT Barnum of reality show programming, which is kind of like being the greediest bastard at AIG. Darnell is the evil genius who brought us "When Animals Attack!" and "Temptation Island" (Fleiss and Darnell's other collaboration was that exploitation supernova, "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?") and what's hilarious/horrifying/utterly unsurprising is how Darnell gussies up this latest project in a message of hope and empowerment:
"For six years it's been skinny-minis and good-looking bachelors, and that's not what the dating world looks like … Why don't real women -- the women who watch these shows, for the most part -- have a chance to find love too?
How heartwarming. There's nothing wrong with shaking up the Botox monopoly of reality television -- that's a great idea, in fact -- but there won't be any enlightenment on its way from the man who brought us "The Littlest Groom."
Shares