Distractions are funny sometimes. The A.D.D kicked in as I was researching information for a serious article on the tools of motherhood I've been working on when I stumbled onto the latest celebrity gossip.

So in the celebrity news today, it was announced that the “famous” couple, Tila Tequila and her new boyfriend Bobby Banhart have split. For those of you familiar with the fall season reality show line-up, you know what I’m talking about, MTV’s sensational “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila”. For everyone else, this was a dating program who’s ingredients included a large group of love seekers, 1/2 straight men, 1/2 lesbian women, and 1 hot, bi-sexual babe. The premise, to purge the group’s players one by one, week by week, until finally the perfect love match was selected - all while romping around in some very short-shorts.

The show follows a series of other similar formats, “Flavor of Love” featuring rapper Flavor Flav and then followed up by “I Love New York”.(These shows later brought us “Charm School”.) We should give credit to the creators of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette”.
Featuring internet star Tila, this show’s concept was original only in that now the group of competing candidates were of opposite sexes.

Interestingly, this version has been named the network’s most viewed programming since 2005. Well, Duh! When it comes to matters of love and sexual content, what better way to maximize your viewing audience then by uniting straights and non-straights and those in between. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that a large percentage of the new audience were straight men wanting to indulge in the viewing of girl on girl action.The season ended with the final 3 being one man and two women (no surprise to me, sounds like some not so clever manipulation of the order of elimination). The final two: Man versus Wo-Man.

Banhart was selected just last month as Tila’s love. On New Year’s Eve however, Tila announced during the update episode that poor little Bobby couldn’t handle her hectic, celebrity schedule and so he broke it off. Bobby on the other hand has posted on his MySpace page that “she never called me after the last show and no one would give me her number.”. He claims to have never even been able to talk to her on the telephone.

In the meantime, the network has already announced a sequel to be aired in the spring of 2008. What a surprise, hmmm. Flavor of Love followed by Flavor of Love 2, I Love New York lead to I Love New York 2, something smells fishy. Now I like reality programming, there are some pretty clever shows out there (however, I’ve never been keen on this group dating thing. I think it’s pretty gross and doomed to fail from the start). I like certain programs because I once was interested in psychology and the study of group and family dynamics. Being a realist, I know that it would be incredibly hard to film 100% reality entertaining enough to broadcast on television. But come on! I think that it is stunts like this that will drive audiences away from the trend as it becomes more and more predictable.

So what does Tila have to say about the coming, new season: “This time I wanna find love for real”. Well if that were true, why wouldn’t she just spend some time contacting those contestants she almost fell in love with. After all, some of those eliminations were really hard for her to make. Sounds to me like a stunt to further her launch from internet celebrity to TV celebrity.

My Predictions:

As in I Love New York 2, there will be some underdog who will be strung along for at least half the season - remember the little person from Tiffany’s batch of contestants?
There will be a closet homosexual male who makes it to the final four and only get’s eliminated when he confesses to Tila after a hot and heavy make-out session in the prior episode.

There will be a bi-sexual gal who gets booted off the show when it is revealed that she has secretly fallen in love with one of her male competitors.

And finally, after meeting the folks of her final 3, Tila will refuse to select any of them. She will reveal that she is sleeping with Bachelor Number 1’s father - which would then leave the door open for a new reality show “Living in Sin With Tila”. This would allow viewers to tune in to episodes of the adulturant father who moves to Tila’s mansion. He struggles to handle her fame and his soon to be ex-wife. She struggles to deal with her quasi-stepson, once competitor for her love, now alcoholic enraged with jealousy and disgust over the betrayal.

The ultimate question: can television get any more repulsive? It’s a good thing there are certain laws in practice because I fear that the answer is MOST DEFINATELY!

To anyone still reading, here’s my personal list of reality favorites in no particular order. At first glance it will seem like a watch a lot of TV. I think as far as the time I am really watching, it’s not that much. For the most part, the set is on to create background noise. I work better that way when it comes to housework, messing on the computer or crafting.

~ Little People, Big World
~ The First 48
~ Intervention
~ A Baby Story
~ Bringing Home Baby
~ Top Chef
~ Project Runway
~ Made
~ America’s Next Top Model - but only during the season marathon’s.
~ The Pick-Up Artist - a shocker to me. Expecting some cheesy tips on how to command the attention of women, I actually thought that some of the pick-up techniques were just as appropriate for anyone who was looking to gain the skills and confidence to handle any social situation.
~ The Real Housewives of Orange County - so hard, and so embarrassing to admit. I have slowly grown a fondness & slight affection for some of the characters. There’s something about watching the reality of people who don’t live in the real world. The show is as much about the really spoiled children as it is about the “housewives”. This all reinforces my gratitude at not having been born to parents of the super rich. I pledge before all of you…if I ever come into real money, I will live a humble existance and teach my children to do so much more with our resources.