Fat Reality Dating Show In Development
More Hollywood news! It’s Hollywood Monday! There’s a reality show in development at Fox that will basically be a fat version of The Bachelor. It’s called More to Love.
For six years it’s been skinny-minis and good-looking bachelors, and that’s not what the dating world looks like,” Fox president of alternative Mike Darnell said. “Why don’t real women — the women who watch these shows, for the most part — have a chance to find love too?”
The project has a similar format to “The Bachelor,” where a group of woman compete for one man (producers describe him as a “Kevin James-type”)
There’s that “real women” label that we all are kind of starting to hate. Skinny women are “real women” too, no matter how much Boxox and silicone they have going on. Anyway.
“More to Love” was inspired by the recent ratings success of “Bachelor” and the popularity of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” which Darnell credits with shattering an industry assumption that TV viewers only wanted to watch highly attractive people.
“This show is going to get a lot of people talking,” Darnell said. “It may be a little controversial, but I think it will mostly be positive. This is so simple and so obvious, yet it has never been done.” Broadcast reality-dating shows such as the CW’s “Beauty and the Geek” and NBC’s “Average Joe” have featured less-than-handsome men but paired them with model-esque women.
“Most of the country isn’t a Size 2,” Fleiss said. “It’s the dating show for the rest of us.”
Contestants will do the sort of activities seen on “Bachelor,” but producers suspect Jacuzzi or massage dates will take on a different perspective. “More to Love” will have makeover aspects — when contestants wear ballroom gowns, for instance — but Fleiss said the focus will not be on physical improvement. “We want to send the message that you can be the size you are and still be lovable,” he said. “We aren’t going to thin these girls down so they can find love — that’s a backwards message.”
But Fleiss has left open the possibility of twists. “
I don’t know about you, but given the “twists” and the “makeover aspects” and the “new perspective” of scenes in the Jacuzzi, I’m scared. I’d rather watch Jessica Biffi on Project Runway Canada. Let me tell you how refreshing it is to see a genuinely plus-sized girl on reality television. It is SO GREAT. (Here is the first episode, and you can see Jessica at 2:17.)
Via Defamer.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Biggest Loser, Gossip, Media, More To Love, Project Runway, Sex & Romance, Tidbit, TV, Video
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“no matter how much Boxox and silicone they have going on”
ouch, that was hurtful– not all of us skinny chicks are made of plastic, and I’m kind of surprised someone as accepting as you would make a statement like that :(
Maybe I didn’t express myself well… I was referring to reality show contestants on shows like The Bachelor as extreme examples of women that others might think of as “fake”–you know, the stereotypical silicone and bleach blonde airhead reality show contestant. I was saying that even those women are “real women.”
It may be a small step in the right direction, but I seriously doubt the female contestants would even be a size 3X and up, like me. We’re still considered unwatchable by networks unless we’re on The Biggest Loser, or completely insane, such as Wife Swap’s infamous “God Warrior.”
I expect that many of the women will eliminated for infuriating and anti-feminist reasons (if this works on the reality show model of eliminating a competitor every week). And I wonder how wide a range of body types there will be? And if there is a wide range, will the less-conventionally-attractive ones have a snowball’s chance in Hell?
It bothers me that special effort needs to go into making a “reality” show with fat people on it. If the majority of the country is supposedly fat, then shouldn’t we just naturally wind up on the other shows? Or is the rule that fat people should only be matched with other fat people*?
*I thought that would be seen as dangerous, all of us mating and passing down our fat genes to future generations?
Jessica Biffi: “Go big or go home.”
LOVE it. :)
Ten years ago I might have been excited about this concept, now I find all reality television extremely boring. I’d rather see a narrative tv show with actual fat people, even if it’s a fantasy/fashion world like Sex & The City/Lipstick Jungle. I say this because with a 30-60 minute time frame to fill out characters, you could have story lines that approximate real experiences of dating while fat. (I have one of those cringe worthy titles for it too, “At Large”. Four fat single and successful women taking a bite out of the Big Apple. It’s been done, yeah, but not at a size 20!)
Re: Jessica Biffi
OK, I had to google her after you mentioned her, and her dress is in stores, and I love it, but I’m surprised to see it’s only in sizes 4-14.
Yeah, as heartened as I am by this show’s purported goal, I can’t see it not exploiting fat people in some way or regard. The very title alone is kind of off-putting to me even though I do agree that it’s clever given the show’s premise. And I wonder if they will show women who wear sizes 6 – 10 (considered plus-size in the modeling world and also the only sizes shown by Dove in its so-called “True Beauty” campaign) or will they actually feature actual plus-size women who wear a size 14, 20 or shock, gasp! even sizes 26-plus. And if they do, will the focus on these women solely be on their size or will they be treated like women on The Bachelor or any other dating show.
It seems here that a “real woman” is simply a euphemism for a “fat woman.” If the show’s producers truly want to show “real” people, then they would have a variety of shapes and sizes featured in one reality dating show instead of segregating shows by those that feature “thin” people and those that feature “real” people.
How much do you want to bet that they’ll do what they did on “Average Joe” and bring in swimsuit models halfway through?
I’ve seen Jessica and Danio in passing but it wasn’t enough to make me watch. I guess I’m so tired, possibly jaded by the whole “reality” television out there.
I perked up at Godless Heathen’s suggestion of a “Four fat single and successful women taking a bite out of the Big Apple. It’s been done, yeah, but not at a size 20!)”
That I’d watch!
Ugh – it doesnt matter what the “subject” there is no need for another dating show.
i don’t think MORE TO LOVE is sending the right message. they might as well just call it THE BACHELOR FOR FAT PEOPLE. how about featuring REAL PEOPLE and just calling it THE BACHELOR? maybe THEN and only THEN the couple would ACTUALLY GET MARRIED.
Everybody’s getting into the
act!
http://nomadicjoe.blogspot.com/2009/04/featuring-fat-superboy.html
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