MTV Gets New Shot of 'Tequila'
by Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 1/7/2008
Tila Tequila ended the old year without her dating-show suitor, but she gets a second chance at TV romance as MTV has approved a sophomore season of her hit series.
The network ordered 10 more episodes of A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila from 495 Productions, in which the bisexual MySpace.com pin-up queen will once again try to find the right guy or girl among a batch of straight guys and lesbians.
The rookie season was MTV's top new series among its target 12-to-34 demographic in 2007.
The Dec. 18 season finale delivered a 5.9 rating among the 12-to-34 set (5 million such viewers) to become the highest-rated series telecast on MTV since an August 2005 installment of The Real World XVI.
With 6.2 million total viewers on average, the season concluder was also the second most-watched show on MTV in 2007 behind the MTV Video Music Awards. It was MTV's most-watched series telecast among total viewers since the Nov. 26, 2002, installment of The Osbournes.
For its premiere installment runs, Tila Tequila, with a 3.41 average among persons 12 to 34, was the second highest-rated MTV series in that demo behind The Hills's 4.05 in its third campaign. The Hills, according to network officials, was up 45% from its second season.
News of a second round of Tequila follows her split with film student Bobby Banhart, whom she selected over firefighter Dani Campbell. “Things didn't work” out between them, an MTV spokesman said. Banhart wasn't part of Tila Tequila's New Years Eve Masquerade 2008, when the jilted hostess announced the second season.
The new Tila episodes are scheduled to air sometime this spring. In all likelihood, the series spin-off, That's Amore!, with first-season fan favorite Domenico Nesci searching for love among 15 women, will make it to air before its progenitor, MTV officials said.
That's Amore! is also produced by 495 Productions, which signed an overall production services agreement with 495 and its president, Sally Ann Salsano. Her other reality credits include HGTV's Design Star, Style's The Big Party Plan-Off and ABC's The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.
