TV Critics Tour: MTVN Churns Out Fresh Batch Of Reality Faire
George Foreman, Margaret Cho Among Celebs Features In New Series
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 7/9/2008 2:37:00 PM
Beverly Hills, Calif.—The reality genre continues to expand on MTV Networks, with shows ranging from a new competition show for fashion stylists and a peek at the home life of comic Margaret Cho to a look into the daily life of former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman and his family.
The Family Foreman is the latest original series on TV Land, which has also green-lit a second season of its model competition for mature women, She's Got the Look, as well as High School Reunion.
The Foreman show will take place on the family's ranch in Houston and include the antics of the boxer's 10 children.
Asked about his propensity for naming all five of his boys George, the elder Foreman explained at the Television Critics Association meeting that, after being hit in the head by boxers from Muhammad Ali to Evander Holyfield, “how many names to do you expect me to know?”
His show debuts July 16.
The VH1 stylist completion, Glam God with Vivica A. Fox, is one of 12 new original series that will debut on VH-1 before the end of the year. The eight-episode competition offers the ultimate winner $100,000 and a possible leg-up toward a career as a celebrity stylist.
The Cho Show, also on VH1, will feature the comic, her assistants and even her parents, whom she has mocked in her stand-up act.
Explaining their participation, Cho joked that "Koreans like to work together, whether it's a liquor store or a reality show."
She described her show as more like a sitcom with real people, explaining situations are "somewhat scripted elements."
On July 15, MTV will debut the Jamie Foxx-produced From G's to Gents, a competition to turn gangstas into gentlemen. Or, as host Foxworth Bentley said, to learn not to act like gentlemen but to actually become gentlemen, The contestant who learns lessons in manners, chivalry, etiquette and business will win $100,000 to help start a new life. Foxx said he will "pop up" in the reality skein.
For more coverage of the Television Critics Association's summer press tour, click here.
