Midnight Owl Video

[ROTY]

When will Playboy learn that reality TV does not sell on their channel. They have been pushing this idea for an eternity now, and I do not know a single reality show that they have come up with which took to the water.

7 Lives Xposed, even with its scripted nature and obvious pre-determined plot, was unable to garner attention (the DVD sales of the first season were abysmal to the point that Playboy scrapped any more plans to produce season sets for the following seasons, and this was before they had ever thought about ditching DVD.)

Totally Busted was pushed harder than most shows of the last ten years, and it never garnered the same popularity as its infinitely more appealing cousin, The Really Naked Truth.

There is Foursome, but the less said about that garbage the better.

Even Sexy Girls Next Door, one of Playboy's more popular programs of the last ten years, finally fell because the producers added the ridiculous reality show element to the series in its final couple of seasons.

American Sex Star came close to actually getting over with the target audience, but the fact that it hasn't been seen on the air in nearly three years now tells all the story that needs to be told about that one.

Not ones to learn their lesson, Playboy is producing yet ANOTHER reality show, and this one could be the worst yet. A promotional vignette produced for the series shows it to be a cross between Who Wants to be a Playboy Centerfold and American Idol.

Ten models and photographers team up to compete for a spot in Playboy (with all of them still acting like that means anything right now.) The scenes that were featured showed all of the usual reality show nonsense. Brande Roderick serves as the hostess who does nothing but stand in front of the group and tell them their challenges. In this case, I hope that means simple photography lay outs, otherwise this show may become the first Playboy TV series ever canceled after one single airing.

There is the diary room garbage (where, laughably, all of the sound bytes in this promo put Playboy over as though it were still the Playboy of 25 years ago, rather than the Playboy that couldn't sell out a first printing if you charged a nickel per issue outside of a sexaholics convention.)

Of course, what reality show would be complete without your bitchy judges. I couldn't figure out who the young lady was that was featured, but she apparently thinks nothing can be good enough since every soundbyte from her appearance involved negative adjectives and the model/photographer teams scoffing in offense.

It's just really sad that Playboy TV, which for years marketed itself as the alternative to prime time TV, has now become just another run of the mill network that happens to show a lot of nudity for $12.99 a month.

I try to be positive. I still love watching World of Playboy. Some of the movies they feature on here (even in the hour long blocks) are worth a check out. Even the old reruns of Playboy Prime are worth recording for the Playmate features.

Yet, it's hard to be positive about this stuff for long when all they want to do is continue to feature more and more mediocrity rather than actually attempt to fix the problems that are staring them right in the face.

Reality shows are designed to attract ratings. Playboy TV does not deal in ratings. At least not in the conventional sense. Their job is to produce material that makes people sit up and take notice. They are to produce material that is different and arousing. The stuff on Playboy TV should make me tell my friend "I saw this amazing show last night, you might want to order a block of Playboy TV to check this out sometime."

Some reality show (even one with nudity) is not going to cause anyone to do that. The entire network's line up is made up of naked women. What Playboy has to do is take those naked women, and make them do something within the bounds of entertainment for the market they are aiming at. I got news for them, this market doesn't fly reality airlines.

[midnightowl1]

They have a reality show on now called Sex Lives. I have not watched an entire episode, only bits and pieces while flipping through channels. The only one I recognize on it is porn star Brooke Banner. Some mailman brings the girls (I think there are 8 of them seperated into teams of four; porn stars vs models or something like that). One show had the girls directing a porn film. I haven't watched more that 5 minutes before flipping the channel.

I've seen promos for the one Yoda is talking about but didn't know it had premiered yet. Wasn't planning on watching much of it anyway.

One last note. I didn't dream this. Playboy TV is airing promos for an upcoming showing of the Russ Myer movie Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill. That is definately a small change from their normal pattern. Maybe someone over there is finally thinking outside the box.

[BigChris]

Faster Pussycat is a great move by The Bunny. Russ Meyer's work should be a semi-regular thing on the network.