March 31, 2009

Oxygen Gets Wicked with Its Newest Show

Tonight Oxygen premieres its first ever competition reality show Pretty Wicked. The premise is simple: Beautiful, backstabbing girls are pitted against each other to find out which of them can change their wicked ways and become a better person, and which ones will continue to lie, cheat and manipulate their way through life. ABC tried a similarly-themed show called True Beauty earlier this year that was a total flop. I can watch just about any reality show out there and even I didn't make it past the first 2 episodes.

The good news is that things are looking good for Pretty Wicked. It's basically a combination of several other successful reality shows like America's Next Top Model, Bad Girls Club, Beauty and the Geek and Charm School. The girls on the show are amazingly cast and the challenges are ridiculous but interesting at the same time.

I went to a press screening of the premiere last night and talked with host, and ANTM cycle 7 winner, CariDee English about the new show and what it's like to be on the other side of a reality show's production. Check it out:



I was a little skeptical of Pretty Wicked when I saw the first previews, because I figured it would be just another one of those "can we make the bad girls good?" shows. Maybe that is slightly the case, but I think the casting of the show is what makes Wicked stand out. There were girls that I LOVED and girls that I HATED within the first five minutes of the show. Always a sure sign for success.

The ridiculous sound bites that the girls fired off will be things that you and your friends (or at least me and my friends) will be quoting for a while. When asked what her strengths in life were contestant Vanessa quickly responded with, "shopping, spending and blow jobs." Bravo.

The first episode forced the girls to have a mixer with blind men, who can only judge them based on personality. Contestant Julin wins the challenge because she knew it wasn't "a beauty pageant, but a personality pageant." When fellow contestant Ana says one of the men provoked her dog into barking, Julin tells her to relax because "they can't even see your dog." Wise words, Julin.

Do yourself a favor and watch the premiere of Pretty Wicked tonight at 11pm on Oxygen, then tune every Tuesday at 10pm when the show moves to its regular time next week. You'll be pretty happy you did.