Booty Farts LOL

VH1’s Lineup to Be Even Less Star-studded

Yesterday, VH1 announced that it would be trotting out a record 44 new series in 2010 and making an intentional break with the D-list celebrity shows (Rock of Love, Flavor of Love, and their many spinoffs) that have comprised just about all of the network's programming over the last few years. "As much as they've enjoyed the Love franchise, our audience was getting a little fatigued by all those manufactured reality shows," VH1 president Tom Calderone said. "They want more authenticity in their reality, which isn't to say that it can't be comedic and light." Calderone even dropped the "M" word, as the ersatz music networks like to do when they're trying to project the aforementioned authenticity, saying that each new show would fall into one of three genres: music, celebrity, or "real life stories."

But before you get your hopes up about seeing an actual music video on the channel, you should know that a Behind the Music about Christina Aguilera is an example of VH1's new "music" programming. In other words, this isn't change, this is repositioning: VH1 is dumping the Flavor of Love model of reality television in favor of the Jersey Shore model. Instead of breeding reality-TV celebrities from patriarchal D-listers like Bret Michaels or Flava Flav, they're gonna breed reality-TV celebrities from nobodies, like Snooki and the Situation. Doesn't that sound more authentic to you?!

Consider the shows VH1 announced: My Big Friggin' Wedding, more or less My Super Sweet 16 with, well, weddings; You're Cut Off, in which women who could have appeared on My Super Sweet 16 are denied pedicures and Barneys; Eva Longoria: Beso: Waiting on Fame, about the wait staff at Longoria's restaurant Beso; Estranged With Dr. Drew, where the celebrity doc plays relationship counselor to a normal couple (Sorry, Sandy and Jesse, he just doesn't have time for you right now). What all these shows don't have is an ur-semi-famous person like Flav or Michaels making a fool of himself on camera (Longoria executive produces her show, but is not one of the main characters). What they do have are regular people making fools of themselves on camera!

In fairness, the new series don't have set-ups as ludicrous as people competing for a chance to do something as patently undesirable as sleeping with Bret Michaels or Flava Flav. And yes, the Love series and their spinoffs are tired (and dropping in the ratings. Though, for a reminder of their dominance, see this Times piece from 2007). But in eighteen months, when the breakout star of My Big Friggin' Weddings is newly divorced and getting a chance to host his own dating show (My Big Friggin Dating Game!), he'll be tired too — having never been as authentically weird as Flav, just as authentically fame hungry.

VH1 Pumps Up The "Gen Mix" Show Volume [Deadline]

Say What: VH1 Cleaning Up Post Flavor ?

Posted on Apr. 7th, 2010 by Sir Platinum Graham

While many enjoy shows like “Flavor of Love,” “I Love New York’ and ‘For the Love of Ray J,” VH1 has long been dismissed for its seeming glorification of negative images and stereotypes.

According to insiders, the network is deliberately cleaning up its line up with shows about family and success (via Chilli, Basketball Wives and Brandy and Ray J: A Family Business)….

The cable network synonymous with “Flavor of Love” and its sleazy spin-offs is trading trampiness for fabulousness with a new slate of series starring seemingly well-adjusted rich and famous black Americans. VH1 executive vice president Jeff Olde admits that the shift from oh-no-they-didn’t fare to more mature material is totally intentional.

“We constantly have to evolve and tell our audience different stories,” he says. “I love that we’ve been able to get more diverse with our audience by — in large part — attracting African-American women to the network. We got them in the door with some shows, and now I’m excited about where we’re going and how we’re telling them different kinds of stories.”

With an April 11 debut, “What Chilli Wants” will be partnered on Sundays with “Brandy & Ray J: A Family Business,” focusing on sibling R&B singers Ray J and Brandy Norwood as they attempt to relaunch their music careers, and “Basketball Wives,” starring Shaquille O’Neal’s ex-wife, Shaunie O’Neal, and five other women with romantic links to basketball players.

For the notoriously trashy VH1, it’s not reality as usual. While cat fights will flare up with the “Basketball Wives” and Chilli promises a tiff with her sassy matchmaker on “What Chilli Wants,” these new shows certainly aren’t selling buzzworthy moments akin to “Flavor of Love” contestants spiting on each other or suddenly defecating on the floor.

“I watched ‘Flavor of Love’ myself,” attests Chilli. “It was definitely one of the shows I thought was interesting, but it made sense for Flav to do it just that way. For me, I wanted to do my show in a way that I would be comfortable with, and I was very happy that VH1 was on the same page with me. They did have a formula that has been working for them.” (Business Week)

Flavor Flav's Birthday Party

WTF IT WAS FLAVOR FLAV BIRTHDAY I FORGOT LOL

A Milli Freestyle Various Artists

Jay-Z Ft. Gillie Da Kid, Red Cafe, Cassidy, Jadakiss, Uncle Murda, Peedi Crack, Chris Brown, Bumpy, Meek, Mills, & Papoose