11/25/2010

Examiner

http://www.examiner.com/x-37027-NY-TV-Examiner~y2010m8d7-MTVs-Jersey-Shore-started-a-trend-for-ethnic-reality-shows

Source: Examiner, August 7, 2010

MTV's Jersey Shore Started a Trend for Ethnic Reality Shows?

Snooki of "Jersey Shore" started a trend
Snooki of "Jersey Shore" started a trend
mtv
Ok...are you ready for second-rate copies of what had originally seemed to many like a second-rate idea?- Is it possible that "Jersey Shore," continuing its runaway success in its second season on MTV, have created an entirely new category of identity-based reality television?

At least one copycat is getting out of the gate. In April, a posting appeared on Craigslist calling for "interesting, attractive, colorful Asian Americans to cast in a reality show similar to 'Jersey Shore.'" After the producers shot the pilot episode recently, a steady stream of cast photos trickled out, and TMZ leaked an outrageous casting reel that got the Internet buzzing. There's already an Asian counterpart —- dubbed "The Situasian" -—to Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, what appears to be an equal devotion to gym time and boozing as the Jersey-ites, and hair-tugging cat fights.

Unsurprisingly, it's not just Guidos and Guidettes that can party and 'roid out with the best of them. The bottom line of all this seemed to say, Asians! They're just like us! Except substitute gym, tan, laundry, for karaoke, designer brands and taking pictures.

Tentatively titled "K-Town" and set in Los Angeles' Koreatown, the show has yet to be picked up by a network, and who knows whether it will be. Not since 1994 have television audiences been confronted with an all-Asian cast. Margaret Cho's "All American Girl" aired for one short-lived, turbulent season. Plagued by low ratings, ABC wrangled with Cho about her weight, not being Asian enough, and then being too Asian. By the end of the season, the only Asians left were Cho and co-star Amy Hill.

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