CBS, which hasn't introduced a new reality series since Simon Cowell's Cupid reality dating series aired to lukewarm ratings in Summer 2003, has announced that it will premiere two new reality shows in January, Wickedly Perfect and The Will.
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Wickedly Perfect, a ten-episode Joan Lunden-hosted series that will search for America's "next great style maker," will premiere Thursday, January 6 at 8PM ET/PT, where it will presumably keep the time period warm until the tenth edition of Survivor (currently filming in the South Pacific island nation of Palau) premieres later in the new year.
Also premiering in January will be The Will, The Bachelor producer Mike Fleiss' six-episode inheritance competition series that was surprisingly resurrected by CBS last winter after already having spent nearly eighteen months languishing in development at ABC. Possibly reflecting the network's low expectations for the series, while Wickedly Perfect will air in Survivor's high-profile time period, the apparently DOA The Will has been given the Saturday 8-9PM timeslot that the network had originally allocated to the currently-airing The Amazing Race 6.
First announced in October with a title of Finding The Next Designing Diva, Wickedly Perfect will pit twelve people with a creative knack for the finer things in life in a no-holds-barred competition to crown the country's new authority on at-home living. Various areas relating to entertaining and beautifying a home will be addressed, including party planning, gardening, cooking, baking, sewing, crafts, floral arranging and decorating.
Like most reality competition programs, in addition to chronicling the relationships that develop among the tightly wound, extremely competitive participants who will live together on a luxurious New England estate, each episode will also feature the elimination of one contestant.
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The winner will receive numerous prizes, including six appearances on The Early Show on CBS, a development deal for a lifestyle-oriented television show, and a publishing deal with Atria Books, a division of premier publisher Simon & Schuster.
Renowned chef and restaurateur Bobby Flay (Mesa Grill), Emmy Award-nominated stylist David Evangelista (The Rosie O'Donnell Show) and best-selling author Candace Bushnell (Sex and the City and Trading Up) will serve as the program's judges.
In an ominous sign that does not portend well for the series, Wickedly Perfect is produced by LMNO Productions, with Eric Schotz and Bill Paolantonio serving executive producers. Better known as the producers of Discovery Health Channel and Lifetime network programming such as Babies: Special Delivery, Final Justice with Erin Brockovich, and Impact: Stories of Survival, LMNO doesn't exactly have a good track record with regard to reality competition programming.
LMNO's previous reality competition programming includes Fox's Boot Camp (which was sued for ripping off Survivor's concept), NBC's Race To The Altar (a show that bombed so bad that the network had moved it to Saturday nights by the end of its run), and Fox's The Littlest Groom miniseries (a reality dating concept featuring little people that was universally panned by both viewers and television critics.) I Wanna Be A Soap Star, its latest reality competition show, recently aired on cable's SoapNet network.
With that type of track record, it's no surprise that the company's initials stand for "Leave My Name Off" (as in "leave my name off the credits.") LMNO indeed.