Exclusive: Ex-'Bachelor' Matt Grant explains his 'Pimp My Bride' project

Matt Grant's Pimp My Bride reality show project is no joke, despite its smirk-inducing working title.


"I'm working with Mark Wolper and The Wolper Organization," the former The Bachelor: London Calling star told Reality TV World on Tuesday about the project, which he had originally mentioned to Us Weekly during a Saturday appearance at a Haiti disaster relief event in Santa Monica, CA.

Grant had told Us that Pimp My Bride, which aims to put grooms in charge of their upcoming nuptials, had been picked up by Warner Brothers. However the company's Warner Horizon reality programming arm had denied knowledge of any Warner involvement when contacted on Monday.

The Wolper Organization is a small Warner Brothers subsidiary that operates independent of Warner Horizon.  Founded by Wolper's father David L. Wolper -- a Television Hall of Fame member who produced both Roots and The Thorn Birds -- as a documentary company in 1958, its recent credits include Showtime's Penn & Teller: Bullshit and God or the Girl, a 2006 A&E reality documentary series that followed four men considering joining the Catholic priesthood.

"We're just in talks at the moment. Ideally I'd love it to be an ABC show because I think it complements The Bachelor so well," Grant told Reality TV World about the project, which has not been sold to a network yet.  


"It's taking from when The Bachelor finishes and we're left with a future bride and groom.  It's taking them from that step to then the next step, which is organizing a wedding."

Pimp My Bride would begin with 11 already-engaged couples and follow a reality competition series format over the course of 10 episodes.

"It's a process of elimination. There's going to be a load of brides and grooms -- all the brides in one house, all the grooms in another -- and they're basically fighting it out to have the best wedding," Grant told Reality TV World.

"But the basic premise is that the groom is in control. He is the one responsible. Really just building on the fact that us guys, a majority of the time, couldn't organize a piss-off in a brewery -- as us British say."

Since some grooms will struggle with planning the weddings, Grant said the show would likely include some "horror stories."


"I think some future brides are going to be absolutely shocked at how little their future husband knows about them -- picking out an orange wedding dress or a pink wedding dress, maybe trying to get them married in a Catholic church when she's Jewish," he explained to Reality TV World.

"Whatever the big error is, there's going to be some of those."

However Grant said some of the grooms will also probably "surprise" viewers.

"I think we're going to get surprised," he said. "Sometimes it's the ones that you wouldn't think would be able to organize anything, they put their hearts really in it and actually pull off some amazing, wonderful stories."

Grant said there will be weekly eliminations until there are only three couples left, and their groom-planned weddings will air during the show's penultimate broadcast -- after which home viewers will vote for their favorite ceremony. The winner will then be revealed during the finale.


"So we get to see the Final 3, [America] actually gets to see their wedding," Grant told Reality TV World. "Then the nation votes for their favorite wedding."

Grant added that part of the series would involve -- similar to the The Amazing Race -- exploring the couples' relationships and seeing how they deal with the stress of having the grooms plan the weddings.

"I think that real excitement comes from the fact that we get to see couples who are clearly, utterly, completely in love and are just made to be together and know one another," he said.

"Then we get to the other couples who are actually surprised themselves at how little they know about one other in this whole process."

Because some of the couples may not know each other as well as they thought, Grant said some of them might even call off their engagement.


"Maybe we'll see some people even back off marriage -- just give some time out to let themselves find one another," he told Reality TV World. "I think a lot of people rush into marriages sometimes, and we're going to get all that in the show."

Grant said he came up with the idea for the reality series about half a year ago while at a coffee shop.

"I just turned around to these two women -- these strangers -- and just completely interrupted them, they were having a coffee. I said, 'I wonder, I can see you're both married. How would you feel if your husbands had to organize this whole wedding?'" he recalled to Reality TV World.

"And there was this great reaction from one of them. She spat her coffee out and went, 'Oh my god, no f--king way!'"

While the show's potential title is the same as a Pimp My Ride parody skit that previously aired on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live, Grant said he was unaware of that until after he thought it up.


"I like it because it kind of grabs people attention," he said, adding that the series might also be called The Groom.

Grant starred in The Bachelor's Spring 2008 twelfth season, in which he offered the final rose and a marriage proposal to Shayne Lamas, both of which she accepted. However the couple eventually called off their engagement in July 2008 and Grant is now skeptical that the format is conducive with finding real love.

"I think in the goldfish bowl world that is the reality television set, I think that it limits the chances to such a small percentage. Clearly the format can work because you've got [Ryan and Trista Sutter], right?" Grant said about the ABC reality dating franchise.

"But as far as a successful love-making format, I don't think it's necessarily the best set-up to bring people together."






About The Author: Christopher Rocchio