Three years after its last attempt at a Temptation Island revival, Fox has announced plans to wade back into the reality television genre's more sensationalist waters with When Women Rule the World, the working title of a new reality series that will establish a matriarchal society and revive slavery.
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Produced by Rocket Science Laboratories, the reality TV production company behind previous Fox train-wreck series like Temptation Island, Married By America, Joe Millionaire, and My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, When Women Rule the World will feature 12 men unsuspecting chauvinistic men becoming slaves in a new primitive Survivor-like "society" ruled by 12 "strong, educated and independent" women who are "tired of living in a man's world" and each have "a personal axe to grind."
"You take 12 attractive women who feel like it's still a man's world and who think they've hit a glass ceiling, and you give them their own society to run," Mike Darnell, the Fox alternative programming executive who also previously tried to bring Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay and Who's Your Daddy? to the network's airwaves, told Daily Variety. "Then you take 12 macho, chauvinistic guys who also think men rule the world and see how they survive in a world where they're literally manservants... They'll have to obey every command from the women."
According to Variety, When Women Rule the World, which Rocket Science just began filming at an undisclosed "remote, primitive location," will begin with the men and women arriving on an island that features only partially-completed living accommodations. Similar to Survivor, the group will have to complete their shelters and find their own water and heat, however unlike the long-running CBS reality show, only the male contestants -- who will have to "accede to the women's every command, 24/7" -- will be doing any of the work. One "manservant" will "traded for supplies" and eliminated during each episode of the 11-episode series, with the last man standing winning $250,000.
Other than getting the chance to boss a man around, the 12 women -- who were reportedly each assigned their own "manservant" when the competition started and will still remain in the game after their man is "traded" away -- weren't, barring an undisclosed twist, given much of a financial incentive to participate in the series, however given their "scorned" personal histories, that was apparently more than enough. "Payback can be a bitch," Darnell gushed to Variety.
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According to Darnell, how the women, who will elect a queen who will be in charge of making several "key decisions," respond to the declining pool of "manservants" will potentially be just as interesting as the men's reactions to their situation. "The other part of the show becomes, what will the women do," Darnell told Variety. "Will they be able to create a great society or will they fight with each other?"
Fox Broadcasting president Peter Liguori -- who only joined the broadcast network in March 2005 and was still running the company's FX Networks cable network when Darnell was previously seemingly given free reign to bring other sensationalistic projects like The Littlest Groom to the over-the-air network's airwaves several years ago -- defended When Women Rule the World's concept to Variety.
"What it's doing, in a very Fox-like fashion, is testing social mores," Liguori told the trade paper. "This is a social experiment and not a sexual experiment. We decided, why not create this Petri dish of a society and see what happens."
According to Fox, When Women Rule the World is expected to premiere sometime this spring.
About The Author: Steven Rogers