Anything for Love – Episodes 1 & 2

Reality shows are popping up like mushrooms on every network and it’s getting harder and harder to keep them all straight. Monday night, Fox trotted out the latest of its entries with the debut of Anything for Love. The show is hosted by Mark Wahlberg (host of Temptation Island) and co-hosted by Claudia DiFolco, who, from what I can gather, was an annoying entertainment reporter for KTVK in Phoenix. Her only other screen credit is a guest appearance on Total Recall 2070!

The show promises to show us "how far people will go in the name of love" and was created by Endemol, USA, the people who brought us not only Big Brother but Fear Factor and Spy TV as well! I can hardly contain myself.

We move right to the action after a quick introduction by Walberg and Claudia. The first couple tonight is Amy and Matt. They have only been married for a year but are already separated. Seems as though Matt would rather spend time at the strip club than home. So, desperate to save her marriage, she decides to go to the strip club to dance in front of him. Ugh.

We meet Amy’s stripper-tutor who teaches her how to “work the pole!” Amy starts to cry, and doesn’t know if she can do this. It is so out of the norm for her, she says. Matt and his buddies arrive at the club (Matt’s been told that he is part of a show about the L.A. night life). She puts on a mask saying that she hopes he will look at her the way he looks at the other strippers. She works the pole and does some bumps and grinds while Matt is licking his lips. Looking a lot more comfortable with all of this that I would have expected, Amy dances over to him, sits on his lap, grinds a little and then takes off her mask. Matt is shocked and looks as though he is about to cry. They hug and it looks like their marriage is saved. Matt tearfully tells us he will do whatever it takes to get her back. Hooray, a happy ending for all.

The next couple is Richard and Yanni. Richard is concerned about her loyalty to him and has decided to put her love to the test. He tells us that love scares her and he doesn’t think she’s serious about him. What was your first clue, Richard?

So, they set her up. Yanni is an aspiring actress so the show arranges a photo shoot for her with a handsome photographer and Richard is watching it all on hidden cameras. The shoot is in a gym and this chubby little skank tells the photographer she is seeing someone but he is “just a friend” and what she really wants is to “make love in Spanish.” Okay. The guy is coming on to her big time and finally asks her to dinner. She writes down her cell phone number on her card. Poor Richard decides to confront her “with dignity” while these two are all over each other. Richard is “shocked, upset, and hurt.” He thought they had something going. This is so pathetic. She tries to slip out of it but admits that she was flirting. Oh Richard, give it up. This girl is no good. I guess this was enough for him though cause he kicks her to the curb. Yay Richard, you finally developed a spine.

In part three, we meet Sara, who is already in the audience. Mark tells her she has an admirer and then we see a video clip of Rannick, who relates the story of how they met. He’s been hung up on her all this time even though they have only had two dates. He seems like some kind of obsessed weirdo, actually and certainly not the type of guy Sara would go for. He looks kind of sleazy, while she is the “girl next door.” She is very surprised and doesn’t seem real thrilled about Rannick being the secret admirer.

So Rannick tells her that he thinks she is his soul mate (yuck) and she looks like she would rather be having a root canal than standing on the stage with him. She says she is flattered BUT… She tries to be nice and says that the first time she met him she was drawn to him but the second time, forget it. She recognizes that they are two very different people (duh) and although he looks like he is about to vaporize, they hug and he tells her that her being in his life has made it better. Sara, honey, watch your back. Something tells me this guy is not going to give up that easily.

Bye bye… end of episode 1.

The second show starts out the same as the first except Mark and Claudia have on different outfits.