Reality News Update, September 30: Amazing Race, Big Brother, Restaurant Renewed, Other New Shows Coming

As for Cupid, CBS is in discussions about whether to bring the show back, but nothing firm has been decided.

Besides renewing The Restaurant, the same producers are also working towards a new show for NBC that would take the same sort of storyline but in a different area. Rumors indicate that rather than a restaurant, a casino would be the location for this new show.

But other shows are also in progress, one of which would take place in a jail and one in a hair salon.

The jail one comes to us from MTV. Working with Endemol, they will shortly filming the show Inside in the Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth, Texas, if approved by the Commissioner’s Court. The idea is to follow one or two new inmates all the way through the process from their plea to completing the jail term.

The executive producer said, “It’s a look at the reality of what it is to be thrown in jail for the first time, and how it affects a young person.” She added that the show is “meant to be a preventative series for young people who think that going to jail is a cool thing.” Um. Okay, maybe I’m totally disconnected from the youth of America here – but are there really kids who think going to jail is cool?! And just what will they be showing to discourage them? Gang rape? Stabbings? It seems to me that the most discouraging factors probably can’t air on TV or would at least certainly take place away from the cameras.

It should be noted that this series is different from the one that Mo Rocca is working on which also involves prisoners.

Finally, we come to Making the Cut, a new show that will feature aspiring hairdressers. I can hardly contain my excitement. However, the producers are apparently serious, as David Martin, Fox TV’s executive vice president of alternative productions has said that, “It’s almost like American Idol meets The Restaurant in a hairdressing salon.” I’m pretty sure he was serious, but I really find it hard to read that with a straight face.

Apparently, the show will feature the opening of a new hair salon in New York and an experienced hairdresser, Rodney Cutler, who mentors hairdresser wannabes and helps them get into the business. In fact, the best in the group will get a chance to work some sort of big event – a photo shoot or a fashion show or the like. I guess that’s the “prize.”

Although the series is being produced by Fox TV, it will not necessarily air on Fox and is being shopped around. According to Martin, it has already attracted interest from several networks. Sorry, I just don’t get it.

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