Saturday, July 12, 2008

"TEN YEARS AGO, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN OUT OF THE QUESTION TO BASE A TV SHOW AROUND VOMIT": It sounds like a line from "30 Rock," but it's true. This Tuesday night, the G4 cable channel debuts "Hurl!", and I'm just going to the press release:

The competition is made up of multiple stages, beginning with an intense eating contest. Contestants are challenged to consume a massive portion of some popular All-American favorite, as quickly as they can, with items ranging from chicken pot pies to New England chowder, fish sticks, hot dogs, blueberry pie, and more. Those who devour the largest quantity and keep everything down move on to the second stage where they must face nausea-inducing physical challenges, designed to shake them up from carnival rides to belly flops off a high dive, to mechanical bull-riding. Each episode features two different cuisines and a new outrageous challenge.

The few survivors remaining who have held on to their stomachs are forced back to the food table, where they must gorge an additional serving of a surprising new menu item. In a comedic and gag-inspiring display, the remaining few desperately try to prevent themselves from getting sick. If the competition is still underway after the second round of eating, they advance to the final tie-breaker stage, heading back to the daunting physical challenge. And this time, for added pressure, the physical challenge introduces a surprise twist, making the final stage especially difficult.


The vomit itself, apparently, will be digitally blurred. What happened to the courage of the producers' convictions? "Actually," claims an executive producer, "The show has very little to do with vomit, and everything to do with competition and camaraderie. It's like a college dare all grown up into its own TV show. It's nothing different from what fraternity boys do. ... It's more wholesome and uplifting than any dating show you'd care to make."

What is the bottom of the reality tv conceptual barrel -- the dueling torture-quiz shows? If not, it's probably something in the dating genre, whether it's Who Wants To Marry A Violent Faux-Millionaire?, "The Littlest Groom", or, of course, Monica Lewinsky's "Mr. Personality,", the masked dating show.

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