Last week we got excited for The Choice, the show that's basically The Voice meets The Bachelor meets The Dating Game. The concept: Celebrities sit in chairs, with their backs to potential dates, and pull a "love handle" to turn around if they like what they hear. Today, the stars involved have been announced, and yeah, the list is a huge let-down. Not just because the "celebs" are so meh (The Situation must be a booby-prize?) but because while there are 20 men who will get setup, only four women have been invited. They are: Carmen Electra, Playboy Playmate Hope Dworaczyk, former Miss USA Rima Fakih, and singer/model/actress Sophie Monk.
According to Entertainment Weekly, these are the male celebs participating:
Pauly D
Tyson Beckford
Joe Jonas
Dean Cain
Rob Kardashian
Rocco DiSpirito
Warren Sapp
Finesse Mitchell
Romeo
Jeremy Bloom
Jason Cook
Michael Catherwood
Seth Wescott
Parker Young
Ndamukong Suh
Dr. Robert Nettles
Taylor Hicks
Mike Sorrentino
Rob Gronkowski
Steven Lopez
There are only six episodes. Five of the episodes will feature male celebrities. ONLY ONE episode puts women in the power seats. Sigh.
Obviously the success of shows like The Bachelor and Rock of Love have depended on the spectacle of watching a bunch of women compete for a man, and The Choice is counting on that formula. But dammit! This imbalance of men and women in power — 20 to 4 — is unsettling. (And let's not even get into the fact that the women are all the exact same type: Thin, stacked, gorgeous, long haired specimens of "hot.") Anyway. Points for keeping the mix diverse ethnically. And yes, I'm still gonna watch.
The contestants were unaware who the celebrities were until moments before they went on stage, but that didn't stop the sparks. "The [female contestants] took it ridiculously seriously, like they were getting married," [Fox Producer Mike Darnell] says. "A couple of the setups really had chemistry."
Fox's 'The Choice' cast revealed! Joe Jonas, Dean Cain, The Situation, many more — EXCLUSIVE [EW]
Celebritology [WaPo]