I do not think I will be watching much of this.......:
On New WB Series, Reality Imitates High School'
Daily News, New York
Unlike many reality shows that bring strangers together for artificial challenges that force them to bond, a new "reality" series coming to WB next month starts with one of life's real bonds: high school.
"High School Reunion" reconnects former classmates 10 years after graduation.
The weekly show begins Jan. 5 at 9 p.m. EST. Seventeen former Chicago-area high-schoolers spent two weeks in Maui last summer to work on their relationships.
"I wanted to see how a reality show would play out among people who really cared about each other," said producer Mike Fleiss, who also heads up "The Bachelor," on ABC.
After combing yearbooks from 150 schools to find suitably TV-fit and TV-pretty candidates, Fleiss rounded up a series of universal types - the popular girl, the once-overweight cheerleader, the nerd, the class clown and the weakling-turned-body builder, among others - and moved them into a $13 million beachfront mansion.
"We'd hoped that since these kids came into the situation with preexisting relationships, that the drama would intensify quickly - and it did," Fleiss said.
Staffers selected ex-classmates who had a crush on another participant, a bully no one ever liked and a shy girl who posed for Playboy after high school in an effort to trigger some controversy. Each was paid up to $1,000 for their time.
Syracuse University Professor Robert Thompson, who oversees the Center for the Study of Popular Television, said the premise was a natural.
"As a concept, it's filled with the neuroses, the crushed dreams, all the things we felt in high school and all the things that make a reality show run," he added.
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