Variety reports that CBS will start broadcasting its new reality series, There Goes the Neighborhood, on August 9. Producers of the show erected a 20-foot wall to enclose a block of eight homes in suburban Atlanta. Sounds like a suburbanite’s dream come true, doesn’t it? After all, aren’t gated communities supposedly desirable?
As with any reality show billing itself as a social experiment, the producers have made sure that the participants are comprised of a diverse group of families, including a lesbian couple.
Also in the mix is a single mother and an interracial couple.
Variety writes:
Neighborhood centers on eight families locked inside that compound and competing in various games for $250,000.
With little electricity and no contact with the outside world, the families are forced to reconnect as they face off with their neighbors.
“This show is truly a social experiment,” said exec producer Mike Fleiss.
Yikes! They’ll have to stop surfing the internet and — gasp! — socialize with their neighbors? That sort of defeats the purpose of living in suburbia. Forget what I said about gated communities — this sounds more like a suburban prison, except the point of this show is to stay in jail.
As we all know by now, casting people from different backgrounds in a reality show is a tried and true recipe for creating conflict. Let’s just hope that all of the families involved are treated with a modicum of respect and the show doesn’t spiral into a circus atmosphere. Then again, this show is on CBS, not MTV, so there is hope.
Although details of the show have been vague so far, it is nice to see a lesbian couple being represented in the media like any other boring suburban family. Will you be watching There Goes the Neighborhood?
