It’s summertime, and you’re looking at reality shows or reruns of “Desperate Housewives.”
CBS offers some efficient summer TV: “Tuesday Night Book Club.”
It’s a reality show that plays like a rerun of “Desperate Housewives.”
That’s an easy conclusion to draw, as creator Jay Blumenfield admits.
“I can’t see how that comparison can be made at all,” Blumenfield joked during a teleconference last week. “Of course, I think that’s an inevitable comparison. But it’s certainly not something that we do, maybe in concept, but not in execution.”
Still, coming in the wake of “Housewives” – the mothership of this trend, if you will – as well as Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Orange County” and BBC America’s “Footballers’ Wives,” “Tuesday Night Book Club” has a familiar ring.
The show follows seven real women in Scottsdale, Ariz., as they make their way through life, each with her own set of issues and struggles. It airs at 10 p.m. Tuesday on KIRO-TV.
And don’t be fooled by the title. This show is as much about reading as “House” is about real estate.
The book club becomes more of a social gathering, and we see that in the first episode, when virtually everyone around the coffee table, wine glass in hand, admits to not having read more than 20 pages.
Still, the book provides a conversation starter. It’s Jennifer Weiner’s “Good in Bed.”
Welcome to our first conversation about sex.
The premiere gives us a quick introduction to our cast of characters, who include Lynn Carahaly, a 28-year-old newlywed whose intense arguments with her husband, Eddie, become a quick focal point.
“The problem is that neither one of us are listening to each other,” Carahaly said during the teleconference. “That’s why those fights are very intense and can be very sharp-tongued and hurtful.
“There’s nothing that I ever regret saying,” said Carahaly, who has yet to see any of the footage. “I may feel bad about it, but I don’t regret it.”
Carahaly, appropriately enough, is tagged “The Newlywed” in the show’s Barbie-like labeling system.
It also includes “The Loyal Wife,” Cris; “The Party Girl,” Sara; “The Trophy Wife,” Jenn; “The Conflicted Wife,” Jamie; “The Doctor’s Wife,” Kirin; and “The Divorced Mom,” Tina.
Blumenfield understands that the makeup of the group might turn people off at first, but hopes men and women will connect with the women and begin to relate to their situations.
The show is for “anyone out there who understands human relationships,” Blumenfield said.
“When we found this group in Scottsdale, they really impressed us because they were all very honest, they were all going through sort of universal struggles and triumphs that I think the American woman is going through right now.”
British chef Gordon Ramsay picks up where he left off last summer by firing up another season of Hells Kitchen.
The new season starts with back-to-back episodes at
8 tonight on KCPQ-TV, when 12 aspiring chefs subject themselves to the tirades of Ramsay a sort of Simon Cowell of the kitchen.
The only difference is that Ramsay can cook and Cowell cant sing.
Taking a page from Donald Trump and The Apprentice, the new season of Kitchen will split the six candidates between men and women to form the two teams that will try to impress the big chef.
Each week, one contestant will be 86d until only one remains. The winner will become executive chef of an upscale restaurant in the new Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa in Las Vegas.
Victor Balta’s column runs Mondays and Thursdays on the A&E page. Reach him at 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
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