MTV’s bisexual dating show a breakout hit
One man and one woman still have “A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila” – and viewers are very interested.
The zany reality show starring the bisexual Internet celebrity is among the top 15 cable shows and has become MTV’s second most popular series, just behind Lauren Conrad and company on “The Hills,” according to Nielsen Media Research.
“Who would have ever thought I’d be the girl who does that for MTV?” Tequila wonders.
Good question.
In case you’re one of the few people who hasn’t seen or read a blog about “A Shot a Love,” the gist of the dating show is this: a 26-year-old MySpace pinup searches for love “Bachelor”-style among 16 men and 16 women, who compete for alone time with her in over-the-top challenges – chocolate syrup wrestling, for example – and share one oversized bed.
Then, at the end of each episode, she chirpily tells the non-eliminated contestants, “You still have a shot at love. Are you interested?” And they usually are.
“It was kind of weird at first,” Tequila says. “I thought, ‘What am I doing here? Can I leave now?’ But once you get to know people, you become involved.”
In tonight’s finale, Tequila – whose real last name is Nguyen – will choose between Dani Campbell, a 29-year-old female firefighter from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Bobby Banhart, a 25-year-old male film student from Worchester, N.Y.
Tequila, who realized she was bisexual at age 11, says she’s still dating the person she selected when production ended earlier this year. She doesn’t communicate with any of the contestants who didn’t earn one of the giant keys to her heart.
“I don’t keep up with anybody except for the person I picked,” she says. “I’ve eliminated them. I don’t intend on reopening those sores to respect the person I’m with.”
However, Tequila will come face-to-face with at least 20 of the contestants – including a few folks who claimed they fell in love with her – during a special reunion show she says is filming Friday. (It will air Sunday at 10 p.m.)
“It will bring me back right where we left off,” she says. “I’ll be able to say some things I never got to say to a few of them. Tell a few of them off.”
“A Shot at Love” has ignited some blogworthy buzz for MTV, the aging cable network that’s spent the past few years attempting to gain a foothold in the digital world.
Reactions have been mixed. A post on AfterEllen.com, a site focusing on lesbian and bisexual women in the media, questioned whether Tequila was the ideal representative for bisexuals. The conservative group Media Research Center dubbed the show “MTV’s latest poison.”
The hype bubbled over last month when the New York Post’s Page Six called Tequila an “MTV skank” and quoted an anonymous source apparently associated with the production who claimed she was faking her bisexuality.
“If they’re going to accuse me of something like that, they could’ve at least been more articulate about it,” Tequila says.
MTV series development guru Tony DiSanto points to the show’s original, will-she-choose-a-man-or- a-woman format as the main reason for its success.
“It’s one of those shows where you never know what’s going to happen next,” DiSanto says. “I think there’s an innate curiosity in wondering what is going to make Tila decide between a man and a woman. It makes for a compelling piece of programming that you just can’t take your eyes off of.”
Tequila will host MTV’s live masquerade-themed New Year’s Eve programming. Beyond that, however, her role at the cable network is uncertain.
Casting notices have circulated online for a second season of “A Shot at Love,” and a new spinoff, “That’s Amore!,” starring goofy “Shot at Love” castoff Domenico Nessi.
MTV won’t confirm that either is in the works, but Tequila says the network did approach her about taking another “Shot at Love.”
“They’re talking about it,” she says. “I don’t want to think about it so fast. I just got settled in.
“If it doesn’t work out, then maybe there could be another season. Right now, I’m just happy where I am.”