Erik Estrada arrests drunk man, changes the world
It’s hard to ignore the CBS/Viacom synergy while watching the new “reality” show Armed and Famous, which premieres Wednesday night at 8pm on The Eye. After all Viacom owns VH1, a network that is more than happy to group together five people who were once celebrities, put them in police uniforms and let them loose on a midwestern town. In fact, its hard to imagine they hadn’t all ready aired that show (and its live reunion special). But they didn’t. Instead, it was picked up by CBS, a network that loves cops as much as the next guy, but who has never really had much experience with trough-feeding “celebrity” spectacles. I would actually go as far as saying Armed and Famous is the most bizarre scheduling decision of the year (which, probably, isn’t really saying all that much).
Here’s the pitch: Erik (Ponch) Estrada, a now-boring Jack Orbourne, Wee-Man from Jackass, WWE champ Trish Stratus, and what appears to be a woman wearing a La Toya Jackson mask all go to Muncie, Indiana (Gooooooooo EAGLES!), train with the Police Academy, and then join actual officers out on patrol — protecting the burb’s fine citizens from… um… themselves(?).
Yes, this is television entertainment at its finest.
I just can’t for the life of me figure out who is going to be tuning in? Criminal Minds fans trying to kill an hour? Seems unlikely. Perhaps I’m not the person who should be commenting on this as I watch little CBS to begin with (How I Met Your Mother and Letterman, really), but from my point of view the last thing a CBS audience member is looking for is change — especially if that change involves a show whose sole draw would be a scene where we get to see La Toya Jackson tasered. CBS has gone to great lengths to insure that its audience knows what it’s getting: procedurals. Outside of Survivor and The Amazing Race (two reality entries that do a decent job of elevating the bar) CBS doesn’t seem to be interested in storylines — and especially not high concept celebrity tomfoolerly.
Now then, you move Armed and Famous to VH1, and while you still have a pretty crappy show, at least someone will watch.
