From Deseret News archives:

Let the humiliation begin!

Published: Monday, Dec. 6, 2004 8:09 p.m. MST
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If you need any more evidence that people will do anything to be on TV, look no further than the WB's "High School Reunion: Fort Lauderdale," which premieres tonight at 8 on Ch. 30.

This third go-round of the so-called reality series promises to make a group of graduates of a Florida Catholic high school look like absolute morons — less mature, perhaps, than they were when they were actually still in school.

They all go by their first names, but names are unimportant. It's the brief descriptions that matter — "The Loud Mouth," "The Jock," "The Predator," "The Meathead," "The Head Cheerleader," "The Hot Sister," "The Rebel," "The Nerd" and so on.

My personal favorite (and by that I mean the one who's the most horrible) is Jaime, "The Obsessed Ex," who arrives determined to win back the affections of her high-school boyfriend, Gianni, "The Basketball Star." Jamie is downright scary — even Gianni, a big guy who's playing pro hoops in Italy, seems afraid of her.

And clips of future episodes indicate that Jamie does get violent with one of the other women. So either the WB is reprehensible for promoting that as something to stay tuned for or the WB is dishonest for misrepresenting what's going to happen.

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These aren't even members of the same graduating class — they're spread over three years (1993, '94 and '95). Heck, one of these people, Brien M. "The Rebel," didn't even graduate from the same high school as the others — he got kicked out after his sophomore year.

Yet, despite Jamie's violent tendencies, apparently this bunch wasn't enough to keep things interesting.

First, two "nerds" arrive in an upcoming episode claiming to be millionaires. They're not, but they "Joe Schmo" their way through it. (Not that lying at a high school reunion is a novelty.)

Second, five former football players from a rival high school arrive to settle a grudge, and one of the original group of guys is injured (gee, more violence!) in their pickup game. So one of the rival guys is voted into the "Real World"-like house the reunion-ers are sharing in Hawaii.

Gee, if you don't have a good reality show just steal bits and pieces from other reality shows.

You could almost feel sorry for these schmucks who are going to look so stupid on national television. Almost . . . except that they obviously crave attention — any kind of attention — so much that they agreed to do the show.


E-mail: pierce@desnews.com

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Justin Lubin, The Wb

Eze, Nikki, Nikol, Jennifer, Brian A., Loretta, Gianni, John, Jim, Carin, Brien M. and Jaime are reunited.

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