YNOT – HDNet, the independent television network helmed by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, has partnered with Joe Francis’ Girls Gone Wild enterprise to deliver a new half-hour reality show this spring. The 12-part series Girls Gone Wild Presents: Search for the Hottest Girl in America is expected to debut uncensored at 10 p.m. PT Thursday on systems operated by AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast, DIRECTV, DISH Network, Insight, Mediacom and Verizon FiOS.“We’re very excited to work with the Girls Gone Wild team to launch this show,” said Cuban. “The program is a cool, behind-the-scenes look at the GGW enterprise and a wild ride for our viewers. It’s a perfect fit for the new, unrated, late-night programming block we air as part of our ‘Guys Night In’ line-up every Thursday.”
Francis had high praise for Cuban’s taste and judgment.
“Mark Cuban is a pioneer because he is constantly changing the game, and HDNet’s cutting-edge programming is the most recent example,” Francis said. “We’re happy to be part of this entertainment revolution and excited by the opportunity to share with viewers this behind-the-scenes look at Girls Gone Wild in action.”
As part of the series, viewers will climb aboard GGW’s private jet and million-dollar tour bus as camera crews hit clubs, campuses and beaches to meet wild college girls who will do nearly anything to be voted the “Hottest Girl in America.” Viewers also will get a peek inside the GGW offices, follow Francis’ never-predictable exploits, watch photo shoots for magazines and travel with a dozen bikini models to Girls Gone Wild Island.
As might be expected, the show does not strike everyone as a good idea — especially because the channel that will carry the broadcasts is free and included in many basic cable and satellite HD programming packages.
Donna Rice Hughes, president and chairman of child-protection group Enough is Enough, called the series exploitative and destructive.
“Parents beware: The Hottest Girl in America is yet another sexually exploitative show that entices teenage girls and young women to bare all and behave provocatively in order to be featured on the show and potentially win the show’s title role,” she told FOX News. “This show, in the same vein as its equally inappropriate predecessor Girls Gone Wild, gets girls to imitate porn stars, strippers and pole dancers, cheered on by scores of hungry, horny boys. Not only does this send a destructive message to girls that this is the way to get noticed — both by the opposite sex and a large viewing audience — but it also sends the message to boys and girls that a female’s value is based on her body and sexual appeal and little else.”
Francis did not find any incentive to repent in Hughes’ remarks.
“The show is by no means anything harder than anything that’s been on HBO,” he told FOX. “Girls Gone Wild has been demonized for all these years, it’s been made out to be controversial, when in fact HBO has 10 times the harder-core stuff and Cinemax is what we call Skinemax. Mark [Cuban] is [a] genius and [has] taken it into the free market.”
He also said women who watched early versions of the show as part of focus groups scored the episodes higher than their male counterparts.
“You’re going to be surprised; it’s not what you’d expect,” Francis told FOX. “It has every element of our GGW brand in it, the gratuitous nudity all over it and all uncensored, but it’s an incredible look at the company on all levels. It is a great story line with great characters.”
The Parents Television Council remains unconvinced the series represents anything other than undisguised porn.
“GGW has built its brand on the exploitation of intoxicated women. That’s just what they are, and for them to pretend to be anything but that is quite frankly, sickening,” Director of Public Policy Dan Isett said. “This [new show] further demonstrates the need for people to have cable choice. People should have the opportunity to pay for [channels] individually and not have it part of their basic package.
“I would caution advertisers to be prepared for a public reaction if they were to advertise on programs like that,” he added. “[Advertisers] have a responsibility for the programming. These advertisers ultimately pay for it and should be held accountable for a show like that.”
