One of the best reality shows that nobody watched ended (hopefully only its first season) recently. That show was called Redemption Song and it featured eleven bitches who overcame tough times to give their singing careers a final shot (hence the name of the show) and win a contract with Geffen records. Sort of a low (very low) budget American Idol meets Rock of Love (without the washed-up douche in a wig). The problem with this show was that it aired on the Fuse network so hardly anybody knew about it (I stumbled on it one day while channel surfing). Which is too bad because had it been on VH1, MTV, or Bravo, it would have been a huge hit.
How could it not? The show had awesome challenges like making the contestants perform drunk or run up twenty flights of stairs, get all winded, and then perform a dance routine to Cold-Hearted Snake by Paula Abdul. I'm not joking. One time, they had to write and perform a rap where they called the other girls "hoes". Even cooler was the elimination process, when host Chris Jericho (WWE) would break their record (literally--each girl had an old-school 33RPM vinyl record and he would break them in half and say "You've been dropped from the label". To add injury to insult, sometimes the pieces of the record would fly out and hit the poor girl! ) Of course there also were a lot of awesome catfights, often involving food. But the best part was the captions they'd put under the girls' names during their confessionals, each one explaining their reason for redemption. Some examples included "Ran an escort service, "Former child star turned drug dealer," "Blackout drunk," and my favorite, "Once threw a girl through a window." Seriously, y'all missed a really awesome show.
In the end it came down to Angelica Rose and Mixi, aka "Former child star turned drug dealer" and "Blackout Drunk." Angelica had the better voice, but was really unlikable and committed the number one entertainment business no-no: Using the "N" word (she didn't call anyone it, but used it nonetheless. She then spent the rest of the series denying that she was racist.) Mixi on the other hand (she's the one with the Muppet on her head), wasn't the strongest singer, but was "the best performer" (aka -the most marketable) and won the contract.
They never actually explained the terms of the contract or what the winner received other than, you know, the contract, but Geffen apparently coughed up enough for Mixi to a real song and release a real video. And you know what? It's pretty damn catchy. A little Amy Winehouse, a little Gwen Stefani, a little Veruca Salt (whatever happened to them?) And they fixed her hair too! But I guess promotion wasn't included the mysterious contract, because other than Fuse (which, again: nobody watches) I haven't seen one thing advertising it. So here's my part, not that a whole lot of people read this blog, but hey, probably more than watched Redemption Song (yeah I'm counting on one hand)
Here's Mixi's song "I Miss Those Days":
