Bristol Palin's 'bafflingly contrived' new reality show

After her controversial success on Dancing with the Stars, Sarah Palin's daughter is getting a reality show of her own — and the mockery has already begun

Bristol Palin is graduating from reality TV contestant to full-blown star, with a show that will follow her as she moves to Los Angeles and starts a new job.
(Image credit: Walter McBride/CORBIS)

Like mother, like daughter. After many a memorable turn on last season's Dancing with the Stars, Bristol Palin (the oldest daughter of Sarah) is set to continue her reality TV career with a new show on the cable network Bio — a show that commentators are already calling "bafflingly contrived." The series will focus on the single mom and abstinence advocate moving to Los Angeles with her young son Tripp, starting a new job at a charity, and living with Dancing castmate Kyle Massey and his brother Chris. According to a Bio channel statement, the three have become "best friends" since Dancing, "so much so that, since Bristol and Tripp have to move to Los Angeles for her new job, she decided to move in with the Massey brothers, who are also about to realize how much their lives are about to change." This news, of course, has commentators cracking wise. Here, a sampling:

Change is constant

"Golly, if only we got a buck every time an announcement for a new reality TV series included the phrase 'about to realize how much their lives are about to change,'" says Lisa de Moraes in The Washington Post.

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The co-ed factor

"Wait, she is living with boys? BOYS!" says Jessica Wakeman at The Frisky. "Or does Disney neuter their male employees at contract signage? (Note to self: must look up.)"

Alternate realities

It sounds "sort of like The Hills — if you replace the hook-ups and club hopping with abstinence lectures and social work," says James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly.

Cue the purple-faced liberals

"Remember when all those liberals became more and more confused and angry each week Bristol Palin survived on Dancing with the Stars?" asks Nat Brown in the National Review. "Well, they might blow an aneurysm" at this news.

Mom logic

"Of course she'll have her baby in tow, because if Teen Mom is a hit Tea (Party) Mom should be a hit, too," says Brian Moylan at Gawker.

This land is her land

"If Bristol Palin isn't the embodiment of the American dream, I don't know who is," says Dennis DiClaudio at Comedy Central's Indecision blog. "In what other country can an unmarried teenage mother with no discernible talent or personality work her way up from a lowly multimillion dollar job as the face of Big Abstinence to become an actual reality TV star? What a country!"

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