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We reported last week about how Chaz (nee Chastity) Bono, Cher’s daughter, is planning to undergo sexual reassignment surgery to help him live as a man. You’d think this is the sort of stuff reality TV dreams are made of, right? Apparently not.
Despite Chaz’s famous family connection and fascinating operation, no one was interested in televising it, at first. According to impeccable TV sources, Chaz and his team, including mama Cher, were pitching the sex-change show to the big networks, as opposed to a niche cable network like TLC that prolly woulda snatched it up to run between Jon & Kate marathons. They were hoping for a big get. But there weren’t too many bites, it seems, for Chaz’s story.
One TV exec told us their reason for passing was because they couldn’t “make 100 episodes out of one operation.” But as far as the others? Could it be Chaz wasn’t famous enough, despite his A-list mom? Or is the sex-change story way too out-there for prime-time audiences? We’re thinking a little bit of both, honestly.
You can’t make 100 episodes out of one operation? You’re telling me you can make six years of television out of Lauren Conrad’s eye-rolling but you can’t get a couple seasons out of a woman who is starting life as a man? There are so many fascinating angles, so many new experiences, so many challenges and opportunities and potential for both drama and learning. I think this would make fantastic TV!
Maybe Chaz just isn’t any good on camera?
Methinks this story is still too controversial for the mainstream audiences the networks want to target. That’s a shame, as I was hoping Chaz’s story could help bring the transgender issue into the mainstream. But I can see how hoping for a network series is pushing it a little far at this point. Even if a network doesn’t pick it up, it would still be nice to see it get a slot on TLC or Bravo or even E! I think it’s important to put a face on the transgender world, to allow audiences to see that these are people and not “conditions.”
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I agree that it’s still “too taboo” for the world at the moment, which is unfortunate. How better to educate the world than have a tasteful show? Americans watch a crap load of TV, and believe nearly everything they see on it, so showing the positive side of something like this may do the world some good.
There have been lots of TV shows about people having gender reassignment surgery. My guess is that she just doesn’t have that shock factor. They want people to have something they’re giving up like that teenage girl that was living as a boy and preparing to have surgery when he came of age. Chaz already looks so manly and is not currently a particularly attractive woman.
S/he is just not pretty enough, end of story. No happy ending, but there you go.
Yeah, I don’t think it’s a matter of taboo really. They’re done so many gender realignment operation shows. (I envision a title “Celebrity Sex Change” and shudder and the crassness of the whole reality/celebrity TV nonsense). But more likely, as others have suggested, it’s just that Chaz isn’t very televisual.
I don’t think it’s because it’s too taboo, I just don’t think that he is popular/attractive enough to attract American viewers.
I think it’s all because Chaz isn’t “hot”…. But, yeah, it’ too taboo, even hough I’d love to see that on TV.. I know a guy who was once a girl…. he’s very nice, but not really my type
I think the claim that there isn’t enough there for a series is such a BS claim. Prior to undergoing gender reassignment surgery, there are usually requirements that the person live as the gender to which s/he is being reassigned for a certain period of time, along with hormone treatments. The one guy I know who became a girl went through a very long and protracted transition, the surgery itself was just the tip of the iceberg. I don’t know in which stage Chaz is in the process, but it seems like there should certainly be enough there for a TV series!
It might be just as well. Maybe the show would have been done well, in which case – yay for trans rights and visibility. But to do that with a major tv network just seems so risky….
& visibility is not always good visbility. I don’t think Tila Tequila did anything good for bisexual or LGT people (though she has this great quote giving herself partial credit for same-sex marriage laws in the US)