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MTV Reups Nick, Jessica & Ashlee
By Joal Ryan
Jessica Simpson (news)
and Nick Lachey (news)'s
dog Daisy does not have its own MTV show. Yet.
On Thursday, the network announced a spate of
Simpson- and Lachey-related programming, including a third season of Newlyweds,
a second season of Ashlee Simpson (news)'s
personal reality trip and a new solo series for Lachey.
So as to not leave any family member
unmonitored, Daisy the dog will appear on Newlyweds.
New episodes of Newlyweds: Nick &
Jessica and The Ashlee Simpson Show are set to debut in January.
The Lachey show, currently known as the Nick
Lachey Project, will debut sometime next year in a pairing with another new
reality series, Meet the Barkers, starring Blink-182 drummer Travis
Barker and his wife, former Miss USA Shanna Moakler.
In a statement, MTV executive Lois Curren
expressed amazement at viewers' connection with the Simpsons and Lachey, and
threatened to "take fans even deeper into their lives." (Well, we
suppose that last part wasn't technically a threat.)
The show orders come at a prickly PR time for
the first extended family of reality TV. The state of Jessica Simpson and Nick
Lachey's union is being questioned weekly on newsstands, while the integrity of
Ashlee Simpson's pipes are being challenged in the wake of her infamous Saturday
Night Live appearance.
MTV says the younger Simpson's SNL
snafu, in which the 20-year-old pop star resorted to hoe-down dancing when a
prerecorded vocal track began warbling the wrong song, will be chronicled in her
show's new season.
Where Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey's
marriage is concerned, MTV is promising more "excitement"--just not
the kind of excitement that stems from bachelor and bachelorette parties gone
wild.
According to the network, the couple, who have
denied reports of their marital demise, will be seen celebrating just about
everything--their second wedding anniversary, Lachey's 31st birthday, Halloween,
etc. (While they're at it, they may as well toast the ratings of their latest
ABC special, Nick & Jessica's Family Christmas, which scored a solid
12.4 million viewers Wednesday night).
On his new MTV show, Lachey, who saw an ABC
sitcom deal go nowhere earlier this year, will be depicted as a man
"completely submerged in the artistic process" as he "sets out to
take his career to a whole new level," or at least to the level that
sister-in-law Ashlee Simpson achieved through her MTV series/CD promotional
device this past spring. (To date, Ashlee Simpson's debut, Autobiography,
featured prominently in her show's first season, has sold about 3 million
copies.)
Leaving no promotional opportunity squandered,
the new season of Newlyweds will show Jessica Simpson at work on her
upcoming movie, The Dukes of Hazzard, in which she plays Daisy Duke.
In another bit of good timing, the new season
of The Ashlee Simpson Show will launch just as its titular star embarks
on her first concert tour.
While the Simpson-Lachey clans have moved in on
MTV, the Osbournes appear to be moving out.
The network made no mention Thursday of its
once-signature reality show in its programming plans for 2005. This, on the
heels of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne vowing last month that their family was done
with the show.
Still, the show may not be done with them. It's
believed MTV already has a new season's worth of episodes in the can, and ready
for air next year.
In its fourth season, which ended in May, The
Osbournes remained popular with younger viewers, but no longer was the
pop-culture or ratings force that it was in its first season in 2002. |
