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CBS Heats Up Tuesday Nights
by Laura Saltman
Tuesday nights just got a little hotter. At least that's what the folks at CBS are hoping. For a network whose median age range for viewers is somewhere around, say, 50, I'm surprised to see a show as provocative as "Tuesday Night Book Club" on their airwaves. This reality series/docu-drama follows the lives of seven Scottsdale, Arizona, women who regularly meet for book club on - yes, you guessed it - Tuesday night. That's where any reference to reading actually stops, though.
The show is more "Sex and the City" meets "Desperate Housewives," complete with Mary Alice Young style narration. Like that show, this one's point is to prove that you don't always know what's going on behind those manicured lawns. So far in this first episode I've learned that "The Trophy Wife" Jenn and her husband like to swing, "The Newlywed" Lynn and her hunky husband aren't having sex and spend more time bickering than bonding, and that "The Loyal Wife" Cris is dealing with an alcoholic husband and a bizarre brood of animals living in her house.
While the show is certainly good eye-candy (as these ladies clearly know how to take care of themselves), I wouldn't exactly call it a reality show. I sincerely doubt these are the types of neighbors you'll see living in middle America. Newport Beach, Beverly Hills, Boca Raton, Greenwich - maybe. Des Moines, Iowa - probably not. I term these types of series "forced reality." The producers want you to believe that these are the ladies' real-life situations, unfolding unscripted as cameras roll, but it's fairly obvious when situations are being "molded." I mean, did one of the ladies really hire the hot non-shirt-wearing pool guy or was that possibly the casting director' The show also has a very soap opera feel to it, which quite possibly is on purpose - they are hoping viewers get the "wink, wink": this is all clearly not reality.
The show airs at 10:00pm on CBS for good reason. This is not for the kiddies. Frank talk about sex is a routine occurrence and future episodes seem to promise some very steamy encounters between the pool guy and one of the women. Plus, the swingers will come out to play. I almost had to turn the show off when Trophy Wife's creepy husband started groping all the other book club ladies at a housewarming party. Grannies, grandpas and the like tuning in to catch their favorite episodes of "CSI," "NCIS" - or any of those other crime dramas that have made CBS the most watched network - will be in for the shock of their lives tonight!
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