When I reported earlier this month that the History Channel was getting a reality TV show about taxidermy, I really thought that was the strangest reality-TV news I'd hear for a while. I was wrong. A South African TV channel recently held open auditions for — wait for it — a reality TV show where men and women compete to be porn stars. The winners (one man, one woman) will star in Hustler magazine's end-of-the-year film and receive monetary compensation equivalent to $720.
What might participants have to do in order to win said prizes? If you guessed performing sex acts in front of a live audience during something called a Sexpo, you were 100% correct. The audience members (who at this point I'm thinking are possibly more insane than the participants themselves) will vote for their favorites, but at the end of the day, it's the show's judges who will pick South Africa's Next Top Porn Star.
Apparently thousands of people went to the auditions (all over eighteen and with a clean bill of health), so this probably isn't the last that we'll be hearing of this train-wreck in the making. This quote from judge Perle van Schalkwyk, a strip-club owner, is kind of a turn-off though:
"All different kinds of people entered the show, not the typical kind of people we expected. I'm sure all the people who entered think they are great at it — it will be interesting to see just how good they are."
Uh, I'll pass.