Tila Tequila’s quest for love falls short

Brandon Fleshman

Treating herself to the best of both worlds, Tila Nguyen (aka Tila Tequila) has invited 16 guys and 16 lesbian women to live together with her under one roof in her new bisexual reality dating show.

“A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila,” which airs Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. on MTV, is everything you love (or hate) about reality TV.

Its star, Tila Tequila, is a model, actress, singer, and one of the most popular people on MySpace with over two million friends.

Its contestants all fit the typical reality TV stereotypes: the bad boy, the virgin, the homosexual, etc. In its series premiere, there has already been a sizeable amount of drama, a handful of heavy make out scenes, and of course, blurred nudity.

The first episode began with Tila admitting for the first time that she is bisexual. Somehow I thought everyone already knew that. Regardless, the show’s twist is that the male and female contestants don’t meet each other until the end of the episode when Tila admits to them that she is bisexual and seeking love from the man or woman of her dreams.

The first half hour of the show documented the arrival of the male contestants to Tila’s house and her interactions with them. Most of the male contestants are dull, macho, meatheads, but there are a few entertaining characters.

By far the best contestant on the show is Domenico. Think of him as this show’s version of “American Idol’s” Sanjaya. Eventually, you don’t really care about the outcome of the show; you just want him to stay on as long as possible so you can laugh at him.

Domenico is Italian but his voice sounds almost exactly like Borat’s. His first words on the show are when he asks another contestant, “I’m going to have sex with her in this house?”

My amusement grew even more when Domenico asked his fellow contestants, “Would you sleep with guy for $10 million?” He then proceeded to call them “homophobic” when they hassled him.

A fight almost ensued when country boy Ashley announced to loudmouth Marcus, “You pissed off errbody,” after Marcus told Tila which guys she should send home. But Tila was quick to suppress the drama.

For their first challenge, the guys were asked to give meaningful gifts to Tila. Michael B., a former pizza delivery guy and self-proclaimed “mama’s boy,” gave Tila a pillow with his picture on it, hoping to be the first thing she thinks about when she wakes up.

Tila was amused by this gift, but not so amused by others like a cup of tea, a drumstick, and laundry detergent. Finally, Tila sent home five guys she didn’t feel a strong connection with, and they just so happened to be five of the most boring guys: Benny, Rami, Michael R., Lance, and Greg. She asked them to return their “key to her heart” by announcing her catchphrase, “Your shot at love has ended.”

The next half hour documented the arrival of the lesbian contestants, most of which are ridiculously hot. Of course this made for some hot lesbian make out action that will be the main draw each week for male viewers.

The girls’ challenge was to put on a fashion show for Tila, wearing something that showed their personality. Outfits ranged from a naughty schoolgirl and Girl Scout, to a cop and an angel.

Surprisingly, the females caused less drama than the males, but they were much more annoying. Even Tila got tired of them talking about their feelings all the time.

Keasha, a spunky, rambunctious blonde played the role of both the funniest and most annoying female contestant. Her catchphrase, “Hey girl, hey,” was funny the first ten times, then it just got down right irritating. Luckily, Keasha was eliminated along with four other girls: Scout, Ellie, Chaos, and Brenda.

The show ended with Tila surprising the men and women by inviting both groups to a pool party and telling them they were all going to be sharing the house with her. Then, she stunned both groups even further by admitting that she is bisexual. The best part was that the guys seemed angry at this announcement. Maybe it’s just me, but if I were a contestant on this show I would have to think I just hit the jackpot.

“A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila” is everything I thought it would be. It’s trashy, it’s raunchy, and it’s way over the top. It’s one of those shows that make you feel dumber just for having watched it. If I ever watch it again (and that’s a big “if”), I won’t do it to see what skanky outfit Tila is wearing, and it won’t even be for the hot girl-on-girl action. Believe it or not, it will be to see just how completely outrageous and absurd Domenico can possibly be. I smell a spin-off!

In the end, this show is yet another example that MTV should just follow Justin Timberlake’s advice and play more videos.

Brandon Fleshman can be reached at [email protected]