Groundbreaking Reality Show to Focus on Women Who Went to Grad School to Find Husbands

By Erin Gloria Ryan | October 19, 2012 | 7:10pm

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Have you ever found yourself lamenting the fact that reality TV is out of ideas (How many shows about aggressive antiquing and food wars do we need?!)? Have you ever wished that someone would make your favorite genre exciting again by taking a Wayback Machine to the 1950’s and poking around for outdated social stereotypes to exploit? Well, wish no longer — a prominent production company is currently casting a reality show featuring women whose number one goal of graduate school is to find a husband. Call it Untitled Awful Project or The Real Aspiring Housewives of Higher Education. Or just barf on yourself.

A tipster alerted us to the show’s Gainesville, Florida casting call, which went up earlier this week, and from the looks of it, it’s got some pretty heavy hitters behind it. According to the ad, the show’s creators are also behind ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and Bravo’s “Miss Advised and are working with Ashley Tisdale’s production company. They’re looking for women who are “in the process of getting [their] MBA, PhD, JD or any other graduate degree” who are also “hop[ing] to find the perfect man in the process.” Here’s more from the Craigslist posting,

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The creators of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and Bravo’s “Miss Advised” are partnering with Ashley Tisdale’s Blondie Girl Productions to cast for an exciting new docu-reality series on a major cable network. The show will focus on bright young women who are proud to be educating themselves while working towards their most important career goal yet … becoming a wife!

We want those blossoming, vibrant women to stand up and speak out about their journey to receive not only the degree of their choice, but to find the husband of their choice! We are looking to document these amazing women on the adventure of their lives pursuing their MRS. Degree!

Oy.

A friend called the number listed on the ad, and apparently this is a real thing that is happening in the year 2012 AD. According to the person she spoke with, ads like the one in Gainesville have gone up in 20 or so cities that boast major universities so far, and there are plans to place more. Because the show’s in the “very early stages of casting,” location, cast size, and the tenor of the show are still up in the air. Theoretically, the cast could consist of women from all over the country going tens of thousands of dollars into debt, all to score some left handed ring finger hardware for our entertainment. The show will likely start production in the spring.

So, sure. Some women do go to graduate school because school is a good place to meet someone who isn’t going to change your locks and sell your laptop on ebay while you’re at work. And the sort of MRS-obsessed woman who is sweetly oblivious and misguided enough to think that all of her brainpower and hard work and all nighters should be channeled into wifing up undoubtedly makes for pretty good programming, by reality TV standards. I mean, the stress of grad school plus the unnecessary stress of trying to convince goal-oriented guys who are trying to study that what they should be doing is dating will equal so much rejection, and ensuing inevitable cryfaces. It was really only a matter of time before this show was made.

But at the same time, Christ. I wish that our entertainment choices were a little less heavy on the “laughing at ladies acting like stereotypes” and a little heavier on stuff that’s actually funny, like jokes. Paradigm-upending, insightful, reality-mocking jokes that clever human beings wrote. I guess they’ll stop making crap when people stop watching crap, right?

Since the project seems to be untitled thus far, what would such a show be called? My He-sis? Husband Hunter, Ph. D? Misters Degree? The possibilities are nearly endless, and equally depressing.

[Craigslist]