New Reality TV Show: American Moms In Africa

Tonight, on the Travel Channel is the premier of a reality TV show, Mom's On The Road To Africa, featuring, as the title suggests, 8 moms who leave their kids for 6 weeks to live in Africa. I'm curious to see the show as one of the moms is a friend of a friend. It's particularly fascinating to watch a reality TV show when you actually know one of the participants. Part of the interest is taking a certain amount of glee in comparing your knowledge of the "real" person to their portrayal on TV.

Another reason I'm interested in the show is because of its stated premise - to challenge American moms by putting them in a totally different environment, i.e. Africa. I'm slightly annoyed at this premise because of the us-other comparison being set up between moms in Africa and moms in the United States, as if they were diametric opposites. From what I know about the show, they seem to have picked moms who would have been the most challenged by living away from the American, middle-class, comforts of home. But, that's just TV trying to be interesting, and apparently it's worked because I'm interested.

The last reason I'm interested is because of the concept of young moms leaving their babies. I'm all for the idea of moms having private time and me-time to stay healthy and happy, and such an experience could be incredibly enriching to the mom, and thus her children and family, but six weeks in Africa just seems a little....long. OMG, I'm coming dangerously close to sounding like I'm preaching about family values! It will be interesting to see how that dynamic plays out.

As I said, it premiers tonight. Check it out! I have to miss it, but am trying to find someone to record it for me. (I've been informed by Wood that "taping" shows is passe, but without TIVO or a DVR what's a girl to do?). After missing America's Next Top Model last night and now this show tonight, I'm starting to think that TIVO might be a good idea.