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Name-calling, fighting and all manner of rude behavior helped Flavor of Love's first-season finale set a VH1 ratings record with 5.9 million viewers. So how does star bachelor Flavor Flav think the second season (Sunday, 10 ET/PT) of his search for a partner will compare?
"It will be a little bit more dramaful."
"Dramaful," as in a first-episode fistfight between two of the 20 women competing to be the Public Enemy rapper's lady. And, as suggested by the title, "Sumthin's Stinkin' in the House of Flav," one candidate leaves what VH1 describes as a "present" on the mansion floor.
Bizarre language, behavior and celebrities have been the key to success for three series featuring Flav, including a season of The Surreal Life and its spinoff, Strange Love, which followed the odd-couple pairing of clock-toting Flav and the Teutonic Brigitte Nielsen.
All three shows, part of VH1's Celebreality offerings, are the product of 51 Minds. The production company just finished the second season of My Fair Brady with the wedding of former Brady Buncher Christopher Knight, 48, and half-his-age model Adrianne Curry -- and that show's largest audience, 2 million viewers.
The 51 Minds producers, Mark Cronin and Cris Abrego, say they have had success by making reality into comedy. "We started with the idea of trying to do comedy by not taking reality so seriously. That's where The Surreal Life came from. The idea was a real-life sitcom with real-life sitcom stars," Cronin says.
Casting, which expanded to include non-sitcom stars, has focused on the C-list. "We're not trying to avoid Angelina Jolie, but it's not going to happen right now," Cronin says.
Regardless of Hollywood status, the real importance is that viewers know these celebrities. And the shows have succeeded because they feature the right personalities, Abrego says.
With Knight and Curry, "as much as they fight, they love each other," he says. "Flav, as crazy and wild as he is, has a huge heart."
They resisted turning Surreal Life, which has had four editions on VH1 after two seasons on WB, into a competition. However, an upcoming version, The Surreal Life: Fame Games, will include contests as part of a Las Vegas reunion of its most popular stars.
Another project, referred to at this point as the "Celebrity Paranormal Project," will take 51 Minds beyond comedy. "It's an honest investigation of paranormal occurrences," Cronin says. With celebrities, of course.
The producers contend they are sincerely trying to find a real-life match for Flav, a single father of six. His first-season pairing with Hoopz didn't work out. Flav says the chemistry wasn't there after the series ended; the producers believe she was more intent on starting an entertainment career.
For the second season, which has completed taping, they sought to weed out women seeking fame while finding those interested in the musician, aka "the cult of Flav." "This is a group of girls normally not seen on TV. They'd never be on The Bachelor or on America's Next Top Model," Abrego says.
Flav says he's looking for a companion first, with the possibility of marriage later -- but not for at least five years. When it comes to the TV series, he veers from skeptic to romantic. "It's kind of difficult to find true love in three weeks," he says, but "it can be done."
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