I had never watched the Bad Girls Club until I was assigned to cover the open casting call in Tampa, Wednesday, Oct. 26. Don’t get me wrong; I did not watch it because I am morally above it. My DVR is full of messy, guilty reality shows. (Much to my friends’ dismay I have been known to quote the Jersey Shore on occasion.) I just happened to have missed this one.
After watching it, I had immediate anxiety about interviewing anyone that considered being on this show. It's billed as a show to help bad girls deal with psychological and emotional issues by having them live in a house with girls with similar problems. There is no Dr. Drew, or some random lesser-known Oxygen channel version thereof, in sight. Occasionally, one of the girls nudges so hard at another that someone snaps and a fight ensues, but only the assaulter is asked to leave. Usually, there is an instigator who causes more than one girl to snap throughout the season.
Half of the girls sound like they have been smoking Marlboro reds since the womb. Most have bad tattoos and some have arrest records. They have drinking problems that make Lindsay Lohan look like Mother Theresa. Some aren’t as bad as others, but most can hold their own.
This article appears in Nov 3-9, 2011.