CBS is moving forward with plans for an arranged marriage reality show in which couples are set up and married off by their friends and family. The show will then follow the couples as they live with each other and get to know each other. Fox tried a similar concept in 2003 with a controversial show called “Married to America” in which the television audience voted on which couples should be “married” off. In this case the people on the show really will be legally married instead of just trying to live that way:

CBS is treading into potentially controversial reality TV territory again.

The network has ordered a new series from the producers of “Top Chef” that puts lovelorn singles into arranged marriages.

The show introduces four adults in the 25-45 age range who are eager to get married but have been unsuccessful in their search for a mate. Their friends and family select a spouse for them, and the newly paired couple exchange marital vows.

The series follows their marriages.

The rest of the details for the project, whose early working title is “Arranged Marriage,” are being kept under wraps.

The series is from Jane Lipsitz and Dan Cutforth of Magical Elves, which launched “Project Runway” on Bravo and produces the network’s “Top Chef.”

It is the second series green-lighted by CBS’ new reality chief, Jennifer Bresnan, after the recent order for “Block Party,” a competition among neighboring families.

The series order for “Marriage” shows that CBS is not shying away from reality projects that might draw a few pointed editorials in the wake of the network’s previous envelope-pushing social experiment, the fall 2007 series “Kid Nation.”

“Marriage” also will inevitably draw comparisons to another arranged-marriage reality show, Fox’s infamous “Married by America.”

The 2003 series drew fire from conservative groups, and one bachelor party scene containing pixelated nudity resulted in the Federal Communications Commission’s slapping Fox stations with a $1.18 million fine (which was reduced last month to $91,000).

But CBS’ project differs from the earlier show in key ways.

In “Married,” couples were paired by viewers voting from home and then sequestered in a hotel to learn more about each other. CBS’ “Marriage” presents itself as a documentary series about finding true love, a show that extends the Eastern tradition of an arranged marriage (where friends and family select the mate) into the West.

Another difference is that on “Married,” despite the pundit outcry, nobody on the show actually ended up getting hitched. On CBS, couples will really tie the knot.

[From TV.Yahoo.com]

It doesn’t sound like they’re going to use a community where arranged marriages are common and accepted. Arranged marriages can work out well for people when they’re part of the family’s culture and religion and both parties enter into it willingly with a commitment to making in work. In this case we’re talking about taking people who normally wouldn’t go into an arranged marriage and sticking them together for entertainment’s sake, which seems entirely different.

Fox burnt out this concept even before “Married to America” with the terrible 2000 dating game show “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-millionaire?” The bachelor turned out to be much poorer than advertised and an abusive jerk and the marriage lasted just a few days.

When will producers stop coming up with ideas for this type of trash? Drivers will slow down and turn to look at a car crash. That doesn’t mean people should stage them and sell advertising space on the sides of the vehicles. If it wasn’t illegal someone would be trying it though.

Header photo from Patrick Q on Flickr. Image below from berent on Stock.xchng