Poor, beleaguered 50 Cent. First, he is sued by his ex-girlfriend, then his record sales of late pale in comparison to the smash success of the tender love story “Candy Shop”, he has been experiencing difficulty selling his Connecticut mansion, and now, the biggest blow of all: MTV has cancelled his reality show “50 Cent: The Money and the Power”.
Not Boring Enough For MTV.
“The Money and the Power” would grant 14 hip-hop-mogul hopefuls the opportunity to impress 50 and convince him to invest $100,000 in the winner’s dream to become the next, um, 50 Cent. I was shocked to hear of the series’ cancellation. Although I have only seen the trailer, I found it to be riotously funny and entertaining along the lines of “Flavor of Love”, “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila”, or “Next”. Watching people humiliate themselves for a chance to win money—or the possible love of an ancient, withered rap icon and a vacant bisexual singer/model/actress—is tons of fun. When 50 had the contestants split into teams, and then tied each team together chain-gang style, it was genius. And instead of the stale, dull-as-dishwater “You’re fired” from Donald Trump, 50 told one contestant to “Get the f*** outta here”.
This is classic entertainment, the kind that we will watch for fives of years.
But no more. Our tailored-suit, diamond-pendant-wearing hero has lost his television show, and after only six episodes. Brian Graden, President of Entertainment at MTV networks, explains: “Our new shows will feature themes of affirmation and accomplishment. Our shows are going to focus less on loud and silly hooks and more on young people proving themselves. These are themes that are consistent with the Obama generation”.
Fine, blame our new President. Certainly, 50 Cent and Barack Obama do not have a great deal in common, but they are both popular public figures who deserve to be heard, even if that message is “One hand full of sh** does not equal a fistful of dollars”.
Instead, MTV will be bringing us the same tired reality programming of the networks, as they look to the imaginations of Sean “Diddy” Combs, Nick Lachey (the guy who was married to Jessica Simpson) and the yawn-fest that is Donald Trump. They are also looking to Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the comic geniuses who created “South Park”, but we’ll see if they can tame themselves enough to encourage ‘affirmation and accomplishment’.
So we say our goodbyes to 50 Cent and his search for the next entertainment mogul. It’s sad, really, because I can’t imagine Donald Trump making his apprentices do embarrassing things, then laughing at them, saying “This is better than my day job!”
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