Can these "ladettes" become ladies?
Maria De Corrado, Bianca Stevens, Emily Biggs, Nicole Mitchell, Sarah Brunton, Kristyn Gohrt, Zoe Irons and Skye Harper are subjected to a swift education by their traditional disciplinarians, Gillian Harbord and Rosemary Shrager. Each week a ladette is sent packing back to Oz.
But before they had even arrived, our "Antipodean" girls had wreaked havoc on a flight to Britain, under the guardianship of one male producer.
Other passengers complained they were loud and obnoxious, shrieking and cackling, and skipping up and down the aisles -- just what the show ordered, right?
As in the UK series, the girls were classed in deportment, elocution, flower arranging, etiquette and cookery all with lashings of profanity, tantrums and disrespect.
In the first episode they were left to cook treats for a party of visiting bachelors, but the ingredients included a little cooking wine. Added with single men, it eventually dissolved into bedlam.
In the second episode there was more alcohol and males, along with an opportunity for one girl to join a horse-riding hunt.
As with Wipeout Australia, this is the second locally-produced version of an international format to win a prime-time slot in 2009. With their overseas locations, these shows don't come cheap. Consequently, Nine is strategically placing it after the equally racy Underbelly, before moving it to Tuesday nights.
In 2005, TEN screened a similar concept with two series of the dubiously-titled Australian Princess, hosted by Jackie O. The prize was a tiara and a dance with a handsome prince in the UK. Similarly, in Aussie Ladette to Lady there is a graduation ball. Alas, with reality's infamous "15 minutes of fame", it will take a lot to truly achieve Cinderella status.
Aussie Ladette to Lady premieres 9:30pm Monday on Nine.
Not interested at all...