A British reality TV series is looking for an Iowa farm family to host two British teenagers in their home for a week late next month. Dave Cheesman, an executive producer for the B.B.C., says they’re planning to send a small camera crew along with the two teens for the premiere episodes of the program, "The World’s Strictest Parents."
Cheesman says, "Ideally, we’d like a hard-working, conservative and loving Iowa family that have really strong family morals and strong family values but would be willing to take on the challenge of having some teenagers that are slightly colorful characters and spend a week with them."
In addition to the camera crew, each of the teens will have videocameras. He says it would be helpful for the show if the Iowa parents already have a kid or two living in the house between the ages of 14 and 17.
Cheesman says, "If we could have parents who’ve already got some teenagers, it gets us on a playing field where they understand teenagers and some teenage behavior and they can actually assist teenagers a lot quicker if they’ve dealt with similar problems that all teenagers go through, bad moods, anger or whether it’s just wanting to socialize and see their friends instead of dealing with chores around the house."
He says the two British teens who’ll be coming to Iowa aren’t "bad," but they’ll be a challenge. He uses the word "overindulged" to describe the typical British teenager. "Like many teenagers probably in the U.S. as well, they’ve all got their PlayStations, they’ve all got their cell phones, they’ve all got their pagers and their cars," Cheesman says.
"They get it all without doing any work. None of them seem to do chores around the house. None of them have parttime jobs, yet they’re rewarded with all of these treats." The show’s producers hope the Iowa parents can give the British teens a dose of the values and morality they demand of their own children.
He says, "We want to champion parents who believe in instilling old-fashioned discipline, boundaries and respect." This will be part of the second season of the TV show, which filmed in several locations around the world last year, including Jamaica, India, Ghana and South Africa, as well as Alabama and Georgia.
Members of Iowa families who are interested in the possibility of becoming international reality TV stars should e-mail Cheesman at: "[email protected]" or call him in London at: 001 44 207 284 2020.