Canada Battles Polite Image With Competing Reality Competition Series

TORONTO -- The saucy single ladies are about to take on the prim Dorothy hopefuls in the Canadian reality TV battle of the year.

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Rival CBC and Citytv are going head-to-head with TV competition series based on foreign formats that feature young women looking to win over the hearts – and votes – of Canadians.

First comes CBC’s Over the Rainbow, a local talent competition series based on the BBC format, where 10 Canadian women sing their hearts out to wear the ruby slippers in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s upcoming Canadian production of The Wizard of Oz.

“These 10 girls, we've become so close. There's not really been any drama between any of us, so we're happy for one another, we understand what is going to happen tonight," Colleen Furlan, one of the Canadian Over the Rainbow contestants, told the CBC.ca website.

So polite and sweet. So Canadian.

Hot on the high heels of the CBC's straight-laced reality series is rival Citytv continuing Wednesday to tease Canadians as it unveiled more bachelorettes for the Oct. 3 premiere of The Bachelor Canada.

The latest rookie season contestants vying for Brad Smith’s heart pits Amber, a strip club server from Winnipeg with a tattoo on her right foot and a motorcycle in her garage, against Nicole, an optician who volunteers at the local childrens’ hospital.

Citytv has already revealed first-season cast members for The Bachelor Canada that includes a God-fearing pastor who started her own non-profit camp for kids, a makeup artist with a flower tattoo on her right butt cheek and another on her left foot, and a voluptuous Playboy model.

The launch of a risque version of the Bachelor franchise here follows ABC’s Bachelor and Bachelorette franchises enjoying a long run on Citytv.

Citytv-parent Rogers Media ordered nine episodes of The Bachelor Canada from Force Four Entertainment.

The reality is shot on a sprawling, west coast mansion with its own hot tubs and hangouts, in Victoria, British Columbia.

The Canadian broadcaster is sexing up The Bachelor Canada because local versions of reality TV series like American Idol and America's Got Talent have had far shorter runs north of the border than stateside.

Sean De Vries is the supervising producer of The Bachelor Canada, Joyce Sawa is the series producer, and John Ritchie serves as executive producer.

Claire Freeland is executive producing The Bachelor Canada.