Coolio to Make Oxygen a Reality Paradise

In a surprising move (or at least surprising it's not a VH1 production), network executives have decided Coolio deserves a reality show, and that it's audience is the same group that watches Tracey Gold TV movies and Designing Women reruns: middle-aged women.

Oxygen has greenlighted an unscripted series starring rapper Coolio that will follow his trials and tribulations as he tries to balance his work with his role as a single parent raising six teenagers. The series will show him balancing his life as a family man with his rap career and launching his own clothing line.

Wait, so Coolio has a rap career, outside of collecting royalties when TBS plays Dangerous Minds? And won't the title Coolio & the Gang be confusing once someone inevitably makes a reality show about Kool & the Gang reuniting to run a small-town diner?

But even with those unanswered questions, the choice of Oxygen for the network still seems like the oddest part. Or it was until Debby Beece, president of programming, explained that Oxygen is the loose cannon of women's networks:

Oxygen likes to rewrite the rulebook for women and women's programming

I looked into it, and she's totally right. Here is just a small sampling of the programming that is redefining what women want to see on television:

The Bad Girls Club - Seven "bad girls" under one roof, probably smoking, drinking, and getting on the back of strange men's motorcycles.

The Bad Girls' Road Trip - So we've seen them under one roof, but what if they throw a touch of Kerouac in the mix?

The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency - See what it's like to be pretty, or re-experience the all-too-familiar feeling of rejection for being ugly.

Tease - "The ultimate battle for hair supremacy."

Real Weddings from the Knot - A show about weddings.

Grace Under Fire - Reruns of Grace Under Fire.

It only stands to reason that Coolio would be added to this diverse line-up.

Oxygen duets with Coolio [Hollywood Reporter]