Matric drama on TV

Award-winning Cape Town author Lauren Beukes has put her sci-fi novels on the backburner to direct a reality TV show - for teenagers by teenagers.

But Beukes, who in April won the British ArthurCClarke Award for her book, Zoo City, said yesterday that her show was different from the usual MTV fare.

MyNight, a 13-part series, will follow 13 matriculants through their last school days, leading up to their matric dance.

The show is expected to premiere on November 27 on SABC2.

Beukes said: "It's about what it means to be young in South Africa".

An "urgent" application process has opened for 2011 matriculants in Johannesburg and Cape Town who want to be in the series. The matric dance of applicants would have to be between August and October.

Beukes and her co-director, journalist Nechama Brodie, will supply the subjects with handcams. They are also expected to film themselves on their cellphones for intimate footage.

Despite the show promising "the glamour, the drama, the break-ups and make-ups and makeovers", Beukes was quick to stress that her work was not similar to other teen reality shows, such as Teen Mom and My Super Sweet 16 .

"It's about acknowledging contemporary rites of passage and celebrating real teens, real lives and real stories from Masiphumelele to Midrand," she said.

Here are some of the not-so-great reality shows we should not have been forced to watch :

• Ready for Marriage - In this Zambian show, 18 prostitutes compete for R62000 and a chance to have their wedding paid for.
• Paris Hilton's My New BFF- It's a wonder that this show is still on TV in the US, let alone globally.
• For The Love of Ray J - He has a new reality show with his older and more popular sibling, Brandy Norwood, but Ray J shouldn't have been allowed two seasons of this show. When this The Bachelorette-style show premiered he said he was looking for a lass who would "make me want to get out of the game".

After two winners and no stable relationship, it should have been stopped.