Flavor of Love

Flavor of Love is a "Celebreality" show on VH1 starring Flavor Flav of Public Enemy fame. The show's format is much like the The Bachelor with Flavor Flav having to choose his companion from a varied assortment of candidates after various challenges and competitions. (Flav jokingly referred to himself in the series premiere as "the Black-chelor"). He is helped in his quest by his major domo/chauffeur "Big Rick", his mother, and his former romantic partner Brigitte Nielsen (whom he starred with in another of VH1's Celebreality shows, Strange Love).

Twenty female contestants move into Flav's mansion as Flav searches for "the next great love of his life." Because Flav (by his own admission) has a bad memory, each contestant was given a nickname by Flav and for as long as they remain in the running, referred to by their nickname; whenever a contestant is eliminated, her real name is revealed to the audience (for a brief second).

The twenty contestants in alphabetical order were as follows:

"Applez"

Real Name:

Eliminated: Episode 2, "Rub A Dub Flav," aired on January 8, 2006

"Bubblez"

Real Name: April

Eliminated: Episode 1, "Fifteen Beds and a Bucket of Puke", aired on January 1, 2006

"Cherry"

Real Name: Mieko

Eliminated: Episode 1, "Fifteen Beds and a Bucket of Puke", aired on January 1, 2006

"Dimplez"

Real Name:

Eliminated: Episode 2 , "Rub A Dub Flav," aired on January 8, 2006

"Georgia"

Real Name: Jefandi

Eliminated: Episode 2, "Rub A Dub Flav," aired on January 8, 2006

"Goldie"

Real Name: Courtney

Eliminated: Episode 7, "Flav's Trippin'," aired on February 19, 2006

"Hoopz"

Real Name: Nikki

Eliminated:

"Hottie"

Real Name: Schatar

Eliminated: Episode 6, "Interrogitted," aired on February 12, 2006

"Miss Latin"

Real Name: Xotchitl Rodriguez

Eliminated: Episode 2, "Rub A Dub Flav," aired on January 8, 2006

"New York"

Real Name: Tiffany

Eliminated:

"Peaches"

Real Name: Kim

Eliminated: Episode 3, "A Friend of Flav's is a Friend of Mine", aired on January 15, 2006

"Picasso"

Real Name: Sarah

Eliminated: Episode 1, "Fifteen Beds and a Bucket of Puke", aired on January 1, 2006

"Pumkin"

Real Name: Brooke

Eliminated: Episode 8, "Family Flavors", aired on February 26, 2006

"Rain"

Real Name: Thela

Eliminated: Episode 2, "Rub A Dub Flav," aired on January 8, 2006

"Red Oyster"

Real Name: Abigail

Eliminated: Episode 5, "What Happens in Flavor Stays in Flavor", aired on January 29, 2006. She eliminated herself after hearing news that her father had been in a serious car accident.

"Serious"

Real Name: Cristal

Eliminated: Episode 3, "A Friend of Flav's is a Friend of Mine", aired on January 15, 2006

"Shellz"

Real Name: Amber

Eliminated: Episode 1, "Fifteen Beds and a Bucket of Puke", aired on January 1, 2006

"Smiley"

Real Name: Leilene

Eliminated: Episode 6, "Interrogitted," aired on February 12, 2006

"Smokey"

Real Name: Johanna

Eliminated: Episode 1, "Fifteen Beds and a Bucket of Puke", aired on January 1, 2006

"Sweetie"

Real Name: Tika

Eliminated: Episode 4, "The Flavor of Chicken", aired on January 22, 2006

Series Information

In the series premiere, the twenty contestants arrived at Flav's mansion to discover that there were only fifteen beds. Accordingly, by the end of the episode, they were whittled down to fifteen. The second episode saw the elimination of five more. In the third episode of the series, "A Friend of Flav's is a Friend of Mine" (air date: January 15, 2006), two more contestants were eliminated after Flav took the ladies on an excursion to visit some of his "old friends" and some "new friends" as well. The four ladies who were taken to meet Flav's "old friends" suspected that they would be meeting his celebrity friends (most notably Chuck D, Professor Griff, and Terminator X but were surprised when they arrived at a senior center where their challenge was to take care of and socialize with the elderly. The four ladies that ventured to meet Flav's "new friends" were taken to a park where they were challenged to organize and execute a birthday party for young children.

In Episode 4, "The Flavor of Chicken" (air date: January 22, 2006), the ladies had to try and impress Flav's mother by accompanying her to church, introducing themselves over tea and pastries at a tea room, and by attempting to cook fried chicken.

In Episode 5, "What Happens in Flavor Stays in Flavor" (air date: January 29, 2006), Flavor Flav took the girls to Las Vegas to test their luck, literally, at a roulette table. In the middle of the elimination ceremony at the end of Episode 5, "Red Oyster" interrupted before the final two "clocks" were given out and informed the cast that she was eliminating herself from the competition. Oyster did this in order to spend time with her father, who she had just heard had been in a serious car accident.

Episode 6's most interesting twist came when Flav's old flame Brigitte Nielsen came to the house to administer polygraph tests to each contestant.

By Episode 7, "Flav's Trippin'", the four women left went on two personal journeys with Flav. Group one, Pumkin and Hoopz, went to a spa in Palm Springs, did some yoga, had mud masks, and had shower time together. Flav later spent the night with Pumkin. Then he took Goldie and New York (who is under constant speculation of being a Trans-sexual ) to San Diego, where they went to the zoo, and then Flav spent the night with Goldie. This was followed by one of the most even-tempered elimination ceremonies yet shown on the program.

Although the show tries to portray the contestants as being everyday women from all walks of life genuinely interested in hooking up with and eventually marrying Flavor Flav, most of the contestants are apparently actively involved in various aspects of the entertainment business (actresses, models, etc.), and were most likely using this opportunity to gain more exposure. This is easily verifiable not only by going to the website addresses listed for most of the contestant's names in the listing below, but also by the admission of some of the ladies themselves. For instance, in Episode 6, "Interrogitted", it was revealed that "Hottie" had previously been a contestant on the reality dating show, Blind Date. "Smiley" had previously been seen as a contestant for WWE's Diva Search, and had also posted a poem on her website that she was to have said to the audience had she stayed on that competition. "Pumkin" admitted to the other contestants that she had been on Blind Date as well. During her polygraph examination with Brigitte Nielsen, it was implied that "Pumkin" had performed sexual intercourse while participating on an unnamed reality television program. However, in her blog at MySpace, "Pumkin" asserts that this was untrue:

"You cannot believe everything you hear . . . Yes, it is true that everything that is coming out of our mouths was actually said. However, they can use what we say in whatever context they choose. It does not necessarily have to be how we meant it. For example, if someone said that they loved Flav at the end of the show, they can take that "I love you" and place it wherever they want to in the shows process. I have never had sex on reality television either. As long as we said yes or no at some point throughout the lie detector test, then they have the audio and can choose to paste it wherever they want to put it." (From her blog entry of Sunday, February 12, 2006, "How Real Is Reality Television?")

("Pumkin" has also appeared under her real name of Brooke on an episode of the MTV serial dating show Next.)

In the penultimate episode of the show, Episode 8, Flav went on outings with each girl and her parents. He took "Pumkin" and her mother to get a manicure and a pedicure, took "Hoopz" and her mother to the Medieval Times theme restaurant, and took "New York" and her parents to the Santa Monica Tennis Club for a spot of tennis. During "Pumkin"'s outing, her mother revealed to Flav that "Pumkin" had appeared on Blind Date as well, a fact that was known to the other girls, but not to Flav. "Hoopz" expressed her feeling that if she didn't hook up with Flav at the end of the day, her mother might, since they took to themselves quite a bit. Unfortunately, Flav did not hit it off with "New York"'s mother, who loudly expressed her rejection of any possibility of her daughter ever marrying Flav.

"Pumkin"'s failure to tell Flav about her past appearance on Blind Date led to her elimination in Episode 8. During the Elimination Ceremony, a near-brawl ensued between her and "New York"; immediately after the elimination, "Pumkin" "outed" "New York" as an aspiring actress, which "New York" took offense to. Things escalated after "Pumkin" spat in the face of "New York", which lead the production crew to have to physically separate the two ladies. On camera, still angry and emotional over being eliminated, "Pumkin" said she had no more feelings for Flav, and if he were to pick "New York", he would get what he deserves.

Episode 8 is also notable for the fact that two of the parents slipped and revealed the real names of their daughters on air.

Executive Producers: Mark Cronin, Cris Abrego and Ben Samek (for Mindless Entertainment and 51 Pictures), and Jeff Olde and Jill Modabber (for VH1). Flavor Flav is credited as co-producer for some of the episodes, for instance Episode 8.