By LISA DE MORAES The Washington Post
Publication: The Day
More than a year after it was first announced, Bristol Palin's latest foray into reality TV will finally become, well, a reality on June 19.
Except that the premise has changed again slightly, bringing the premise tally to three, to date.
Lifetime announced Tuesday that it will telecast two episodes of "Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp" each Tuesday night. The series will follow Bristol's life as a single mom "living under intense media scrutiny that comes from her lineage as the daughter of former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin."
Only now, Bristol will be moving from Wasilla, Alaska, to Los Angeles with younger sister Willow. And then, apparently, back to Alaska "as she deals with parenting and disciplining her toddler without Tripp's father."
We first heard of Bristol's next stab at reality-TV fame back in May of 2011, when Bio channel announced it had bought an unnamed reality series in which Bristol - the country's most famous unwed-pregnant-daughter-of-vice-presidential-candidate-turned-abstinence-advocate-turned-"Dancing-With-the-Stars"-competitor - moves from Alaska to Los Angeles with Tripp, and they move in with her "good friends Chris and Kyle Massey" while Bristol works for some small, unnamed, children's charity. The plan was to have the show air on Bio first, then on A&E and then on Lifetime network. All three networks fall under the A&E Television Networks (AETN) banner.
Bristol and Kyle, the network explained, became BFFs while competing together on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars." Kyle had a relationship with the reality series' production house, Associated Television International; he works on its syndicated clip show called "World's Funniest Moments," and the Massey brothers also have been "roving reporters" on the company's production of the annual Hollywood Christmas Parade.
Ensuing reports that Bristol and Kyle were an item were deemed a "bald, dumb lie" by the exec producer, who added that he sure did like all that "interesting publicity."
Not long thereafter, reports surfaced that Kyle - a rapper/Disney kid star whose credits include the Disney Channel's "That's So Raven" and "Cory in the House" - was unhappy with how Bristol's show was working out and that it had been scrapped, which Bio denied. Later, Bio acknowledged that it had "decided not to move forward" with the show and, in February, Lifetime announced it had bought a Bristol reality series.
At that point, the premise changed; the Massey brothers were out, and the show would give us an exclusive, rare glimpse into Bristol's life in Alaska as a young single mother, "forging her own way in the world, living under the constant spotlight as a member of one of America's most high-profile families."
Tuesday's announcement, however, says Bristol moves from Alaska and then back with Willow, who, you may recall, stole some of Bristol's spotlight during her "Dancing" days. That's when reports surfaced that the younger Palin daughter used homophobic comments on Facebook to bash a classmate who was nicking their mother, whose reality series, "Sarah Palin's Alaska," was premiering at that time on TLC.
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