The Player Launches Aug. 3

By Paige Albiniak
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

UPN will premiere its new reality show, The Player, Tuesday, Aug. 3 at 9 p.m. The show follows Dawn, a model from Miami, and her two girlfriends as they watch 13 guys vie to win Dawn's heart, or at least her permission to keep hanging around.

The show will start with all 16 people (Dawn, her friends, and the 13 so-called players) living together in a Miami mansion. Each episode, the guys will face a dating challenge delivered by the anonymous "Player Operator." The winner of each challenge will get to go on a glamorous date with Dawn.

If Dawn decides she doesn't fancy her suitor, she'll dismiss him with the phrase: "Don't hate the player, hate the game," which is a little longer than Donald Trump's "You're fired."

Don Weiner and Happy Walters are executive producers; Teri Kennedy is the co-executive producer. The show is produced by Ureal Productions.

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.