There was a time when reality television seemed determined to find new and increasingly unhinged ways to exploit women’s insecurities for entertainment.
We had The Swan, Extreme Makeover, Bridezillas, and Addicted to Beauty, but just when you thought television had exhausted its supply of ways to make women feel bad about themselves, E! came along with an idea so ridiculous it almost sounds like a parody: What if you made plastic surgery the grand prize of a wedding competition?
Enter Bridalplasty, one of the strangest reality shows to emerge from the golden age of early-2010s television.
Premiering in November 2010, the 10-episode series brought together 12 brides-to-be who were willing to compete for the ultimate wedding-day makeover. Hosted by former Miss USA and Meet the Barkers star Shanna Moakler, the show followed a group of engaged women living together in a mansion as they battled it out in a series of wedding-themed challenges. The catch? They weren’t competing for a honeymoon or an expensive wedding dress. They were competing for plastic surgery.
Each contestant met with celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Terry Dubrow (Botched), who helped them compile a wish list of procedures. Breast augmentations, nose jobs, liposuction, tummy tucks — nothing was off the table. Every week, the winner of a challenge earned one of the procedures on her list. Then, remaining contestants voted to eliminate one of their fellow brides. It was essentially The Bachelor meets The Swan, with a little bit of Survivor thrown in.
Naturally, the challenges were just as bizarre as the premise. Contestants were tasked with writing wedding vows, planning honeymoons, and proving their bridal expertise, all while navigating alliances, arguments, and the occasional post-surgery recovery.
But the show’s biggest selling point was arguably its finale. The last bride standing would receive every remaining procedure on her wish list, along with a lavish, celebrity-style wedding reportedly worth $100,000. Even stranger, her fiancé wouldn’t see her newly transformed appearance until she walked down the aisle. Nothing says happily ever after quite like surprising your future husband with an entirely new face.
This Forgotten E! Reality Show Had One of the Most Disturbing Premises in TV History
The series also attracted plenty of criticism. Medical professionals questioned by ABC News said the ethics of turning surgical procedures into competition prizes, with concerns that the format trivialized the risks of cosmetic surgery. At a time when makeover television was already encouraging women to view their bodies as projects in need of constant improvement, Bridalplasty took that message to an uncomfortable extreme.
Ultimately, Illinois native Allyson Donovan emerged victorious, receiving her collection of cosmetic procedures and dream wedding. The show wrapped its first and only season in January 2011, with its finale attracting just 600,000 viewers.
While the show might seem laughably excessive today, its underlying premise feels a little less dated than we’d probably like to admit.
The post The Strange Story of ‘Bridalplasty,’ the Reality Show That Gave Away Plastic Surgery appeared first on VICE.
