In the past, the Parents Television Council has criticized the CW soap opera Gossip Girl for glamorizing sex and alcohol/drug abuse among the teenagers at an elite, private prep school in New York City.  Bravo’s latest reality show, NYC Prep (Tuesday, 9:00 p.m. ET), faithfully adheres to the Gossip Girl script, obsessing over the cast’s sex lives and wild parties with nary a parent to keep them in check.   The similarities between the shows beg the question: Is life imitating “art” or inspiring it?  One thing is for sure:  NYC Prep has been named Worst Cable TV Show of the Week for exploiting teenagers and promoting risky behavior.

In the introduction to the show, Jessie, who is beginning her senior year, explains, “Fortunately for a lot of New York City kids, we get to live different lives where we can grow up a little bit faster.  And it almost feels like you’re an adult by the time you’re sixteen.”  Indeed, the kids on the show have all the money in the world to shop, dine out at fancy restaurants, and basically do anything they want.  In fact, Kelli and her brother live alone in a tony upper-east side Manhattan apartment.  Their parents visit them from the Hamptons only once a week.  The rest of the time, they have no parental supervision.  The rest of the cast members seem to deal with their parents only peripherally.  The males in particular never mention the generous parents that kindly fund their wild lifestyles.

Left to their own devices, the kids gleefully admit to indulging in excess.  PC, Jessie’s best friend, sums up the prevailing attitude: “In New York City, if you have money and you’re bored, you’re gonna buy drugs and you’re gonna, you know, go to clubs and you’re gonna just get wrecked.”  PC is shown chugging a frothy beer at a local watering hole with other drunken teens.  How are they allowed to drink?  Is the Upper East Side immune to state liquor laws?  Camille, an ambitious honor student, explains, “My mom’s asked me a couple of times if I have a fake ID.  I always say, ‘No,’ even though, of course, most of us all do.  They don’t know that we’re going to clubs and hooking up.” 

Speaking of hooking up, one cast member simply cannot shut up about it.  Sebastian -- the show’s resident lothario, budding misogynist, and cast member voted most likely to have his parents dole out hush money – lists hooking up as his only passion in life.  He brags, “I hook up a lot. I hook up with two, three girls in a night. Well maybe more, I don't know… Why date one girl when you could hook up with a bunch?”  Speaking like a young Hugh Hefner in the making, Sebastian boasts, “If you go to like a good amount of parties, you can hook up with anywhere between like two and sixteen girls in a month.”  A promise ring just won’t do for this kid; he needs a promise chain link fence.  Yet, the producers of the show shamelessly set him loose on the young ladies of the show.  In future episodes, viewers are sure to see Sebastian’s conquests and the trail of broken hearts he leaves behind. 

Bravo is following a formula that they’ve essentially cornered the market on: affluent train wrecks.  With their Real Housewives of [insert city/county here] franchise, Bravo provides a voyeuristic window into the evil catfights, vapid materialism, and Botox-fueled social climbing of women with simply too much time and money on their hands.  When the women inevitably become the engineers of their own demise, there’s a sense of schadenfreude for the viewer, a delight that these women will taste a bit humble pie to muck up their caviar.   

When minors are involved, however, there’s a creeping whiff of exploitation.  After all, who is this show targeted at?  Bravo’s normal demographic isn’t the MTV crowd.  Are adults meant to enjoy scenes of kids living this fast and loose?  For every insouciant sigh and confident stride there are the self-conscious hair-flips and nervous laughter, and one is reminded that these are just kids pretending to be adults.  There is no delight in seeing them harm themselves.

For promoting underage drinking/drug use and risky sexual behavior, NYC Prep has been named Worst Cable TV Show of the Week.

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