by Holly Marie Tong

We are living in a time in which real-ity television has clearly become one of the most noticeable trends of the decade and it doesn't take an enter-tainment enthusiast or a helpless tele-vision addict to realize this. I for one, hardly ever turn on my television, yet I continually hear so much about various shows that I stay educated and in-formed whether I care to and whether I ever tune in or not. However, if there are two channels I do watch from time to time, it tends to be GAC and CMT. In the midst of my CMT watching a couple months back, I stumbled upon a new reality show called “Sweet Home Alabama.”

Sweet Home Alabama can be described as the country/less Hollywoodized version of the popular Bachelor/Bachelorette reality show in which an attractive indi-vidual opens up their life to the public as they are on the quest for love. What particularly makes SHA stand out is the different approach it takes in comparison to other dating shows. Each season features 11 contest-ants from the city and 11 from the country all vying for the heart of the same person…and the person they are competing for is always country. The question raised is: will the bachelor or bachelorette stick to their roots and surroundings of what they know or will they fall for someone from the opposite side of the fence that may take them to a different part of the country and introduce them to a new lifestyle. The show features outdoor activities, visits to the big city and a wide variety of beautiful dates and adventures.

I was immediately taken up with season 1 because of the realness I sensed in the country bachelorette, Devin Grissom. For the finale, she had a tough decision to make between horse trainer Adam Moyer and former Clemson University quarterback Tribble Reese. While Devin chose Adam, Tribble still won as he is the fea-tured bachelor on season 2. Two episodes have aired so far and Tribble has narrowed the field down to 16 girls. We've already witnessed a visit to an alligator farm, the country girls shooting a deer, a cooking event, muddy high heels, Tribble's first kiss, first date, cat fights, and other dramatic filled moments. My favorite contestants at this point are Cassie Rupp, Tristan Smith and Paige Duke.

Each season consists of 8 episodes and this week is episode 3 in which, Tribble will eliminate more poten-tial princesses. For more information visit www.cmt.com Be sure to tune into CMT on Friday nights at 9pm to see what all the hype is about!