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Flipping through the channels one day in the summer of 2007, I stopped short on vh1.

A woman with a pink cocktail dress was banging down the door to what looked like a compound with animal print furniture, while inside another woman with big hair had just adjusted her halter top to give a man shooting photos a better view of her breasts.

A full, frontal view, that is.

The woman throwing a fit outside, I was later to find, is Tiffany, one of 25 women chosen to appear on vh1's newest foray into celeb-reality, Rock of Love. The uninhibited model inside is Heather, an exotic dancer from Las Vegas, and the camera man is Bret Michaels, lead singer of the '80s hard-rock band Poison, and the object of affection for these largely busty and predominantly blonde girls.

Or, should I say, these vipers... lying in wait to strike at the very moment their enemy shows an ounce of weakness. Indeed, the claws and fangs are just one reason why, after just a few moments of Rock of Love with Bret Michaels, I was hooked, and I'm not the only one.

Just three episodes into the first season, which aired on July 29 '07, 1.9 million viewers in the key 18-49 demographic tuned in, 23% more the previous week. In addition, the episode ranked among the top 10 programs on all of cable that day, and ratings continued to climb.*

The reality show follows on the heels of the inexplicable trainwreck that was Flavor of Love, in which aging rapper Flavor Flav auditioned a similar number of unique individuals for the role of his Number One Lady. As painful as that series could be to watch, it too garnered thousands of viewers, and Rock of Love seems poised to surpass its predecessor in the annals of pop culture.

This could be because Rock of Love is, at its core, sheer escapism, and the timing of the show's release in mid-July can't be a coincidence. In the midst of a war, an increasingly combative race for the U.S. presidency, and an energy crisis, people are also generally aggravated by the summer heat, and something's got to give.

Once it does, waiting at the end of a long, hard day is the booze, boobs, hairspray and eyeliner of the Rock of Love house, and it just keeps getting better.

Each episode, contestants vying for Michaels' heart are forced into what can only be described as uncomfortable, if not humiliating, situations, ranging from dirty talking on the phone while the other roommates listen to motocross racing after only a brief lesson.

The top performers go on dates with

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