LIFE ON THE D LIST

Oh No! Alyssa Edwards May Be Gone From Our TVs Forever

Alyssa Edwards

Oh, gurl. Do you want to buy a TV show?

It seems Logo has decided not to buy the planned reality show about Alyssa Edwards, a.k.a. Justin Johnson, that was (and still is) filled with promise of glory.  The show, titled Beyond Belief, follows Johnson at home in Texas with his Honey Boo-Boo-ish family, and at work at the Dance Moms-nightmare dance company that he owns. Add a dusting of glitter and a big scoop of complete mess, and a reality show is born! If there’s a network that will take it.

Johnson appeared as Alyssa Edwards on the fifth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race on Logo, although he made it only to sixth place. Jinkx Monsoon won that season — and she deserved it, she is brilliant — but Miss Alyssa was arguably the star of her season, thanks to her clever one-liners and her knack for absorbing all the energy in the room like a Bedazzled black hole.

Drag Race production company World of Wonder got all sticky with excitement when Johnson told stories about the competitive dance studio he owns, which is apparently filled with little diva-girls and bitchy moms who yell at each other a lot. That’s entertainment! So they dreamed up this spin-off show, hoping to cash in on the proven audience that watches the awful beast of a woman who terrorizes America on Dance Moms.

World of Wonder pitched the show to Logo and filmed a pilot, but for some reason it didn’t get the green light. So they’ve put a teaser online for the masses to rally behind via the power of social networking, should you wish to watch for yourself. The show looks cute, mainly because Johnson is endearingly nuts, which is always fun to watch. Perhaps Logo passed because the network has no money since Drag Race is the only show keeping them alive Beyond Belief is too blatantly a copy of shows already on the air. Plus, in the YouTube clip the dialogue is a bit awkward and the drama is woefully staged. Although that hasn’t stopped the Kardashians from taking over the E! network. Whatever, these things can be fixed. Beyond Belief looks fun. Logo can’t be trusted with these judgements. They thought The A-List was a good show. Attention, Logo: It. Was. Not.

Hopefully they’ll change their collective mind and give Beyond Belief a shot. Recycled ideas or not, it would find an audience. Anything would be better than the endless reruns of Living Single they’re airing now. Or just enjoy this clip for what it is, because it may be the last we see of The Alyssa Edwards show. Hollywood sure is a bitch. And so is Coco Montrese.

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