Are VH1 and A&E Switching Personalities?

VH1 debuted a docuseries last night called The OCD Project, a mysteriously stone-faced exploration of people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It has some of the trappings of familiar VH1 fare -- the sufferers move into a house to seek treatment, a psychiatrist consults and sets up phobia-breaking stunts, and confessionals punctuate the hour -- but the low-key storytelling and lack of a celebrity draw mark a weird new vista for VH1. The once-proud network of Rock of Love Bus shows signs of evolving into A&E, whose arguably exploitative, but revered docuseries Obsessed, Intervention and Hoarders have set a standard for reality series about psychiatric disorders. At the same time, as VH1 escalates in quality, A&E continues to pad its lineup with programming about Kirstie Alley, Gene Simmons, and many other celebrities. Is a bizarre switcheroo occurring?

The fact that VH1 is airing a series about OCD isn't surprising, as Obsessed and episodes of MTV's True Life have established that sufferers are, despite themselves, quite telegenic. Still, I expect that VH1 won't find much success with its new show; for all its merits, it's not different enough from Obsessed to warrant much buzz or its own fan base. I can laud how it gives time to varying types of OCD disorders (as you can see in the premiere below), but it's altogether too much of an anomaly on the VH1 schedule. If VH1 really wants to transform into A&E, it needs to do away with almost all of its most successful programming, which will inevitably include Bret Michaels' upcoming series Life As I Know It.

As for A&E, most of the network's celebrity programming seems like a preventative strike, a way to latch onto recognizable names before VH1 scoops them up and turns them into actual hits. Still, as we've already seen with the dubious Steven Seagal: Lawman and The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty, big-name projects that look like sure bets are by no means guaranteed successes.

While I do hope the two networks heed the warning signs and stop unintentionally converging, some of this OCD Project is eminently watchable. Pull up a seat in the love bus and check it out.

'The OCD Project' Premiere [VH1]