This is Still Happening

It sounds like such a fairytale. Who doesn't want to meet a prince, fall in love, and become the next Kate Middleton? In fact, how many people started planning a second royal wedding with the younger prince the instant it became clear that Prince William was off the market? Of course, most of us know better than to think Prince Harry would resort to a reality show to find his future wife — except this is Prince Harry we're talking about. If any member of the royal family would do it for a laugh, it would probably be him. Fox's upcoming reality show I Wanna Marry Harry takes that to its natural, and cruel, conclusion and the first look at the series makes it clear that no lengths are too far to pull off the perfect prank.

The sneak peek answers one question while raising a couple more. It turns out that the girls were flown to a country house in England with no idea who they were competing to marry. They only get a brief look at "Prince Harry" and his private helicopter before he's whisked away until they can formally meet him at the masquerade ball later that night. The girls are shown dancing with him while they ask him questions, as if the first part of the competition itself is trying to figure out whose ring they'd agree to put on their finger at the end of the season. That alone says more about the current state of American culture than anything else.

"The stakes have been raised tenfold and there's going to be heartache and tears before bedtime," promises Paul Leonard, the man playing one of the lines of butlers and maids who first welcome the women to the house. Meanwhile, somewhere Prince Harry is watching each of these promos and cackling to himself.

While I Wanna Marry Harry as a premise just sounds like one of the worst and most insensitive jokes you can pull on one woman, let alone twelve, it's clear that Fox is banking on the world to be entertained by these women more than they actually sympathize with them. After all, who would agree to leave their home country to fly out and compete to marry someone they don't know on camera? You know, besides everyone who has ever been on The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, or any such similar show? It's one thing to agree to the competition when everyone knows that Prince Harry and Cressida Bonas were very much on during filming and another thing to agree to the competition when you don't even know who you're fighting other women to be with. How is this even happening?

Then again, considering the rumors that Prince Harry and Cressida Bonas have split up, season two of I Wanna Marry Harry could get greenlit after all. Now that Prince Harry is fourth in line to the throne instead of third, maybe the Queen will actually let him find an American wife via a reality television show — as long as he doesn't choose any of these original twelve.

Watch the video below.

Images: FOX; Tumblr