This season, "Big Brother 4" has shaken things up by putting several of the contestants in a house with a significant other from their past. Have to deal with a single ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend reduced several adults to tears. Apparently, those "Big Brother" housemates had it easy. NBC's "Little Black Book" looks to take reality to its next painful extreme.

NBC has given the greenlight to the new relationship show, which will put one single man in a house with eight former girlfriends. From that house in North Carolina, the man will have a chance to rekindle his relationships with all of them. Why, more than a few readers might ask, would he possibly want to do a silly thing like that?

"What kinda guy could survive in a house with eight of his ex-girlfriends?" says Bob Kusbit, one of show's executive producers. "Hes obviously gotta be someone pretty special."

That special man is named Kress. NBC press materials don't make it clear whether "Kress" is a first name, a last name or a perplexing nickname, but Kress is clearly a man with a lively and active past that he isn't ready to totally abandon. How many people out there really have eight exes that they'd like the chance to date again? How many people have eight exes who would like the chance to date them again? Clearly, Kress is somewhat unique.

"This is the first reality series thats all about real relationships," says Joe Livecchi, the show's creator and another executive producer. "He is probably the bravest guy in the world to open his heart and a house to all his ex-girlfriends."

Week by week, Kress will redate his former girlfriends and every week, he'll eliminate a different chapter from his past until he's left with just one woman. At that point, will either of them remember that there was probably a perfectly good reason why they broke up in the first place? Only time will tell.

"Every single person in the house has a huge emotional investment in the outcome," Livecchi insists. "'Little Black Book' is the absolute best chance of ever seeing real love lost or gained on television."

Whatever he says.