| WHAT TO WATCH

'Average Jane' Gets a Shot at Love on NBC

Monday, June 07, 2004

03:10 PM PT

"Average Joe" is undergoing a sex change for fall.

NBC's dating series will reverse the girl-picks-guy premise for its next installment, becoming "Average Jane" instead. The show, set for 8 p.m. ET Tuesdays in the fall, will feature one presumably handsome guy picking from a group of women who are perhaps not as beautiful as your standard dating-show contestant

The show's producers are putting out a call for women to take part in the show, as well as the guy who will be looking for love with one of them -- and, if "Jane" holds form with its predecessor, a bevy of model types to be added midway through the game.

Not just anyone will make the cut for "Average Jane." NBC says it wants women with "charm, wit and intelligence," not just beauty. The guy executive producers Stuart Krasnow and Adam Glassman are looking for must be "charismatic, intelligent [and] successful," and he has to want a relationship based on "something more substantial than just superficial physical attraction."

The first two installments of "Average Joe" didn't quite live up to the show's fairy-tale premise, as pretty girls Melana Scantlin and Larissa Meek ended up choosing pretty-but-seemingly-shallow guys over Joes Adam Mesh and Brian Worth. Mesh came back for a third show, "Average Joe: Adam Returns," in which he got to control the game and wound up choosing 24-year-old Samantha Trenk.

"Average Jane," which is scheduled to begin filming later this summer, will hold casting calls in Atlanta, Milwaukee, Tampa and New York over the next two weeks. More information and application forms are at NBC.com.