Fly Girls is a new reality television show that chronicles the lives of five Virgin America flight attendants. The series premieres March 24 on the CW network. For two months, cameras followed the five ladies and documented their professional, as well as their personal, lives. Ultimately, the show promotes the 2-year-old Virgin America airlines that not only has lower costs than other airlines, but also unique features, such as a touchscreen food and drink ordering system, in-flight instant messaging, and Wi-Fi.
During filming the five women shared an apartment in Los Angeles where they spent some of their downtime. Publicity for the show began last week as the cast members--Tasha Dunnigan, 29; Mandy Roberts, 26; Nikole Rubyn, 31; Louise Nguyen, 28; Farrah Williams, 34--walked red carpets in Las Vegas and New York. Festivities also included a party flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas with celebrity guests and the media.
The cast of Fly Girls was chosen after Virgin America executives sent out an email to employees about the idea for a television show. Flight attendants auditioned for the five roles. While Virgin America CEO David Cush feels that his team would not display any behavior that would damage the company, like all reality television shows, there should be a fair amount of drama--especially since the plot has been promoted as The Hills on a plane. Still, for a weekly series, it does sound better than Snakes on a Plane, right?
Snakes aside, the name of the show does not cause any alarm for the five Fly Girls. Although some used to consider "stewardess" an offense term for female flight attendants, the cast views the combination of "fly" and "girls" as fitting. They take the business of flying seriously and enjoy the double meaning when you consider the word "fly" as an adjective meaning "cool" or "hip." It's also inline with Virgin America's image.
In 2004, Southwest Airlines got exposure from the A&E reality show Airline. In a few weeks we'll see how the public responds to Virgin America and CW's Fly Girls.
