Regency House Party debuts tonight.
The UK’s Channel 4’s Regency House Party comes to the States tonight on PBS. In the five men and five women will look for a love connection, but will play by Jane Austen’s rules, rather than being the drunk, coked-up, whores that they are in their real lives. I kid, of course, but they’ll be living and courting as if it were the Regency Period around the turn of the 19th century. That “was an age that invented celebrity, fashion icons and the tabloid press,” according to Channel 4’s web site for their broadcast of the series. The AP says the series may not be as slick as The Bachelor, but it offers “an elegant country estate, bare-knuckle boxing and a secret nighttime rendezvous.” If this sounds boring, there are also four chaperones who get money if they hook up their charges. See, there were pimps and hos in the early 1800s, too.

Instead of smashing the entire series into a week, as PBS has tended to do with past series like this one, two new 90-minute episodes will air for the next four Wednesdays. That’s shorter than the UK version, which was eight hours long. You will, of course, check your local listings, because PBS stations are fickle. Or, just buy the DVD and watch it on your own time.