ATLANTA — Georgia native Diana DeGarmo, 20, is already a reality- show vet thanks to her time as runner-up on “American Idol” four years ago.
But after a brief pop career and a successful stint doing Broadway musicals in 2006, she spent the past year trying to find a new path. When she heard the CMT network was pitching a show called “Gone Country” in which noncountry singers try their hand becoming country stars, she was intrigued. And her two weeks in Nashville inspired her.
“It was the craziest thing,” she said. “I didn’t realize I’d have such a change of heart. I grew up loving country and had gotten away from it. I missed it. A little light bulb went off inside my head. It resparked something, an old flame that was already there.”
The show (Mondays at 6 p.m. on Comcast digital channel 477, and at various other times) blends elements of “Surreal Life” and “Idol.” A group of celebrities of varying star wattage are placed in an outrageously large house with copious amounts of alcohol, given visually entertaining things to do (cleaning horse poop, skeet shooting on Gretchen Wilson’s ranch) and compete to put together a country song to be performed in a concert at a honky-tonk venue. The winner gets to record the song with country artist and producer John Rich.
Taped in November, Rich gathered DeGarmo, Bobby Brown, Julio Iglesias Jr., singer Sisqo (“Thong Song”), Dee Snider of Twisted Sister (“We’re Not Gonna Take It”), Maureen McCormick (Marcia Brady) and Carnie Wilson (Wilson Phillips).
Brown, who starred in his own popular reality show in 2005 on Bravo, “Being Bobby Brown,” was the biggest get, said CMT’s head of development Bob Kusbit.
And Brown doesn’t disappoint. In the first episode, he enters the scene on a private plane with triumphant flair. And he quickly develops an unlikely friendship with McCormick over cigarettes and his love for “The Brady Bunch.”
“He was like a 5-year-old and Maureen was like his mom,” Carnie Wilson said.
“He has his demons but he has a soft sweet soul,” DeGarmo said. “And he really got into the country music.”
Brown was unavailable for comment. However, on the show he said, “Country music is part of soul music. I feel like I’m a soulful person. That’s why I’m here.”
CMT is hoping the cast will draw viewers who don’t normally watch the network, which has struggled to build an audience beyond its core base. (It averaged 200,000 viewers in 2007, down 9 percent from 2006, comparable to the Game Show Network and CNBC.) For DeGarmo, this show was more than just a publicity ploy or quick paycheck. It’s her entry into Nashville where she’s now spending time recording music for an upcoming album that will skew in country-pop.
“I’m turning 21 in a few months, which is scary,” she said. “I really truly believe I found my identity with country music.”
In promos after the first episode, DeGarmo is seen crying, saying “I want to be a country singer more than anything in the world.”
