Fox has own ‘Bachelor’ idea

Fox, hoping to trump the ABC reality-based hit “The Bachelor,” announced that seven episodes of a show called “Joe Millionaire” will begin airing Jan. 6 and run Mondays at 9 p.m. The hook of the show involves a bachelor and 20 hopeful single women. Only this time, the women fly to France to meet the man who, unbeknownst to them, is not a millionaire but an average Joe given a make-over.

“Joe Millionaire” is being produced by Rocket Sciences Laboratories, the same production company behind Fox’s “Temptation Island.” Overseeing “Joe Millionaire” is Mike Darnell, Fox’s executive vice president of alternative programming and specials -- and a longtime compatriot in the reality-TV wars of Mike Fleiss, who is enjoying success as executive producer of “The Bachelor.”