Less than a week before the season finale, an A&E publicist says there’s “no word” yet on a renewal for the Nick and Drew Lachey reality series filmed here.
“Lachey’s Bar” ends its first season with back-to-back episodes 10-11 p.m. Wednesday. The brothers shot 10 half-hour programs about opening their Over-the-Rhine bar last winter. Will it be back?
“No word on a renewal at this point but you can check back with us,” an A&E publicity assistant tells me in an email.
The series ends Sept. 9 with a show called “In Cincy To Stay?,” when Nick considers "relocating his family to Cincinnati full time.” But – Spoiler Alert! – that can’t happen because Vanessa will star in a new fall NBC sitcom produced in Los Angeles.
She plays the TV wife of Mark-Paul Gosselaar (“Franklin & Bash,” “NYPD Blue,” “Saved by the Bell”) on NBC’s “Truth Be Told” couples comedy premiering 8:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16.
“Lachey’s Bar” has been filed with typically unreal made-for-TV moments concocted by producers which permeate “reality” TV.
On the Aug. 26 episode about the grand opening, the Cincinnati Fire Department arrived in a pumper with sirens and lights flashing to conduct a routine inspection. (That’s how they go to all fire inspections here, right?) Before the opening, Nick and Drew were shown unpacking and setting up chairs the night before. (They didn’t have employees to do that days in advance?) The show didn’t explain that Nick had just arrived in town from his weekday VH1 “Big Buzz” show in New York so they could film the opening episode before Christmas – and then he quickly headed to Los Angeles to be with his very pregnant wife, Vanessa.
On the Sept. 2 show, Cate, the boys’ mother, volunteers to help at the bar while Nick is in LA. Of course, they put her to work -- in the basement stocking shelves and sweeping floors. (That’s what you'd do with mom, right?) Then she comes upstairs to wait tables and serve food, much to the chagrin of Drew. (Yeah, sure.)
Also on this episode, the restaurant manager knew in advance when “Wine Me, Dine Me” restaurant critic Julie Niesen Gosdin was coming, even though most restaurant critics I’ve known don’t tell restaurants ahead of time when they’re coming to review. Producers really hyped the drama over the boys worrying about the bar’s first review -- which it turned out to be much ado about nothing. Of course. As Nick said reading the review online in LA: “Her take on the place was 100% positive.”
The season ends Sept. 9 with:
Episode 9 (10 p.m.), Businessmen, Babies & Bachelorettes: “Nick and Drew have a private event space at the bar that they want to make use of, but when both brothers book parties in the same space on the same night, they have to figure out how to keep both sets of customers happy.” (Can you see the producers’ fingerprints on this one?)
Episode 10 (10:30 p.m.): In Cincy To Stay?: “When Nick and Drew get an offer to host a weekly radio show at the bar, it prompts Nick to consider relocating his family to be in Cincinnati full time.”
Don’t think that will be happening with Vanessa starring in her second fall TV sitcom in three years. She was in Fox’s “Dads” in 2013 with Seth Green, Giovanni Ribisi, Peter Riegert and Martin Mull.
“Truth Be Told” premieres at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 16, following NBC’s “Undateable” (Channels 5, 2). By then we might know if "Lachey's Bar" has been renewed.
