I skipped the Mad Men season premiere last night in favor of the series premiere of My Antonio, in which Antonio Sabato, Jr., flashes skin while looking for true love in Hawaii. And boy, am I glad I did. Mad Men can wait, but the crazy-ass, top-heavy bitches—among them are a bartender, a few events planners, a NASA engineer, and a student—who are fighting for Antonio almost deserve to be watched in real time.

Antonio was an inspired choice to star in this type of show, and not just because of that rockin’ bod. His refusal to kowtow to the usual parameters of reality TV keeps things genuinely interesting, and cuts way down on the customary filler. Within moments of meeting the women for the first time, he dispatches one of them because he finds her feet “unattractive,” then forces the remaining contestants to literally climb a slippery slope (most of them wearing skimpy dresses and too much eye makeup) to join him for chitchat and bottled water.

Even better is that he went on to eliminate two of the more irritating girls in the first episode: the mannish Courtney and the loud-mouthed Anju, who clearly fancied herself the requisite bitch. But on this show, that role will be played by Antonio’s mother, who appeared wearing a huge black hat—one contestant referred to her as “freaking decked-out Dynasty” and ordered Courtney’s elimination. She later went on to reduce a contestant to tears over dinner with her hard-assed questions, and didn’t let up on a woman who claimed to be a model until she’d admitted that she modeled in Playboy.

Still, just because Courtney and Anju are gone doesn’t mean that the show’s producers have left audiences in the lurch when it comes to mindless drama. There’s the bug-eyed mother of two, who periodically freaks out about whether or not someone will destroy her clothes; there’s Antonio’s ex-wife, who suddenly appeared at the episode’s finale; and there’s Sarah, a 29-year-old student who actually ran away, crying, from Antonio because “he’s famous and it’s overwhelming.” Annoyingly, Antonio seems to find her behavior charming and loves to comfort her. Personally, I’m putting my money on the sweet and down-to-earth Brooke. She didn’t get a lot of airtime this episode, but she’s the only one who seems to possess a genuine personality.

But like I said, there are no guarantees with Antonio. And I’m loving that he ignores the unwritten reality TV show rule that claims he has to pretend he’s ignorant of what these women said in order to get onto the show, choosing to call out a few of them for so blatantly lying. Antonio seems to be genuinely looking for love. Why he seems to think he’ll find it on VH1 is another question.

Photo courtesy of VH1.