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You Might Just Be A Redneck If You Tie The Knot On This CMT Reality Show

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By WALT BELCHER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 31, 2008

Just about every TV reality show eventually will have a contestant from the Tampa Bay area.

This week's reality locals are Christy and Kevin Gonzalez, and the show is "My Big Redneck Wedding," which airs at 9 p.m. Fridays on CMT.

The happy couple lives near Keysville, south of Plant City, and when they tied the knot for a second time in November, a camera crew from CMT was there to record the fun and frolic.

Christy, 25, who is from Riverview, works for a veterinarian.

Kevin, 32. who is from Seffner, works in a plant that makes fiber hardboard, a product used in construction.

Kevin says they met three years ago and were married last summer on a snook fishing trip.

"We were on vacation, and it was at night on the beach," he says. "But we wanted to do it right with our friends and family. We planned a wedding in a pasture with a big reception in the woods."

Kevin says they planned to have mud wrestling and mattress surfing before one of Christy's cousins submitted their names to "My Big Redneck Wedding" talent scouts, who were scouring the country for "the most down-home country couples."

According to a CMT news release, "Christy is a vet tech that's never met a stray animal that she didn't bring home, and Kevin's first love is hog hunting, followed by his love for his hunting dogs."

With him being a hog hunter, pork obviously was the featured dish at the reception.

He was on his all-terrain vehicle and Christy was on a horse when they said their vows.

"We're big rednecks, and I wanted to get married on my four-wheeler," Kevin says.

Kevin's young daughter, Caidance, was the flower girl. She was on a mule named Dixie.

The wedding, at Starkey Ranch, also featured Christy mud wrestling in her wedding gown and Kevin mattress surfing (riding on a mattress being pulled by an ATV).

The guests also played a game that involved tying uncooked sausage links around their waists (you have to see it), and Kevin's stepfather, Eddie, turned out to be an impressive dancer.

"My Big Redneck Wedding" is an eight-episode series hosted by comic Tom Arnold. It debuted four weeks ago.

GETTING STONED: If you saw '80s pop star George Michael dancing on your coffee table and singing, "You gotta have faith," you would:

A: Start clapping and sing along.

B: Call the cops.

C: Call a psychiatrist.

D: Assume this is a message from a higher being telling you that you are a prophet.

When the hero of "Eli Stone" starts having visions of Michael, it becomes life changing. Jonny Lee Miller stars in the whimsical ABC drama debuting at 10 tonight.

Written and produced before the writers strike, "Eli Stone" is another offbeat offering, much like "Ugly Betty" and "Pushing Daisies."

Eli (Miller) is a young lawyer who goes from being a ruthless, money-grubbing legal shark to a champion of the little guy and lost causes.

He starts down the good path after he starts having hallucinations involving song, dance and other strange things, such as a biplane that buzzes him on the street.

Michael appears as himself in four episodes as part of Eli's visions and, in one, as a client. The producers say his music fits the story they wanted to tell.

Just as Eli begins to think the visions are clues to his future, he learns has an inoperable brain aneurysm. Although this offers a scientific explanation for the condition, it doesn't explain why the visions help him solve cases for needy clients.

Producer Greg Berlanti has called Eli "a Don Quixote character who is like an Old Testament prophet who was really a crusader for social justice."

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