'Bad Girls' try to best 'Victoria's' bra-baring beauties

Naughty is nice, at least on TV today.

"The Bad Girls Club" returns for its second season of rhymes-with-witch-slapping reality at 9 p.m. on Oxygen. Yet I don't know if even these seven combative women sharing a Los Angeles mansion have what it takes to tackle their toughest competition: "The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show," which airs at the same time on CBS' WBBM Channel 2.

Clearly, television has managed to recover at least somewhat from the government constraints put on it following Janet Jackson's Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" a few years ago.

But for the one year it had to lay low following Jackson's breast-baring halftime performance, "The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" has been a holiday chestnut every bit as dependable as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" for CBS. (Not coincidentally, "Rudolph" starts the night at 7 on Channel 2, with "NCIS" in between making for a seamless evening of holiday programming.) Now the supermodels are back parading around in their frilly skivvies, under the guise of giving guys ideas of what to buy for their significant others this Christmas.

Hawk the heralded angel-wing bras.

Not unlike "American Idol" or "Dancing With the Stars," the "VS Fashion Show," which was known to crash computers in the days before broadband was widespread, has become a marketing phenomenon that can pretty much write its own ticket for whatever and whomever it wants. Tonight's show will include a musical performance by the freshly reformed Spice Girls, as well as Kanye West and Seal, singing along as his wife, Heidi Klum, struts her stuff on the runway. At that, not even "It's a Wonderful Life" can boast of being a more uplifting holiday special.

But "The Bad Girls Club" isn't going down without a fight. It debuted last year by mixing alcoholics who had to be told, "Don't vomit in the pool," with anger-management hotheads who warned, "You better sleep with your eyes open." In between were statuesque blondes who were always "posing for cameras that aren't there," that is when they weren't posing for the cameras that were there.

Along the way, "The Bad Girls Club" became the highest-rated series ever on Oxygen, and what that says about a network created in part by Oprah Winfrey as a place for female empowerment on cable TV I don't know.

"If you thought last year's girls were outrageous, wait until you see the new cast," boasts Debby Beece, Oxygen's president of programming and marketing.

While my first response to that is, "No way," a first glance at the seven new women makes me think that, believe it or not, she might be right.

Again, there's an incendiary mix of borderline alcoholics, such as Texas dancer Darlen revealing, "When I get drunk, I get really crazy," with hotheads, such as Muslim radio sidekick Neveen, who admits, "I have an anger issue I need to control." In between are lounging lovelies such as student stripper Cordelia, who says, "I do have a problem with my self-control," which extends to sitting her butt right on the kitchen counter island.

Providing caring, considerate comfort is Brooklyn's Tanisha, who winds up slapping seat cushions together in the middle of the night and chanting, "I can't get to sleep 'cause of y'all, y'all can't go to sleep 'cause of me."

Yes, it looks to be another season of admirable womanly behavior on "Bad Girls Club."

"These girls are extreme in every way and deliver more conflict, more drama and more laughs," Beece adds. "Through it all, we are sure our audience will embrace these women, in all their imperfect glory."

So the choice couldn't be more clear: perfect bodies on "The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" or imperfect personalities on "The Bad Girls Club." Either way it says, "Happy Holidays," doesn't it?

In the air

Remotely interesting: The family of the late John Drury is asking that in lieu of flowers donations be made to any of the following organizations: The John and Ann Drury Endowed Fund for HomeCare Physicians at Central Du Page Health Foundation (cdhealthfoundation.org), the Brain Research Foundation (brainresearchfoundation.org), the Muscular Dystrophy Association/ALS Division or the Les Turner ALS Foundation (lesturnerals.org).

Tyler Perry's "House of Payne" returns with four new episodes starting at 8 p.m. Wednesday on TBS, including the tasteful "The Wench Who Saved Christmas" starring his Madea character at 8:30. … The excellent fourth season of "The Wire" is out on DVD today, as is the first season of the new "Battlestar Galactica" on HD DVD and "The Best of Crank Yankers: Uncensored."

End of the dial: The grassroots group Free Press has a form e-mail thanking Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Dick Durbin for co-sponsoring the Media Ownership Act of 2007, asking the Federal Communications Commission to go slow and reconsider changes in rules, such as the ban on newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership. See freepress.net or stopbigmedia.com to chime in.