What's dumber than MTV's 'Jersey Shore?' Something called 'Buckwild' (it arrives Jan 3rd.)

MTV is closing up shop on the Jersey Shore and heading to the hills. It's time. After all, Snooki has graduated from guidette to guest on Leno (I know, I know... Don't call her Snooki -- she's Nicole Polizzi, author and mom!). And when I say that MTV is heading to the hills, I mean literally... heading to the hills of West Virginia. The former music channel's newest entry into reality TV is a show spotlighting the redneck youth of West Virginia.

"Buckwild" debuts on January 3rd and will likely run until the show's "stars" become too expensive to justify production. (Remember when the kids on Jersey Shore actually needed to work retail jobs in order to live together in a beach house?) They grow up so fast.

I was never a fan or really a viewer of "Jersey Shore." You would not need to take off your mittens to count the number of episodes I have actually watched, but I was aware of the impact these people had on kids and young adults. So, when MTV produces another show that has the potential to shift the pop culture paradigm, I am curious. And I believe America will be curious too.

Image: MTV Networks

We are a country that has become redneck obsessed. Based on redneck success stories like A&E's "Duck Dynasty" and TLC's "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo," it would be difficult for MTV's "Buckwild" not to draw an audience. And the network seems to understand the basic ingredients for a successful redneck reality show. All of the building blocks are in the promo reel:

• ATVs in the mud
• Young girls in shorts wearing cowboy boots
• Girls fighting in the mud
• Boys fighting (in the mud and elsewhere)
• Guns (there's even a potato cannon)
• Trucks
• Dumb stunts (one lad is shown rolling down a hill inside a large truck tire)
• And plenty of drinking and partying

Image: MTV Networks

It is shows like this that make me hope the Mayans got it right.

Don't believe me? Watch the network's two-minute preview.

Buckwild debuts Jan. 3 at 10 p.m., and MTV plans to play two half-hour episodes back-to-back each week for six weeks.