Momma’s Boys is featherweight glitz whore Ryan Seacrest’s bid to be some kind of reality kingpin on NBC, a network that desperately needs something, anything, to give it programming prominence again. But this lame, brainless and irresponsible dating circus — the three rings being a trio of single guys, 32 girls on the make and the eligible men’s doting, advice-giving moms — is mostly indicative of how the arm-candy audition genre is thoroughly out of gas. The hyped sparks in Tuesday’s pilot episode came from 21-year-old Michigan-born hockey player Jojo Bojanowski’s mother, Khalood, an unrepentant bigot – of Iraqi heritage! — whose spoken intentions (captured on video) to keep anyone other than a meek, small, Caucasian, Catholic housecleaner and cook from marrying her “catch” of a son, created a wave of gasps from nearly all the girls in the house, who probably assumed their perky, unsupported boobs would be the most offensive thing to the middle-aged moms in their midst. There was an ugly confrontation when “Mrs. B” showed up — and frankly, what self-respecting African-American girl wouldn’t take advantage of this multiple-camera situation to tell off a racist dimwit in front of millions? — but the fact that this is what networks have come to, in sneak-selling a concept to prime-time viewers is pitiful. That a blank-stare slab like Jojo would be proud to unleash his intolerant familial crutch on viewers is another issue, entirely. Shame truly is dead in America.

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