IT was the launch of Jamaican TV’s newest reality show and the star was no where in sight.

Yesterday morning, sponsors, the media and producers gathered at LIME’s head offices in the Corporate Area for details and a sneak peak of Teacha’s Pet, the 12-episode reality TV series set to debut on CVM TV this Friday starring controversial deejay Vybz Kartel. However, after a delay and apologies including the excuse that the deejay was at a doctor’s appointment, the organisers were forced to get the event going without their main attraction.

Teacha’s Pet follows the fortunes and misfortunes of 20 young women, from all over the world, who have been brought together to live in an upper St Andrew mansion to compete for the attention of Kartel, with the hope of becoming the teacha’s pet.

Producer Carleene Samuels explained that Teacha’s Pet is a combination of all the dating and reality shows currently airing on television globally, and this, she said, adds to the uniqueness of the product.

“The girls will face a number of challenges and activities which will lead to elimination in order to arrive at the teacha’s pet,” she explained.

Along the way, Kartel will have assistance from fellow Portmore Empire artiste Popcaan, and television personality Amelia ‘Milk’ Sewell, who comes in as the substitute teacher.

Director Jason ‘Jay Will’ Williams admitted it was his first time at the helm of a TV reality series, but noted that he drew on his experience from working on similar projects for US-based television network MTV, including Real World.

Williams said there was an overwhelming response to the call for ladies to be part of the show, with hopefuls from Australia, Trinidad, Iran, Iraq, Canada and Jamaica sending in applications. Canada had the biggest international response, while Trinidad submitted the majority of applications for the Caribbean region.

Teacha’s Pet will be carefully edited for CVM TV attracting a PG rating, however, the deleted, too-hot-for-TV, scenes to be aired on LIME TV and the no-holds-barred version for the Internet, will attract a TV-MA rating due to adult content.

The sneak peak at the product showed the females engaged in humorous and heated exchanges, with Kartel adding his own commentary.

LIME’s Tara Playfair-Scott explained: “Content is king in the world of television and we believe that Teacha’s Pet is a good example of entertaining and most importantly 100 per cent Jamaican programming and the will to bring a new dimension to TV in Jamaica and our mobile TV network.”