Often seen as mommy's boys, Italian men are now letting their mothers choose their future wives live on television.

Italy's state TV aired the first episode(1) of a new reality show this week in which the mothers of five single men have to pick out prospective(2) brides from a selection of candidates.

Critics said "Perfect Bride" was both insulting(3) to women and showed Italian TV -- already packed with other reality formats such as Big Brother and Celebrity Island -- falling to new depths of banality(4).

In the first episode, the jury of mothers -- called only by their first names such as "Mamma Rosa" and "Mamma Ambra" -- quizzed 18 hopefuls about their suitability(5) as wives.

From next week the mothers will have to live in a Big Brother-style house with their potential daughters-in-law, seeing first hand how they deal with household chores(6). Viewers will be encouraged to vote off the candidates they dislike.

Mamma Teresa said she was looking for "a simple, intelligent, classy girl" for her son Claudio. "I would like someone who's not too ostentatious(7) and who knows how to take care of the family," she said on the program's Web site.

Claudio, viewers learn, is "a really capable person, very affectionate(8) with his family," but suffers from one defect common to many Italian bachelors: "He has too many girlfriends! I want to find him his ultimate woman."

In a country where it is normal for unmarried men to live with their parents into their 30s and "mamma mia!" (my mommy) is a common exclamation(9), the Italian mother figure is revered(10) by society but often feared by girlfriends and wives.

TV critics said the program exploited the stereotype(11) of the overbearing(12) mamma.

"It's the most grandiose(13), caricatural(14), corrosive(15) demolition of the image of the Italian mamma," said Italy's leading daily Corriere della Sera.

La Repubblica daily said Prefect Bride had an out-dated vision of women's role in society. "State TV is going too far in its failure to limit the rubbish, the rudeness, the lying, the lack of manners and the wiping out of social changes which happened 50 years ago," it said.

大利男人常被看作是媽媽的寶貝，如今還讓媽媽為他們?cè)陔娨暽犀F(xiàn)場(chǎng)選妻子了。

本周，意大利國(guó)家電臺(tái)播出第一集選媳婦真人秀。五個(gè)單身男人的媽媽需要從一群候選人中挑出未來(lái)兒媳婦。

評(píng)論說(shuō)《完美新娘》是對(duì)女人和意大利電視臺(tái)的侮辱。它與其他一些正播出的真人秀節(jié)目如《老大哥》和《名人島》的形式如出一轍，只是更加庸俗了。

在第一集中，這些媽媽評(píng)委們被簡(jiǎn)稱為“羅薩媽媽”、“安姆布拉媽媽”等，考驗(yàn)18位候選者是否適合作妻子。

下周開始，媽媽們將與兒媳婦們一起住在一套《老大哥》樣式的房子里，親眼看媳婦們是如何處理家務(wù)瑣事。觀眾們則可以通過(guò)短信投票讓不喜歡的媳婦下臺(tái)。

特里薩媽媽在節(jié)目的網(wǎng)站上說(shuō)她想為兒子Claudio找一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單、聰明、優(yōu)雅的女孩：“我希望她不要特招搖，知道如何照顧家庭。”

Claudio在觀眾眼中是個(gè)“非常有才干的人，熱愛家庭”，但是和很多意大利單身漢擁有相同的問(wèn)題：“他的女朋友太多了！我想幫他找到最終歸宿。”

在意大利，三十來(lái)歲的未婚男人同父母住在一起是普遍現(xiàn)象，“我的媽媽呀”也是他們常用的感嘆詞。因此媽媽們?cè)谏鐣?huì)中備受尊重，但是女朋友和妻子們都很懼怕她們

電視評(píng)論說(shuō)此節(jié)目利用了專橫媽媽們的一貫做派。

意大利主要日?qǐng)?bào)Corriere della Sera說(shuō)：“這是對(duì)意大利母親形象最浮夸、諷刺性的詆毀”。

La Repubblica日?qǐng)?bào)說(shuō)《完美新娘》對(duì)女性社會(huì)角色的理解太過(guò)時(shí)了。它說(shuō)：“國(guó)家電臺(tái)太失敗了，竟然沒能遏制住這種垃圾、粗俗、謊言、無(wú)禮，并對(duì)50年來(lái)發(fā)生的變化視若無(wú)睹。”