"The Choice" Begins Thursday night on Fox When Fox picked up a new dating show called "The Choice," featuring celebrity contestants in swivel chairs who choose potential dates sight unseen, its motives were clear: to belittle the NBC singing competition "The Voice" by blatantly copying it. In this case imitation is the sincerest form of mockery. Ray Mickshaw/Fox From left, Romeo Miller, Jeremy Bloom, Jason Cook and Pauly D as contestants on Fox's new dating show, "The Choice." There is one thing the new show couldn't copy, however. Like it or not, "The Voice" actually rewards talent. On "The Choice" there's nothing much to reward besides inane chitchat and the wearing of the shortest, tightest skirts imaginable. The result, as seen in Thursday night's premiere episode, is a show that looks like a beauty pageant crossed with a slave auction. Each week "The Choice" will feature a new set of four of "the world's most eligible" celebrity bachelors or bachelorettes. The Week 1 crew comprises a freestyle skier, a soap opera actor, the rapper Romeo Miller and the "Jersey Shore" star Pauly D. The men sit with their backs to the stage, and women come out one at a time to talk about themselves. If the men are intrigued by what they hear, they can swing their chairs around and try to recruit the women to their "teams," from which they will later select a date for that night. There are two problems with this setup. First, each man needs to end up with three women on his team, and in the opening episode completing that first step took an interminable half-hour of introductions, entrances and exits. Second, the looks-don't-matter conceit went out the window early, when the men figured out that the audience was cheering loudest for the women with the tightest skirts and the largest breasts. Forget about singing; with the right look, these women don't even have to talk. There's a certain low level of amusement to be had from the jokey repartee - Pauly D, living up to his star billing, gets off the best lines - and the host, Cat Deeley, slumming during her downtime from "So You Think You Can Dance," manages to communicate her disdain for the proceedings. Occasionally a bit of reality breaks through, as when a woman asks Romeo where he would live if it could be anywhere in the world. He replies "Africa," producing a moment of stunned silence on the set. If he wants to be invited back, he'll remember that the correct answers are Las Vegas, Orlando or simply the good old U.S. of A.