"I wouldn't date a guy strictly just for money but unless you have money, then I'm not interested," so says Katie, one of the ten beautiful, but extremely shallow, women who compete for a $50,000 prize on Oxygen's newest reality series "Pretty Wicked." While some reality shows base their competitions in physical feats such as bungee jumping or carrying a rickshaw through the streets of Thailand, this series asks these narcissistic contestants to take on a bigger challenge - embrace the notion that it is inner beauty � not outer beauty � that houses true happiness and self-worth. Executive Producer R.J. Cutler ("30 Days") and series judge Dr. Jenn Berman took time away from the backstabbing divas to talk about the ins and outs of this new competition series.

While the first moments of the series have the girls introducing themselves and sizing each other up (Reena, for example, shows off her Marc Jacobs bag and mocks another girl's choice of Coach), there is quickly a dispute over the beds that the girls have chosen for themselves. With a "bed drama" being only the tip of the iceberg for what comes later in the series, Cutler was asked if it was difficult to find the types of self-absorbed girls to participate in the series. "We had a great casting team," he said before he chuckled a bit and added, "I want to say that it wasn't a problem."

In choosing the girls for the show, Berman explained what these ten girls had that landed them spots in the competition. "A lot of these women were chosen for the show because they are the kind of women that would act out and have room for improvement." With girls like Jillian, a former beauty pageant winner who liked to brag about her stellar qualities and business savvy, it's a wonder the judges could speak instead of just staring with their mouths hanging open. Berman admitted that she had to work to keep her composure when judging the girls. "I really believe that when I looked at them I just saw where they could go and that's what helped me keep my cool because I saw the potential in every one of these women and I saw where they could go and the kind of people that they could become despite some of the things that they said that were nasty or mean."

Berman said that the reality show environment doesn't help the girls' behavior and would be hard on anyone, especially ten wicked girls. "I have a lot of compassion for the difficulty of being in this kind of environment. Having cameras on you all the time and being out of your element and not getting to talk to your family members and having the comforts of your home and your support system. It tends to create tremendous anxiety and that tends to make people act out more than they might to begin with."

Another difficult component was not what presents itself while the girls inhabited the loft but what vital narcissistic instrument was actually missing � a mirror! With no mirrors in the house, the girls were told that they would be seen through the eyes of others, which created just as much anxiety for the girls as any of the challenges thrown their way.

Of the ten girls, nobody caused more immediate tension that Ana, who pouted long enough to finally get the bed of her choice. Ana was allowed to bring a pet into the house � her dog, Yogi, who she subsequently blamed for her performance in one of the initial competitions. Cutler insisted that the producers weren't giving Ana any preferential treatment by allowing her to bring a pet into the house. "Her dog was a very important part of her life," he said. "We only confronted the specifics of her wanting her dog; it was really important to her and I'm sure we would have accommodated things that were this important to everybody else."

The challenges in "Pretty Wicked" were not only designed to give immunity to the winner but also to reveal their true inner strength and weaknesses. In tonight's opening episode, for example, the girls are told they will be hosting a party for ten single men, which initially generates many oohs and aahs. However, that enthusiasm is short-lived when the girls are thrown a curve that the men who show up as their blind dates are truly blind men and will be the ones judging the contestants purely on personality. Now, what to do with the pi�ata that some of the girls bought for the party?

While "Pretty Wicked" could merely be a showcase for bad girl behavior, Berman clarified that there is a bigger goal to the series and psychology comes into play. "As the show goes on you start to understand more and more why these women are the way they are as they started to open up and become more open to the process and doing therapeutic exercises." When asked if friends or family would be brought into the house to reveal more about these girls, Berman chose to leave a bit of mystery and would only say, "You'll have to tune in to find out."

Hosting the show as well as guiding the girls through the challenges is CariDee English, who is best known for winning the seventh season of Tyra Bank's "America's Next Top Model." While English hosts, it is the "reckoning ceremony" at the end of each episode where the fate of the girls is decided by a panel of judges. Besides Berman, who is a licensed psychotherapist and hosts a call-in advice show on Sirius XM's Cosmo channel, self-help comedian/author Kyle Cease and plus-sized model/fellow author Mia Tyler are also on hand to judge the girls and decide who will be kicked off week after week.

Berman explained how the elimination process worked at the weekly reckoning ceremony. "The goal was to get the person who embraced the process and embraced change the most and who changed the most," she said. "The people who were eliminated were the people who did not embrace the process or did not change [but] our goal was to get good results and have these women change in really positive ways."

Berman also said that in terms of who was doing well and who was not during the course of the competition, the writing was clearly on the wall for the judges. "I think it became pretty clear to all of the panel because we were watching them pretty much around the clock. So we got to really see even when they thought we weren't necessarily watching we got to really see what was going on. And it was very revealing as viewers will see."

During the reckoning ceremony, the girls were asked point blank about their behavior and the reality of why they are on the chopping block for elimination quickly came to light. For example, Tyler asks Sarah C. about referring to herself as a "professional princess" earlier in the show because he boyfriend takes care of her. When pressed if she has anything in her life that she can say she did herself, she meekly answers, "not a whole lot."

And what would a reality competition show be without a snarky line for the host to say when the contestant is booted off the show. In "Pretty Wicked," English says to the ousted contestant, "You have been burned. There is no more room in the loft for you."

The nastiness and catfights commence on "Pretty Wicked" tonight on Oxygen at 11:00/10:00c before moving into its regular time period of Tuesdays at 10:00/9:00c next week.