HBO will broadcast a full season of “Cathouse,” a documentary about the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, beginning on June 16.
Dennis Hof, who owns the world famous brothel in Carson City, Nev., told AVN.com the cable network has made the notorious show its “big summer series.”
“It will run every Thursday night for 11 weeks,” Hof said. “The first show we did {in December 2002} was the highest rated, non-fiction show they’ve ever done.”
HBO aired a second one-hour "Cathouse" in December of 2003 and Hof said the ratings were comparable, prompting producers to try a full season of half-hour episodes.
“The curiosity for sex in America is incredible,” Hof said. “And of course the porn industry has grown. I’ve single-handedly made prostitution OK.”
Hof said the new series includes all new footage that was captured during the last quarter of 2004 and earlier this year. Among the highlights will be more appearances by adult film stars. This season features Tabitha Stevens conducting a cock-sucking class for the Bunny Ranch girls.
“She claims she’s ‘America’s dick-sucker,’” Hof said.
Also look for appearances by Christi Lake, Alexis Fire, Violet Blue, Becca Brat, Raquel Devine and Jacklyn Lick, among several other recognizable adult performers.
“We had different porn girls come up and do different classes and fetishes and things like that. Some of them work for us, too,” Hof continued. “The way I’ m looking at this show is it’s ‘True Taxi Cab Confessions’ meets ‘Real Sex’ at the Bunny Ranch. They did the first show and the ratings were so high they just had to do a second one. Then they said, ‘Look Dennis, we got a winner here.’”
The last “Cathouse” aired following the season finale of the HBO hit “The Sopranos,” and Hof said the ratings actually increased during the one-hour block.
“It’s just fun. It shows life at the Ranch, and how we do things, and the customers,” Hof explained. “This year we’re showing sex. That’s a big step for HBO.”
Hof noted that HBO isn’t showing penetration or cumshots, but there is “actual fucking” going on.
“The Bunny Ranch is putting the ho in HBO,” he cracked. “When I’m done with HBO, they’re going to call it HB-Ho."
He added that recently, "HBO had me go to New York to show the ‘Cathouse’ to NYU graduate film school students and they loved it.”
The popularity of the first two shows brought the Bunny Ranch national media attention and “raised the bar as far as the quality of the girls,” Hof said.
“Last year over 5,000 girls applied to go to work at the Bunny Ranch,” he revealed. “We show preference to the porn girls because we like them, that’s our deal. TV’s brought in customers and it’s been big money. We had one customer spend $1,700,000 dollars in one visit after the last show. That’s what national notoriety and a TV show will do for you. It brings in better girls and better customers.”
Hof said that the big-spending customer flew into Carson City in his private jet and stayed at the Ranch for a few days.
“Each day he’d wire in another $400,000,” he recalled. “A few of the girls just retired they made so much money. They all went out and bought new Cadillac Escalades.”
Hof added, “The Bunny Ranch is single-handedly changing the sex business. It’s OK to sell pussy in America.”
