Following in the footsteps of the BBC’s programs, The Monastery and The Convent (which begins airing this week), Shannon Donahoo reports from Down Under that Australian TV is going to do a similar program they’re calling The Abbey.

Okay, we’re running out of names…what’s next? Cloister…Nunnery…Anchorhold – well, that last one  might be a little dull..

(And yes, there are US versions coming – this fall on The Learning Channel.)

”The only thing this has in common with a reality show is that we’ve chosen people who wouldn’t be doing this otherwise," series producer Sarah Woodford said. ”Where we depart from a reality show is that then we let the events unfold. The point has not been to create traps for hapless people to fall into. We’re interested in exploring how people like us can live a good and purposeful life and what the 1,500-year-old monastic tradition can teach modern people."

The five men lived from early February to mid-March at the Monastery of Christ in the Desert near quaint Abiquiu, best known as the longtime home of the late painter Georgia O’Keeffe. The women went to Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey on a farm near Dubuque, Iowa, from December to early February.