Michael Jackson's death has obviously helped thrust his record sales, memorabilia and hangers-on into the celebrity stratosphere. No group, however, benefited more than his family, who are all of a sudden relatively relevant again. The ultimate sign: a reality show...

The cable channel A&E confirmed today that it will air a reality show about the Jackson brothers. Now, before we get all cynical, consider this: the network claims it always planned air the show, which follows the gang as they try to form a band. In fact, they started shooting last January.

Yet, despite having half-a-year's worth of footage of the boys, executives claim they never got around to the messy business of, you know, setting a premiere. Because why would they? But now, two-months after Jackson's death and in the midst of the media firestorm — it was homicide!! — A&E has confirmed they're airing a series following the boys' quest to form a band.

Don't get too excited, though, because they're still discussing matters with the production company, Point 7 Entertainment. So, why even bring it up? Probably just to get in on all the post-MJ publicity action. Now, before you start wagging a self-righteous family at Jermaine, Tito and the rest, Jodi Gomes, an executive producer at Point 7, insists none of the brothers are using their late brother to reclaim the long lost spotlight:

To anybody that says the family is capitalizing on Michael's death, it will be evident in the first episode that that's not true.

No, we would never, ever even think that. Although, it's odd: Jackson's death seems to have been good for all involved. Except him.

Anyway, the fact that there's no set date for this televisual grave-robbing doesn't give us much confidence in A&E's ultimate plans. Not that we had confidence in the first place.