Desperately in need of programming apparently, TV Guide Channel has partnered with the production team behind Project Runway and Top Chef to create America's Next Producer. The reality competition will pit 10 contestants against each other as they attempt to create, uhhh..., television programming. The prize is a first-look production deal with the TV Guide Channel. This is either the most self-reflective, post-post-modern move on the part of a network or the laziest. I haven't decided which.The contestants will be living together under one roof - of course - and they'll be doing things that putting together three-minute sizzle reels on shows they're pitching to the network. Nothing is off limits. Game shows, comedies, dramas, reality. Here's one - how about a show about the programmers at a network who are so desperate for original programming that they put together a show to trick people into giving them content for free while being the content themselves.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-18-2007 @ 7:35PM
Violeta said...
This is...hilarious. I don't know if there's any other Daily Show fans who remember this, but back when Steve Carell was still on the show they did a (fake) promo for a show very much like this. Called "Pitch," it featured Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart, all called some variation of the name Bernard, and was in so many ways identical to this very premise, although they were charged with producing reality TV programs exclusively. Honestly, I think they could sue over it, if they wanted. If viacom hadn't recently pulled like all Daily Show clips I'd post that link, it was perfectly ironic and hilarious and is now even more so.
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2-20-2007 @ 1:23AM
Valerie St. John said...
Free Content? Brilliant idea!
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