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joins reality romp.
Coming, 'Fame Academy,' to annoyance of critics
By Heidi Dawley
Most folks who think of the BBC think of costume dramas about landed folk of an earlier time and documentaries on insects and on wars fought when those landed folk in the costume dramas still ran things.
They do not think of the BBC as hip or cool or, for that matter, especially conscious of ratings, being a tax-funded enterprise that is or ought to be above such concerns.
In truth, though, the modern BBC is very concerned about ratings, as it is about its survival in the face of budget cutbacks, and it is apparently willing to do anything to curry viewer favor, to the extent of hosting its first-ever reality show.
Call it "Big Brother" meets "American Idol" meets "Survivor."
Or call it just another outbreak in the epidemic of reality entertainment programs.
Either way, "Fame Academy" will hit the airwaves this Friday, Oct. 4.
The BBC is hoping that its new $7 million program will be the next big sensation.
Certainly, some experts believe it has all the makings.
“It is a genre still producing the numbers,” says Tom George, group account director at Zenith Media in London. “The public’s enthusiasm for this type of show shows no signs of abating.”
This series, from the BBC and Dutch TV production house Endemol, will morph popular elements from previous big hit reality shows including "Pop Stars," "Pop Idol" (aka "American Idol"), "Big Brother" and "Survivor."
First there’s the create-a-star aspect of the show, as in "American Idol." The BBC has chosen 12 folks between 18 and 35 from a pool of 10,000 applicants. At the end of the series one of them will be a star, at least for a while.
The students, as they have been dubbed, will be subjected to another common element of reality shows.
They will be slung into a house together, "Big Brother"-style, for the duration of the show, due to end at Christmas.
They will live in luxury in a $54 million London mansion, under 24-hour-a-day cameras, while they practice singing, dancing and -- viewers will hope -- a whole lot more (hence the "Big Brother"-style hot tub).
There will be coverage on the internet and BBC Radio One.
To add to the stresses of these budding stars, each week one of them will be voted out of the house, or “expelled” in "Fame Academy" lingo, after performing on national TV.
The final familiar element from other reality shows is the strict "Survivor"-like regime. It will be lights out at 11 p.m., and a wake-up call at 6:30 a.m. Students will be permitted just one phone call per week. And for that final touch of school morality, smoking will be prohibited and alcohol severely limited.
The reward for sticking it out will be the largest prize ever given out by the BBC. There will be a recording contract for a potential Christmas No. 1 and other prizes worth $155,000. This includes a fancy Notting Hill apartment, a sports car, flights on the Concorde and a personal shopper. There will also be weekly deliveries of champagne and flowers.
So it’s luxury alright, but only for a year. Then everything is withdrawn.
While the BBC is betting on a hit in Britain, the bigger riches for the producers will come if this becomes a trans-Atlantic hit, like previous reality formats.
Dutch production house Endemol, creators of "Big Brother" and "Changing Rooms "(called "Trading Spaces" in the U.S.), has already had success with the format in France, Spain and Holland.
“If this proves successful here, then the U.S. will be likely to show interest as well,” believes a London-based Endemol spokesperson.
And the betting in London is that this show is likely to be successful and will not be the last of the reality shows.
“What you see is program makers exploiting a genre when it is doing really well,” says George.
"They will squeeze the life out of it until it doesn’t deliver the audience figures, and there is no where to go with it. I see no signs at the moment of this market abating."
October 1, 2002© 2002 Media Life
-Heidi Dawley, an American writer living in London, is the European correspondent for Media Life.
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