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Rebels' reality show not yet ready for prime time
by John Pitts/NEMS Daily Journal
2 years ago | 1140 views | 0 0 comments | 13 13 recommendations | email to a friend | print
Will a reality show about the Ole Miss football team join shows like "The Real World," and "Project Runway" on your list of cable TV options?

Or, "Survivor"-style, could it get voted off the TV island?

Stay tuned.

Both Ole Miss and New York-based Union Square Sports and Entertainment issued a news release on Tuesday, announcing an agreement to produce "an authentic television show documenting the 2009 Rebel football training camp."

The program, titled "Gridiron U.," is being produced for a possible future airing by TruTV, the former Court TV, which has branched out since 2008 into what it calls "actuality" programming.

TruTV spokeswoman Samantha Graham told the Journal on Thursday that it's way too soon to start setting your DVR to record "Gridiron U."

"This is in the early stages of development," Graham said. "There are many, many projects that don't make it to the air. At any given time, we are developing lots and lots of shows and projects."

If "Gridiron U." eventually makes the cut, it would join a TruTV lineup that currently includes shows such as "Disorder in the Court," "Operation Repo" and "World's Wildest Vacation Videos."

"We have previously announced our interest in adding sports programing," Graham said.

Filming on the program will begin when players report to campus early next month and will continue until the Rebels' season-opener, Sept. 6 at Memphis.

In the news release distributed by Ole Miss, USSE official Ed Manetta said, "I think it's a huge hit."

He accompanied a camera crew to the Oxford campus in late June to shoot background footage of the campus and football facilities.

"The campus is beautiful, and the players were terrific," Manetta, USSE's executive producer for Integrated Media, said in the news release. "I've never been to an institution so hospitable and welcoming. Ole Miss is an example for every school in their league and the nation."

Contacted Thursday by the Journal, Manetta directed all inquiries to Graham, who works for TruTV parent company Turner Broadcasting.

The Ole Miss news release listed Manetta as a media contact.

School officials also declined comment.

"There's no one on campus who can speak to this right now," Kyle Campbell, the associate director of the Ole Miss athletic media relations department, told the Daily Journal on Thursday. "We have never dealt with a TV network on something like this before and they like to handle things this way."

Graham deflected a series of questions about "Gridiron U." posed to her through an e-mailed interview request on Thursday.

"We will have a lot more to say if this program is picked up," she said in a subsequent phone interview.

Given the reluctance of all parties to "Gridiron U." to respond, it remains unclear if Ole Miss was the first choice of the producers, if a second season of the program would focus on Ole Miss or another school, what sort of conditions the school can attach to the on-campus filming and what sort of financial agreement exists between Ole Miss and the producers.

For its part, USSE appears ready to produce additional seasons of the show if it proves popular. "We believe that Gridiron U will have many lives for years to come," Manetta said in the news release.

Possibly the best-known sports-based "reality" documentary TV series was "Two-A-Days," a look inside the Hoover (Ala.) High School football team that originally aired on MTV in 2006 and 2007 in 13 half-hour episodes.

Hoover head coach Rush Propst came under intense scrutiny - both professionally and personally - partly as a result of the program and ultimately resigned as coach there after the 2007 season.

According to media reports at the time, the Hoover school system received only $41,000 in rights fees from the TV producers - Remote Productions Inc. - for the two seasons of the popular program.
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