Some interesting TV items away from the track to start this week's media notes:
NBC is in the development stage for a scripted drama centered around a NASCAR family. Here is a blurb from the deadline.com media website:
NBC is developing The Crew, a testosterone-heavy underdog family drama set in the world of NASCAR from Heroes writer-producer Joe Pokaski and NBC Universal-based producer Scott Stuber. The ensemble revolves around the family of distinctly different "brothers" on a NASCAR racing team who, as individuals have their own lives and dreams, opportunities and problems but as a team share a singular goal - to be the best.
What sets The Crew apart is that it is expected to be done in cooperation with NASCAR. NBC is in negotiations with the racing league for the rights to use its name, logos, tracks, race footage, etc. Stuber already has a similar arrangement with NASCAR on the feature side at Universal Pictures where he is producing a NASCAR drama with Gary Ross attached to direct.
No information has been released about potential scheduling or actors involved in the series quite yet. Will pass it along as things develop.
Over in reality TV land, Krishtian Turner has announced that she will be filming Say Yes To The Dress for TLC as a part of her build-up to marrying driver James Buescher. Krishtian's father is the money behind Turner Motorsports, a new team stepping into both the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series next year with a sizeable commitment. The program will air in the spring of 2011.
Over at InsidePulse.com, Josh Clinton offers that filming for ABC's The Bachelor has already begun in Costa Rica. Starting in January with episode one, there will be a very different NASCAR connection to this program.
Pictured above with Rick and Linda Hendrick is Emily Maynard. She met and was subsequently engaged to Ricky Hendrick at the time of the tragic plane crash. Maynard later revealed that she was pregnant at the time and now has a five year-old daughter named Josephine.
Maynard's name surfaced later in dating rumors with none other than Dale Earnhardt Jr. While that ended quickly, Maynard moved into the media world doing a podcast for SPEED and then working as a host on the syndicated 3 Wide Life motorsports series.
Now, Maynard is one of the ladies competing for the attention and affection of Brad Womack, who is making his second appearance on The Bachelor after choosing not to "take a bride" on his last go around. There is little doubt that Maynard will attract a lot of media attention as this program airs.
You may have heard by now that TV ratings for Sunday in Martinsville were down slightly. Basically, about five million viewers tuned in. "Undercover Boss" later that night had twice the audience.
Wednesday brings the media attending the announcement of a new primary sponsor for Jeff Gordon over at Hendrick Motorsports. It also reportedly brings the RPM crisis to a head. Unless some key creditors are paid, it looks like Talladega might be without four Sprint Cup Series teams.
"NASCAR Now" with Mike Massaro at 5PM on ESPN2 and "Race Hub" with Steve Byrnes at 7PM on SPEED will have updates on all the news of the day. In the meantime, please feel free to leave us a comment on any of the topics discussed above. Thanks for stopping by.
9 comments:
The Crew sounds like The Epic Fail.
I foresee that the naysayers to expect everything to be bad. Just saying...many people here, as noted by several on the Undercover post, have a tendency to expect the worst. Do I understand why, yes, but this production is being made by some quality people, not by the crew behind 'Son of the Beach'. I will at *least* let them get it made and watch an episode before I condemn them. Does NASCAR's involvement mean a good thing or a bad? Who knows. I can't picture the 'Heroes' people or NBC giving them any creative control. Lot of people may not realize it, but NCIS is made with the cooperation of the real NCIS. Yet it certainly doesn't always portray them in a professional light (frankly, they'd have been fired long ago if they worked in a real office, but that's another story.) No TV drama is going to be all realistic. We'd be bored to tears if that were the case. Most crimes are solved with paperwork & legwork; asking a lot of normal questions, not car chases and pursuit. Thank goodness there are not the number of serial killers they show on Criminal Minds or we'd all be dead. We know there were a lot of things not realistic about it, but people still liked Days of Thunder. Call me crazy, but I like to at least keep an open mind about things I haven't seen yet.
As far as Emily, I wish her luck. Don't watch the show, but she's probably a nice girl. As for Say Yes to the Dress, I catch them all; look forward to that (it's obviously not geared toward the male NASCAR audience, although I suppose if they like looking at pretty girls in white...
The crew just sounds like another opportunity for snl to make fun of nascar. As long as the stooges in Daytona get their money, nobody cares. Then again, this show would be a perfect fit for espns drama agenda
Wow, does Emily really think this is a good way to find a husband? I'm not into reality shows -- just not my deal.
But you never know, maybe some of these will be a diamond in the rough. Interesting that a broadcast network is interested in the crew, so it might get a wider audience.
It's a shame that the folks at home didn't get to see the race at Martinsville -- in person, it was fun to watch (except of course for Ears wrecking my favorite guy). LOL I know I'm biased.
Another sellout by the Beach Bums
trying to make a dollar by turning
our sport into a melodrama. Looks like it's going be Days of Our Lives WRASCAR style. I bet one
team member has his buddy's wife
pregnant by the third show. Is there a reason they are not using
IRL or F1 as format?
Please just show us the racing!
People are mostly trend followers and the shows will get their share of viewers until the newness wears off. A lot of us just are not into these 'type' shows because of various reasons and do not watch. Whether a show is good or bad in some people's opinion doesn't stop the trend to follow the leader(s).
51 year old fan this is 2010 thats the hot thing now a days on TV! And hey why not get the Nascar name into what people watch!!! To be honest I hate all these shows on tv now a days but people watch em (not me) so I feel this is a stab at trying to get the Nascar name out there and im all for it! It is what it is and we cant do anything about it but Nascar is trying hard w all this new tv stuff plus dont forget when Transformers 3 hits theaters NASCAR will have part in that movie as well! Good we need this for are sport.
I was never a fan of Nascar till 04 and I happened to see a lot of it on tv cause thats when it was booming and it got me to watch a sport I would have never watched and I fell in love! Say what you want but I think this is great
I have come to the conclusion that the reason I have negative thoughts on these new programs is I feel very strongly nascar should be spending its time and money on fixing the sprint, nationwide, and camping series FIRST! But, I am afraid nascar thinks these new shows are the way to fix their problems. MC
I've always wondered why anyone with money, family name and connections would ever debase themselves to try and find a husband/wife on a show like the Bachelor? It's pretty pathetic, imho. I can't imagine that the Hendrick family is too pleased. For all intents and purposes, many of the women on the Bachelor make themselves out to be rather skanky and ho-like. Not my idea of someone I would want to marry. And as for the Brad, he's a loser from a previous show, when he dumped both girls he led on for the entire show. He's akin to a male ho, imho. But of course, he says he knows he's going to find forever love this time around. Yeah, like that happens.
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