ABC Moves "Bachelorette" To Charlotte For Emily Maynard

Reality TV is in pretty tough shape. The backlash against the reported deception and scripted marriage and divorce of Kim Kardashian continues to grow. Clones of cheap-to-produce shows about storage lockers, pawn shops and repo men now dot the TV landscape.

Amid this chaos, ABC continues to push ahead with the franchise shows that draw female viewers of all demographics. There is just something about The Bachelor and The Bachelorette that women cannot resist.

Last year viewers of the Bachelor saw Emily Maynard selected by Brad Womack to be his wife forever. The loving relationship lasted until June and never made it to the altar. What it did make was a reality TV star out of Maynard. Now, she gets to take center stage in a melodramatic reality with NASCAR wrapped all around it.

In stories from People magazine and Entertainment Weekly, Maynard has reportedly agreed to become The Bachelorette for ABC as that reality TV franchise rolls on. As you may remember, Maynard was engaged to Ricky Hendrick, the son of NASCAR team owner and car dealer Rick Hendrick, before Ricky lost his life in a tragic plane crash back in 2004.

Shortly thereafter, Maynard revealed she was pregnant with his daughter and now Ricki is a happy and healthy young girl. In agreeing to take on this central reality TV role, Maynard made it clear she did not want to be away from her daughter. ABC reportedly responded by moving the entire production of the series to the Charlotte, NC area.

On The Bachelor, Maynard played out her Hendrick connection in an interesting and rather scripted scene at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway where Womack brought some of the ladies for a "date." It pointed out just how much the Hendrick and NASCAR connection can be used to exploit the mostly female audience.

The management at LVMS had no idea who was involved in the production, but NASCAR itself did work with the Bachelor production team when it came to the involvement of the NASCAR Racing Experience, a drive or ride along race car program.

This time, Maynard's connection with the Hendrick family will be out in the public eye on national television. The specific shooting locations for the program have not yet been reported, but NASCAR country figures to play a strategic role. It will also be interesting to see if any NASCAR personalities, many of whom already have extensive TV experience, make an appearance.

The Mooresville and Concord areas are ripe with colorful locations that have racing connections. There is little doubt as the word filters out that this series is coming the phones will be ringing with offers of locations that the production team can use to create some additional "reality TV."

As this is an ABC property, expect to see promotional integration with the NASCAR on ESPN programming as the season rolls on. Filming of the series begins in March and the first episode hits the air in May.

We invite your comments on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Wednesday NASCAR TV/Media Notes

As we move closer to the actual start of the season, the TV and media news is starting to heat up a bit. Here are some items from this week.

Bob Pockrass from Scenedaily.com said on Twitter that he recently talked to Carl Edwards and was told that Edwards has not yet made up his mind about working for ESPN on the Nationwide Series telecasts. I find that hard to believe, but there continues to be no comment from ESPN on the issue. Edwards recently confirmed he will not be driving in any Nationwide Series races in 2012.

A media favorite, Monica Palumbo, left her Miss Sprint Cup duties at the end of 2011. Sprint dropped a hint this week about who is replacing her. The hint was that the new Miss Sprint Cup team member had interviewed every 2011 X-Games gold medalist. Pretty good hint and I bet it starts some folks on a mission. Let me know if you think you have the answer.

Kind of a bombshell here. Apparently, Showtime is scaling back the Inside NASCAR show this season in a big way. As some of you might remember, this started out as a very expensive weekly hour show produced by the NASCAR Media Group from Charlotte, NC. It was cut to 30 minutes last year and now it is being slashed. I'm hearing only 11 episodes, one for the Daytona 500 and then none until the Chase begins. Still waiting for Showtime contacts to return emails to confirm.

Pete Pistone from SiriusXM radio mentioned earlier this week that he was told this season NASCAR on FOX will be using a side by side commercial format. This is a tough sell, as FOX is a broadcast network and has a totally different logistical method of running commercials. It is certainly possible for those truly national spots, but it cannot work for local station breaks. The FOX guys are working on a statement that should be coming Wednesday or Thursday on the topic.

Let's address some Hall of Fame issues. The actual dinner and induction ceremonies are going to take place on Friday night in Charlotte. The NASCAR Media Group is going to record the festivities and will edit the jacket ceremony, dinner and induction speeches into a show for SPEED that will air Sunday at 6PM ET.

The entire concept of the January induction was meant to hype Daytona and the start of the season. Instead, it happens at the height of the NFL mania currently engulfing American sports fans. There is no doubt that NMG will do a solid job, but there has to be a better way of handling this in the future.

I'm not a Barrett-Jackson fan, but this media release from Penske Racing got my attention:

"Tune into the Barrett-Jackson auction Thursday, January 19th at 8 pm ET on SPEED as NASCAR’s Roger Penske and Brad Keselowski along with Bruce Halle and Michael Zuieback from Discount Tire and members from Paralyzed Veterans of America will be in attendance to auction off the car Keselowski drove to his first win at Penske Racing. The auction of the 2010 No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Charger, which won the Aaron’s 312 at Talladega Superspeedway, will benefit Paralyzed Veterans."

Stewart-Haas Racing sent along a note that Tony Stewart will appear on an episode of Last Man Standing with Tim Allen scheduled to air in February. Click here to see some behind the scenes pictures of the shoot. I am certain we will hear more about this over the next several weeks.

Ben Grossman at Broadcasting & Cable just interviewed NASCAR Chairman Brian France. While much of the conversation was things we have heard before, France did point a finger at ESPN and talk about future TV negotiations. Here are those two questions.

B&C: You say you’re pretty aggressive about what your TV partners need to do for NASCAR. What do you want from them?

France: We are always the sport that is under-covered given the ratings and size of the events. In particular, ESPN. They just have so many platforms. So we are pushing real hard with them to have a more integrated approach. We have hired people to service them better, so we can help them accomplish that. They have the most assets to be deployed; it doesn’t mean everyone else doesn’t have some big ones and good ones. We are going to work to make them a better partner.

B&C: Your TV deals are up in 2014, but when do your negotiating windows open with your current partners?

France: Not for a little while, but we are having conversations, because a lot of our partners have been clear they would prefer to renew. All things being equal, our first hope is that the incumbents do renew. . . I think [talks] could heat up at any time, that’s my sense. It’s not cold now, we are having conversations, my sense is things will happen sooner rather than later, and sooner than they normally would in a cycle of renewals.

This week marks five years since Benny Parsons was taken from us by lung cancer. Younger viewers may not have known this wonderful man, but veteran NASCAR fans certainly did. His knowledge about the sport and pleasant nature on the air helped to form an image of the sport that helped it to travel outside of the southeast and become truly national.

Former NBC and TNT announcer Bill Weber is a tremendous writer. He scripted a tribute to BP that aired during the TNT coverage. Click here to see it. You can also use the YouTube index to the right to locate other BP material, including the famous Buffet Benny segments on ESPN.

Please feel free to comment on the above topics. If any additional news rolls in, it will be posted right here. Thanks again for stopping by.

Day Two: Dude Where's My Phone?

It was one of the strangest testing sessions in history at Daytona. Usually a relaxed and rather boring affair, this time NASCAR was actively changing the rules as they frantically tried to break-up the two car tandem racing seen last season on the restrictor plate tracks.

The last day featured this TV screen shot of Jimmie Johnson in the Sprint Cup Series garage watching Dale Earnhardt Jr. take his Lowes Chevy out for a spin. Junior had been involved in an on-track incident with Jeff Burton and Juan Montoya a bit earlier.

Aside from the total confirmation that NASCAR hates the two-car tango, the other theme of the testing was the complete and total penetration of social media into the sport. The flood of information from the teams, NASCAR and the drivers themselves directly to the fans was nothing short of amazing.

Drivers sit in their cars while the crews make change after change during testing. Normally, boredom and idle radio chatter are the order of the day. All that has changed with smart phones. Now Twitter, Facebook and texting are the preferred pastimes.

It was Carl Edwards who showed SPEED viewers the cell phone video he took of himself taking a lap around Daytona. He took it from the driver's seat...while driving. It was Jimmie Johnson who showed the SPEED cameras the velcro pouch inside the driver's door where he kept his cell phone with him as he hit the track.

While NASCAR talk on Twitter was a mix of cautious users and curious fans last year at this time, this specific form of social media has quickly become the most vital line of communication within the sport. Three days of testing at Daytona confirmed it.

While the drivers were fun and their comments on everything from drafting to the lunch menu made for entertaining reading, it was the use of Twitter by SPEED that stole the show. Finally, a TV network made a concerted effort at breaking down the final barriers between the viewers and the on-camera personalities involved in the programs.

The early testing sessions were streamed online at SPEED.com and the afternoon activity was shown on the SPEED TV cable network. While these two very different media platforms resulted in different viewing experiences, the one constant in them both was the seamless integration of direct viewer interaction.

From the start, SPEED made it clear that NASCAR fans would be a vital part of every form of the coverage. In addition to integrating fan tweets into the coverage from the analysts in the TV booth, the reporters in the garage worked tirelessly to answer questions and get information directly for fans on Twitter.

The result was an interactive frenzy of questions, suggestions and comments never seen before in any kind of NASCAR telecast or Internet webcast. It created a river of information that flowed simultaneously with the live program.

We have all been partially taken by surprise that the very diverse personalities in the sport have almost all taken a liking to this simple 140 character text-based free service that also lets users link pictures, videos and website pages.

While the SPEED experience at testing was a welcome one, the reality of both ESPN and FOX while in Daytona will no doubt be a sharp change of direction. FOX is a broadcast network and the NASCAR on FOX coverage has long since been designed in many ways to serve the broadest general audience, including the infamous "casual fan."

ESPN is knee-deep in social media guidelines and the network has been slow to integrate any type of Twitter interaction in the telecasts. Last season, one freelance ESPN technician had been tweeting informative pictures and interacting with fans. She provided an informal social media documentary of each ESPN effort at the Nationwide Series races.

From her perch in the TV booth during the race, she continued to interact with fans and offer a unique perspective. At no time did her social media activity interfere with her job. In fact, she often worked to solve issues associated with the telecasts for the fans.

"Social Media Smackdown" was the TDP column that resulted as ESPN subsequently banned any of the TV crew from using Twitter or any form of social media during the races. When the season was over, she was immediately fired.

Unfortunately ESPN shot themselves in the foot again as that crew member was a well-respected TV veteran and had attended many tweet-ups at the track with fans. She had probably done more to directly interact with the fans than anyone on the entire NASCAR on ESPN team. No doubt she will be missed by many this year when Daytona's Nationwide Series race on ESPN comes along.

SPEED will return to Daytona in February to handle various practices, qualifying and races including the twin qualifiers for the Sprint Cup Series. Hopefully, the positive social media experience the network had at the track for these three days of testing will provide a solid foundation for continuing this level of fan interaction.

Kudos to the TV crew, the NASCAR personalities and the fans who took the time to participate in this amazing experiment and set the new tone for 2012. This is truly going to be the year of the fan in the sport and social media is going to drive this point home. Get on the Twitter bus now folks, it's going to be a fun ride.

We welcome your comment on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.