MTV — MTV Eyes Next Move After Its Reality Genre Takes Off

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Sometimes it’s best not to mess with an original.

As the reality-based show “Big Brother” on CBS sinks in the ratings, executives at MTV are celebrating blockbuster ratings in the reality-based genre they helped pioneer almost a decade ago.

Some have called “Big Brother” a knockoff of MTV’s “The Real World,” as both throw strangers into a house together and tape the results. The difference is that “The Real World,” in its ninth season, has long been a cult favorite and premiered to record-high ratings this year, while “Big Brother” is already fading badly; after debuting with 22.5 million viewers on July 5, the show dropped consistently every day it was shown afterward, falling to 10 million viewers by July 17.

Now that the “reality” genre is the darling of mainstream television, MTV executives are trying to figure out how best to exploit their “Real World” franchise. One thing they won’t be doing is adding gimmicks to the show. “Real World: Antarctica,” where seven strangers live in an igloo and see who’s still alive at the end of the season, won’t soon be appearing on MTV.

“I just didn’t feel like being a reactionary copycat,” said Brian Graden, president of the cable channel. “To add gimmicks, to me, would just be desperate.”

Emphasis on marketing

Instead of drastic changes to production or content of “The Real World” or “Road Rules,” MTV’s travel-based reality show, executives are weighing new marketing tactics in the face of increased interest in the genre.

“The only things we have thought about, given that there is so much attention surrounding these shows, is should we participate in interviews, such as this one, and should we do marketing on-air that sends up those other franchises and show that ours are the grandfathers,” Graden said. “We have had discussions (about the latter), but we haven’t made any decisions about whether we care to or not.”

That laid-back attitude runs contrary to the frenzied panic that has swept broadcast networks, which are scrambling to match the success of the hit “Survivor,” in which castaways on a remote island must fend to survive with limited resources. Some observers feel MTV doesn’t need to change its formula to keep up with other shows.

“To me, ‘Big Brother’ couldn’t be more of a direct lift, and it’s not showing to nearly as interesting a demographic (as ‘The Real World’),” said Pam McNeely, a media buyer at ad agency Dailey & Associates. “I’d rather watch good-looking young people than the cast of characters they’ve got on ‘Big Brother.'”

Plus, “The Real World” and “Road Rules” condense months of tape into half-hour episodes with soap-opera-style storylines. “They have a level of storytelling that hasn’t existed yet in anything I’ve seen,” Graden said. “I figured that would emerge as one of our advantages.”

Others see the shows’ longevity as an asset.

“What MTV does well is create a brand or a type that they can make fresh by completely replacing the cast and putting it in a new context,” said David Davis, an entertainment industry analyst at Houlihan, Lokey, Howard & Zukin.

Because MTV primarily targets viewers aged 18 to 24 while broadcast networks target a spectrum of viewers from 18 to 54, broadcast networks are under more pressure to jump on trends and outdo one another to capture the fleeting attention of their mass audience, Davis said. Hence the rash of proposals for over-the-top reality shows that include chaining men to a woman until she chooses to date one, or forcing a person to run across the country fugitive-style.

MTV already has a strong reputation with its target demographic, among whom “The Real World” has become a must-watch.

In this season of “The Real World,” seven strangers were chosen from more than 35,000 applicants to live in a stylishly furnished New Orleans mansion, where their lives were taped and then condensed into weekly television programs. This year’s show debuted June 13 to the highest “Real World” premiere ratings ever, with more than 3 million viewers tuning in, compared with 342,000 the first season and just over 2.5 million two years ago.

Skin boosts ratings

Before “Survivor” was a glimmer in the public consciousness, last season’s “Real World,” taped in Hawaii, earned the show’s highest ratings ever thanks to scantily clad participants and a young woman’s dramatic battle with alcoholism. More than 3.5 million viewers tuned in each week, breaking previous ratings records.

This year’s drama includes a Mormon roommate, whose participation in the program could get her booted from Brigham Young University, a fact that has attracted much media attention. And that’s not even mentioning this season’s stripping and New Orleans-style debauchery. Ratings this season are expected to equal, if not surpass, last year’s.

“They’ve been able to reinvent ‘The Real World’ as more of a sexy, sexual-tension show than a bunch of people yelling at each other,” said Davis. “I just happened to see ‘The Real World’ this week. I hadn’t seen it in years, but it’s completely fresh, not just in its cast and location, but that they’ve revamped the subject matter to make it more racy.”

Graden said this has to do with the cast members’ actions, not any purposeful staging by the network. (Of course, the shows are edited to include the most compelling storylines.)

MTV executives are now developing a slate of new reality shows. The network has issued casting calls on its Web site for a show about politics, a program about the relationships and sex lives of outspoken 20-something women, and even a series that will turn viewers’ real-life stories into short films.

The network is also developing a show called “Teen Court,” based on a system in Los Angeles that allows teens to sit as a jury and establish verdicts for teens who have committed misdemeanor offenses. “This is an actual thing that happens in the real world,” Graden said.

Where the network’s real interest lies, however, is in bringing more interactivity to MTV. A few years ago, the network turned its top-10 video show into “Total Request Live,” which allows viewers to vote through the network’s Web site, mtv.com, on which videos should be shown the following day. Graden said the network plans to implement a system that will allow viewers to vote, while one video is playing, on what video will be shown immediately afterward.

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