Hollywood vets at Big Shot Live aim to draw wanna-be stars who in turn use social networking to get a shot at a trip to Hollywood

By Alex Ben Block

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 1/30/08 – Organizers of “Big Shot Live,” an online talent contest launched this week, believe they have a solution to the biggest problems plaguing Internet start-ups – how to constantly attract an audience, how to create fresh content at a low cost and how to get virtually endless promotion on the old media platform to drive traffic to the new media site. Their business model involves a competition that draws contestants who create the content, and promote themselves through their own social networking sites such as My Space, Facebook or Yahoo.

“This is the first of its kind , an original way to create shows that have a contest element, and a very, very sticky web site, where people get excited about the opportunity for the chance for fame, so much so that they will go out of their way to reach out to all of their friends and family to vote for them and see how they fare,” says Jak Severson of Madison Road Entertainment, which is partnered in the venture with the CBS Distribution group (which owns half), Maverick (Madonna’s production company) and veteran producer James Bruce (“Survivor,” “The Apprentice,” “The Restaurant”)..

Each day on 197 CBS-affiliated TV stations, during the airing of “Entertainment Tonight,” there is a promotional spot that touts the contest and urges amateurs to enter one minute videos showing their talent as models, actors, singers, dancers or show hosts. The stations also run a promo on their web sites, and some run the promo spot other times during the broadcast day.

There will also be promotions in some entertainment magazines such as “US Weekly,” and videos of some performances or episodes will be put on You Tube and other viral video sites to act as another kind of promotional tool.

How does it work? Viewers enter self-generated videos of about one minute in length that are posted on the BigShotLive.com, where anyone can vote to send that entrant to Hollywood for an audition or a performance experience over two days. The contestants are encouraged, even required, to ask the “friends” they have accumulated on their social network to go to Big Shot Live and vote for them, driving traffic to the site, which will allow the backers to sell advertising. On the first day, Severson says they got over 500,000 visitors.

There are already other online talent competitions, both stand alones and those that are part of various TV shows, but the producers of Big Shot Live insist their show is different. “Our show starts where the others end,” says James Bruce, “Big Shot” showrunner. “Every other contest on the Internet simulates the ‘American Idol’ format; which is where a hundred people come in and one winner will get X. Our show is not at all like that. That’s why it has never been done before.”

What is different is that there are multiple “winners” who can come back again and again, if they draw enough votes. It is as if “American Idol” was just about the audition process, where anyone can get the chance to show their stuff. Part of the fun, say backers, will be the opportunity to watch the videos and see what people have come up with.

Severson cites as his original inspiration the appearance of Sanjaya Malakar on the sixth season of “American Idol.” “I was mystified watching Sanjaya,” he recalls. “Here’s a kid with limited talent who is hugely popular. I said, who could fault this kid for being there because he’s popular and isn’t that the measure. Talent is so subjective that regardless of whether this kid has talent, people want to watch him and that’s a measure of success.”

Within a week of when a contestant’s video goes up, a winner is announced for that category; so that there is a winner a day for at least 13 weeks. That will result in 91 people who will then come to Los Angeles. From the moment that person gets off the plane they will be followed around by a TV crew who will tape their experience. Whether they have a successful trip to Hollywood or not, their experience will then be the basis of a six minute episode that will be shown on the web site as well. Contestants will be expected to use their “friends” to promote that segment as well. If they get enough votes, that person may be brought back to Hollywood again and again to build their career.

At least that is the theory. It taps into the obsession many people seem to have to be famous, or at least be seen, even if it is only for a Warholian 15 minutes or in this case one minute or if they get to the next level, six minutes.

Once in Hollywood, the “winners” are signed to a personal management contract with a company especially formed by the show. The “managers” are actually professional comedians Todd Glass, Eddie Pepitone and Brian Huskey, who have been hired to play this role, and will act as the contestant’s guide and confessor for the segments.

Each “winner” will get some kind of performance or audition experience during their two days in L.A. It might be an interview with a casting director, or a producer or an executive, that could, maybe, possibly, lead to their casting in a real TV show or movie. In the case of singers, they may perform in a club along with a name act; or a dancer might get a chance to be part of a dance show; or a model may strut in front of a fashion maven. There are no guarantees of work; but there is the opportunity to try.

“What you are going through as a contestant is going to be a very real experience,” says Severson. “We will create an episode around it sort of shaped like ‘The Office’ in terms of its design, and the way it looks and feels, and in terms of tone.”

This taps into the millions who “wanna be” in show business, so there is a sort of cruel side to it as well. It appeals to the aspirations of those with the least knowledge of show business and the fewest contacts but the greatest aspiration. Actual chances of being a “winner” chosen among thousands, and of actually getting a career out of this experience, are only slightly better than buying a lottery ticket to get rich quickly. .

Severson says they are not exploiting anyone. “As long as people want to watch you and you are deemed to be relevant, we bring you back out for another engagement, and each time it might be something bigger, because the bigger your fan base,” says Severson, “the more valuable you are as a promotional vehicle for the various TV shows and movies we put you in.”

Madonna’s company Maverick’s role is to get celebrities, producers, shows and movies to cooperate. The pitch is that by including one of these “winners” even as a background extra, the show will receive significant additional promotion, as that person recruits their social network “friends,” new fans and family to watch for them.

“Imagine if I say to a feature film that is shooting, ‘I’ve got this kid, and I want you to give him a background role. By the way, every time he goes out there (on the Internet) he gets 350,000 (page) views.’ That goes right to your (promotional) budget.”

The personal manager’s role fades as the contestant goes forward. It is up to the “winner” to find a way to keep the ball rolling after their bit of fleeting fame. Severson says they will actually have professional talent managers involved at some time in the future to help keep the careers alive of those who make their own breaks. He said they plan to tie in with a real management firm at some point; or could create their own.

“If they had enough friends to get here,” says Severson, “now what they have to do is get enough people to watch their episode. If they have enough watch, they get back on the plane and we bring them out to do something else. Effectively, we assign them what is their own channel (on the Big Shot site). As long as enough people watch, we keep giving them more to do. It’s like any TV show. If there isn’t enough following, we will cancel them.”

Severson would know because until now most of his career has been in broadcast television. Madison Road was created four years ago to develop product integration (made paid product placements in TV shows). It has been involved in the products and companies integrated into “Survivor,” “The Apprentice” and other shows. Now it is expanding into programming and onto the web for the first time.

“(Madison Road) is a very misunderstood company,” insists Severson. “What were all about here is finding new ways to make content pay better. We believe the old content models are broken and that there are new models emerging every day that make content pay better for producers, distributors and talent. This is our first online property to do just that.”

Bruce and Severson both had somewhat similar ideas when they came together on this project less than a year ago. “We started with the notion of what it would take for us to create a show where people would go out and call their friends and tell them to come watch the show,” says Severson, adding: “We wondered what it would take? Well, obviously if you paid them, they would do that…But what if you can’t pay in cash money? What’s the next best thing? So we created a show that would essentially offer up the chance for one person to come to Hollywood and get their chance.”

So success on Big Shot will be based on popularity. There is no Simon Cowell to judge, just the audience; and how many friends and relatives that person has who will take the trouble to vote. The more people who watch, who vote and who return, the better that person’s chances, even if in the bigger picture the chance of success is actually quite slim. That means web traffic constantly generated for Big Shot Live.

If this new business model works, the real winners will be CBS, Madison Road and the other partners. Severson compares it to Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick’s critically acclaimed Internet show “Quarterlife,” which got a lot of publicity but not as many viewers as hoped. “The problem with ‘Quarterlife’ is there was no compelling reason to drive an audience to it. It was a TV show online and that’s not what they want. What they want is an experience. If those online wanted to watch TV, they would watch TV. What they want is to interact with it. And I think that’s why ‘Quarterlife’ failed to gain any resonance, plus it had no promotional platform.”

“Quarterlife” was recently picked up as a series by NBC, which could provide that kind of platform, but it will won’t have the promos on hundreds of TV stations every day, and it still won’t have thousands of wanna-be’s hyping it to their friends to come and vote.

However, even the Big Shot producer admit in the end, being popular won’t be enough.

Bruce says talent will win out, even if a person has millions of “friends.” “At the end of the day they might be popular,” explains Bruce, “but because they will also be viewed by real people, they have to have some kind of talent to move forward.”

Whether it is a brilliant idea or a cruel tease, Big Shot Live offers up the next stage in media – the crossing of old and new media platforms to maximize the value of an idea. “What we’re able to do is measure what ultimately drives people to want to watch,” says Severson. “It’s the Sanjaya effect if you will. As long as you remain constantly viable, we will continue to give you more to do.”

And if not, as they used to say in vaudeville, you get the hook.