DanOregon
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From The Hollywood Reporter (abbreviated for length by poster)
Fox reality show roils East Texas town
By Paul J. Gough
June 11, 2007
NEW YORK -- An upcoming Fox reality series about a model-turned-TV journalist is causing a stir in the East Texas city where "Anchorwoman" is being produced.
Model Lauren Jones arrived last week in Tyler, Texas, for a 30-day stint at KYTX-TV, a CBS affiliate, that will include co-anchoring the 5 p.m. newscast today. Jones, who was cast for the show by Fox 21 and the G Group, has been undergoing behind-the-scenes preparation as a reporter and anchor, her every move taped by a 40-member crew. "Anchorwoman" will run on Fox beginning in late August.
Jones is a swimsuit model and actress whose credits include WWE's "SmackDown!" and "The Guiding Light." She has no journalism experience; the show will be about whether Jones can hack it in TV news. She arrived in Tyler a week ago and has been put through what a station official calls intensive training in how to read a TelePrompTer and report stories on her own.
This is the first time that a reality series will feature someone with no journalism experience who will be thrust into a job surrounded by real journalists. It has raised concerns inside and outside KYTX.
"One of the last sacred grounds of integrity in local television is the local newsroom, so I guess I would say I'm disappointed to see a station, much less one in our own community, that has evidently sold its integrity," said Brad Streit, vp and GM for KLTV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Tyler.
KYTX station president and GM Phil Hurley shrugs off the criticism, pointing Friday to the big story on cable news.
"Journalism credibility? I think that's somewhat amusing when all I see today on the cable news is Paris Hilton, nonstop," he said. "This is a TV show. It's going to be a comedy. They just chose to shoot it at our station."
Hurley, whose station features Stormy the Weather Dog in every newscast, said it isn't the money that's driving him to participate. (The station and the participants are being paid to appear.)
"As the new guy in town, we saw it as a promotional tool to show a lot of sampling in our newscast," Hurley said.
The project, more than two years in development, has been controversial from the get-go. A leaked concept video showing a "Simple Life"-like treatment to Tyler found its way to YouTube, irking residents who didn't want to see their city lampooned. Tyler is a city of about 100,000 halfway between Dallas and Shreveport, La.
Hurley said he rejected that idea out of hand well before the video got to YouTube.
"We're a middle-market television station and town, and we're not hillbilly heaven here," he said. "It's a middle-class, upper-middle-class town that really is a great place to live, and we thought it would be fun to have Tyler shown off." One depiction called the show "Tiny Tyler in Nowhere, Texas."
"Some community people were not happy to see some of the references that would be negative toward the city, making it look like a backwater, hick type of place," said Tom Mullins, president and CEO of the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce.
Fox reality show roils East Texas town
By Paul J. Gough
June 11, 2007
NEW YORK -- An upcoming Fox reality series about a model-turned-TV journalist is causing a stir in the East Texas city where "Anchorwoman" is being produced.
Model Lauren Jones arrived last week in Tyler, Texas, for a 30-day stint at KYTX-TV, a CBS affiliate, that will include co-anchoring the 5 p.m. newscast today. Jones, who was cast for the show by Fox 21 and the G Group, has been undergoing behind-the-scenes preparation as a reporter and anchor, her every move taped by a 40-member crew. "Anchorwoman" will run on Fox beginning in late August.
Jones is a swimsuit model and actress whose credits include WWE's "SmackDown!" and "The Guiding Light." She has no journalism experience; the show will be about whether Jones can hack it in TV news. She arrived in Tyler a week ago and has been put through what a station official calls intensive training in how to read a TelePrompTer and report stories on her own.
This is the first time that a reality series will feature someone with no journalism experience who will be thrust into a job surrounded by real journalists. It has raised concerns inside and outside KYTX.
"One of the last sacred grounds of integrity in local television is the local newsroom, so I guess I would say I'm disappointed to see a station, much less one in our own community, that has evidently sold its integrity," said Brad Streit, vp and GM for KLTV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Tyler.
KYTX station president and GM Phil Hurley shrugs off the criticism, pointing Friday to the big story on cable news.
"Journalism credibility? I think that's somewhat amusing when all I see today on the cable news is Paris Hilton, nonstop," he said. "This is a TV show. It's going to be a comedy. They just chose to shoot it at our station."
Hurley, whose station features Stormy the Weather Dog in every newscast, said it isn't the money that's driving him to participate. (The station and the participants are being paid to appear.)
"As the new guy in town, we saw it as a promotional tool to show a lot of sampling in our newscast," Hurley said.
The project, more than two years in development, has been controversial from the get-go. A leaked concept video showing a "Simple Life"-like treatment to Tyler found its way to YouTube, irking residents who didn't want to see their city lampooned. Tyler is a city of about 100,000 halfway between Dallas and Shreveport, La.
Hurley said he rejected that idea out of hand well before the video got to YouTube.
"We're a middle-market television station and town, and we're not hillbilly heaven here," he said. "It's a middle-class, upper-middle-class town that really is a great place to live, and we thought it would be fun to have Tyler shown off." One depiction called the show "Tiny Tyler in Nowhere, Texas."
"Some community people were not happy to see some of the references that would be negative toward the city, making it look like a backwater, hick type of place," said Tom Mullins, president and CEO of the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce.
