Question for MCuban

[Board at work]

I have a question for Mark.

How come you constantly keep taking the contestants to Chili's? Are they a sponsor or something?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking Chili's. That used to be a high school hangout and Brinker was a client of mine. And not to compare you to the Apprentice, but the contestants there get to go to eat expensive caviar, and your contestants are having buffalo wings and margarita meltdowns.

I think one of the things that sells TV shows is the fantasy of it. There is no fantasy to Chili's.

[sugarlady]

B*tches from hell works great for conflicts and everyone tunes in to see her get booted.

Have we been watching the same reality show? He has one of those named Linda on the show. Just conflict for the sake of conflict is not always the best solution. The people involved need to be interesting personalities having compelling conflict in situations that you can relate to.

[GingerLVNV]

I think Dominic is my b*tch..


I tune in to see him booted off the show, well I WOULD have tuned in if this show would just stop getting prempted.

[hepcat]

Like I said, if all you want is to entertain yourself, there's no point showing it on TV. If you want it on TV and expect it to be successful, then you must build the show with the audience in mind.

TVfan05, I agree with you that Mark Cuban has dismissed people that would have made "good TV". But I disagree that it's a bad thing. I come from the perspective of someone who has watched a lot of reality shows. The trend overall has been to cast contestants who are just looking for television exposure to further their acting/singing/modeling aspirations. What I like about this show is that the participants aren't just wannabe models, but people with interesting backgrounds and personalities.

Also, it's patently obvious that Mark Cuban isn't consulting with producers about who to keep for "good TV" - something I found really disgusting about the Apprentice 1. I'm not watching the current Apprentice because of it.

It boils down to what you want from reality TV. Some people would prefer to see a crop of twenty-something actors in Big Brother and Survivor. Some of us prefer seeing ordinary people being put in extraordinary situations.

[TellTaleOrange]

I have a question for Mark.

How come you constantly keep taking the contestants to Chili's? Are they a sponsor or something?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking Chili's. That used to be a high school hangout and Brinker was a client of mine. And not to compare you to the Apprentice, but the contestants there get to go to eat expensive caviar, and your contestants are having buffalo wings and margarita meltdowns.

I think one of the things that sells TV shows is the fantasy of it. There is no fantasy to Chili's.

I love Chili's Burgers. Don't know why but I love Chili's Burgers.

[E-Daddy]

The basic premise of your show is interesting, but is lacking in it's implementation. You want the show to be fun for you as you've said a few times. But that's not enough. This show is not for you alone; otherwise it would be part of your own personal video collection and not be on TV. It has to be fun for the viewers. And it really isn't all that fun. It's like going to a friend's house and playing some games. That may be fun to do, but it doesn't make for good entertainment value for a TV audience. It needs emotions and conflicts. There isn't much of that, at least not like the cat-fight, back-stabbing you see in the "other" show. You need to play more on that ... create conflict and select players that would naturally have conflict. Last year, Trump had Omarossa and she was kept in the game a lot longer than she should. B*tches from hell works great for conflicts and everyone tunes in to see her get booted.

Mark does have conflict in his game. Her name is Linda.

[TvFan05]

Mark does have conflict in his game. Her name is Linda.

Sorry, but noone on that show measures up to Omarossa (as a b*tch). But that's just my opinion.

[TvFan05]

TVfan05, I agree with you that Mark Cuban has dismissed people that would have made "good TV". But I disagree that it's a bad thing.

Then we'll have to agree to disagree. What makes "good TV" is what gets audience numbers. Like I said, if he wants the show to be a major success in terms of ratings, he has to build the show with the audience in mind.

[Florimel]

Then we'll have to agree to disagree. What makes "good TV" is what gets audience numbers. Like I said, if he wants the show to be a major success in terms of ratings, he has to build the show with the audience in mind.

I'm sorry that I have to disagree with you, too. Some audience members may prefer watching the types you propose as audience draw, but others of us emphatically do not.

I don't want to waste my time watching the likes of Omarosa, Johnny Fairplay, Trish, Colin & Christie, Alison, Jun, etc., etc., etc. I am offended by seeing bad behavior rewarded. The casting of this kind of contestant more and more has caused me to change from never missing an episode of a wide selection of these shows to a "maybe I'll watch if there's nothing better on, or maybe I'll read a recap."

Since there seems to be a better selection of scripted shows on tv this season, my status as a "Fan of Reality TV" is changing rapidly.

[sugarlady]

I have a question for Mark.

How come you constantly keep taking the contestants to Chili's? Are they a sponsor or something?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking Chili's. That used to be a high school hangout and Brinker was a client of mine. And not to compare you to the Apprentice, but the contestants there get to go to eat expensive caviar, and your contestants are having buffalo wings and margarita meltdowns.

I think one of the things that sells TV shows is the fantasy of it. There is no fantasy to Chili's.

Yes, Chili is a sponsor.
http://abc.go.com/primetime/benefactor/index.html


I have only been impressed with the dinner on the Queen Elizabeth II on this season of The Apprentice. The staff really went overboard to advertise the ship. It is now on my must do vacation list.