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September 18, 2007
Is the Internet ready for "Prime Time"?
By Laura Nielsen
Affiliate Manager
CPA Empire
During my visit to the 2007 Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose, CA I met with HackerSafe®, a sponsor of the anxiously awaited first Web reality show "The Next Internet Millionaire". Filming at the base of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, "The Next Internet Millionaire" is the world's first competitive Internet reality show. It debuted on Aug. 17, 2007, providing hungry reality audiences with the opportunity to view the show on the Internet.
After watching a short clip of Episode One to see what all the hype was about, I found that the show seems to be a combination of “The Apprentice” and YouTube™. But this one won’t be on television and the executive producer, Joel Comm (himself an Internet millionaire and NY Times Best selling author of "The Adsense Code") takes over as the “Donald Trump” of the show. I wasn’t sure what to expect, since I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about Internet marketing experts branching into reality television. But, after watching Episode 1, I have to say that it was pretty good! The first episode is 51 minutes long with a few short commercial interruptions towards the end. The script is intriguing – plus, drama and back-stabbing between the contestants always peeks my interest! The initial reviews are in & bloggers all over the world are applauding this groundbreaking online entertainment; thus "proving that the Internet is indeed ready for "prime time"." (PRNewswire, August 27, 2007)
The Twelve contestants are made up of 6 men and 6 women from the US, Canada, the UK & Costa Rica. They all have varying levels of online and offline marketing experience. The contestants learn from the experts and compete in a variety of individual and team challenges designed to test their leadership ability, persuasion skills, sales, creativity, and general business skills.
The thing I liked is that, unlike with standard TV reality shows, you can actually learn something from watching this show. It features a combination of valuable instruction that anyone can benefit from in building their online presence. Then of course, there is the entertainment value that results from watching the twelve contestants compete for a $25,000 cash prize and an opportunity to participate in a large-scale joint venture with Comm's company.
Debuting just 2 weeks ago, "The Next Millionaire, is mentioned on over 65,000 web pages (according to Google), with bloggers around the world sharing their thoughts. The website shot up the charts on Alexa.com and was rated as the 1626th most popular site on the web on August 18th, beating American Idol.com, CBS.com & NBC.com that day" (Yahoo! News, Aug. 20th, 2007).
Lastly, the show is really about the cast members and their drive to win. Reality TV is big business because it provides the audience with real characters that most of us can identify with. I think viewers are going to enjoy watching the contestants learn and compete for the ultimate prize. After all, there is $25,000 and a dream joint venture on the line.
So who will it be? Power up your computers, tune in, and find out!
Go to http://www.nextinternetmillionaire.com/watch.php - to watch Episodes 1-3
Posted by Tom at September 18, 2007 03:57 AM