The UK, like the US, is currently snowed under with ‘reality-based’ programming. We are into the second week of a London-based “Big Brother,” “Survivor” is slated to arrive soon, and we are seven months into “Castaway”—a very British “Survivor” equivalent. Further down-market we have several “Cops” imitators, and pretty much every sick animal in the UK has now had its fifteen minutes of fame.
The latest subject, however, to be placed under network television's microscope is e-business. A business game show with some reality drama thrown in, “The E-Millionaire Show,” has just screened to impressively large audiences.
Using the popularity of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” as its hook, “The E-millionaire Show” places a pressure on its contestants which is no less great. Host, Jon Snow, introduces the contestants to the audience and expert panel by pushing them towards the spotlight with the words “your one minute chance of a lifetime." Gulp. They then have to deliver their killer pitch in sixty seconds flat, with no opportunity to phone a friend.
“The E-Millionaire Show” offers a share of a £2 million ($3.03 million) prize fund to contestants who come up with the best Internet-based business idea. The overall winner is guaranteed a £1 million ($1.51 million) investment in their idea. The program makers, Princess Productions, are currently talking to US networks about licensing the format of the show.
Princess originally advertised for contestants back in April, stating that all an entrant needed was the bare bones of an idea. “Every time I went out everybody always seemed to have an idea for an e-venture or Web site,” says the show’s executive producer, Sebastian Scott. “The second thing was that although lots of people had ideas for Web sites, nobody really knew how to take them from the idea stage and turn them into businesses. I thought that there must be hundreds of these people across the UK.”
It seems that Scott’s initial estimate was on the conservative side. He was surprised to find that over 7,000 potential e-millionaires had an idea scribbled down on the back of a napkin. These entries were whittled down, removing the unworkable and the unthinkable, to a final 15.
The chosen contestants were given five weeks with Web designers, management consultants, and advertising executives to create an overall feel for their dot com ideas. This time was volunteered by the various agencies in return for on-air plugs for their business, an obvious selling point when touting the idea around thrifty broadcasters. Likewise, the £2 million of prize money was not part of the production budget, coming as it did from a consortium of five venture capitalists whose investment would buy them a stake in the winner’s business.
The show was broadcast by the Britain's Channel Four in a one-week burst—every weekday night with the final on a Sunday. Although the competitors had to face a grilling by a panel of entrepreneurs, marketing experts, and minor celebrities, it was the public who got to pick the five finalists, echoing the participatory nature of “Big Brother."
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Our London correspondent reports on the
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