Neighbors, Chefs, & Sharks, Oh, My!

A walled off Atlanta subdivision is the locale for the CBS show Block Party.

A few weeks back the television networks presented their fall shows and upcoming projects to advertisers, media buyers and critics in what the industry calls "up fronts." Of course the presentations showcased dramas and comedy pilots, special events, sports, and a hefty dose of reality television.

Reality television took hold of American TV sets ten years ago, propelled to popularity by the CBS show Survivor and ABC's Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The genre quickly consumed televisions as viewers began to be wrapped up in the personal and emotion stories of reality "stars" and the networks were generating significant ratings with programming that 70% less to produce than the average one hour dramatic series, primarily because there were no star actors to compensate.

Every year when new reality shows are announced I shake my head at the bizarre concepts and think that we must have reached the bottom of the bucket. But the bucket's bottom is endless, especially if you with the growth of cable networks and their courage to air almost anything (think The Cougar on TV Land or Bridezilla on Oxygen).

There are three shows in production that caught my eye as I read about the network's plans. They are Block Party, an untitled show with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, and Shark Tank from reality guru Mark Burnett.

Block Party is the latest reality show "social experiment" from CBS which created controversy but not ratings with last year's Kid Nation series. For Block Party, hosted by American Idol alumni Matt Rogers, the network has walled off eight homes in an Atlanta suburb, forcing the neighbors inside to spend time with each other. The families will be trapped inside the 20' maximum security-looking wall for about three weeks for a cash prize.

The idea strikes me as like a real-life version of "The Simpsons Movie," where the town of Springfield was sealed under an impenetrable dome. What's next isolating a small-state like Rhode Island and tuning in to watch a resulting riot through a 24/7 pay-to-view website? Block Party might be reality taken a step too far for my tastes.

In the category of square peg, round hole programming comes the untitled production from ABC, teaming British chef Jamie Oliver and Ryan Seacrest for a new series that gives healthy makeovers to an entire city.

Oliver will travel to the unhealthiest places in America and find ways to use nearby resources to improve local eating habits. The network has ordered six hours of the project from Ryan Seacrest Productions.

The series is loosely inspired on Oliver's acclaimed school lunch project in the U.K., where the chef set about to improve kids' nutrition. His effort to improve one school's offerings, documented in the 2005 series "Jamie's School Dinners," shamed educators into passing new measures to ban certain junk foods.

Oliver previously appeared as a judge on ABC's successful one-off series Oprah's Big Give, where his personality impressed the network and since then they have been eagerly trying to create a project for the chef. But the health and fitness reality genre (dominated by NBC's The Biggest Loser) isn't the most attractive genre for primetime television and would be more appropriate for cable stations like Bravo or Food Network.

The target city hasn't yet been named, but it's expected to be a place that has been cited on "fattest cities" lists. ABC expects to air the as-yet-untitled show sometime next year. Me and my bag of Oreos and glass of milk won't be watching!

There is one reality show that I am looking forward to adding to my must see list - Shark Tank, a Mark Burnett-produced adaptation of the overseas Dragons' Den reality series, will air Tuesdays as part of the network's fall programming slate.

Each Shark Tank episode will give different entrepreneurs from across the country a chance to pitch their plans to established moguls, with the goal of landing enough of a venture capital investment to move their idea forward. However it isn't that simple, because if the moguls deem the pitch unworthy, they'll "tear into the ill-prepared presenters and pass on the idea."

Since the moguls are also trying to "own a piece of the next big idea," the investors could show interest in the pitch and bid up the price of the investment -- much to the delight of the entrepreneurs. Investors who will serves as the "sharks" are Internet securities mogul Robert Herjavec; infomercial expert Kevin Harrington; real estate tycoon Barbara Corcoran; Canadian investor Kevin O'Leary; and FUBU sportswear founder Daymond John.

The moguls will invest their own capital in the concepts they deem worthy. This not only increases the bidding and drama, but ups the reality factor from monopoly money to real Wall Street hand wringing.

I have caught a few episodes of the British version Dragons' Den on BBC America. If Burnett can capture the same blunt spirit and attitude of the UK series, especially in the frankness of the show's "sharks" it could deliver a reality show for the intelligent audience that is often sacrificed to the "dumbing down of America." Shark Tank could sit nicely among the top tier of intelligent reality fare that is also entertaining to a mass audience with Amazing Race and Top Chef.