USA NETWORK ENTERING EBAUM'S WORLD
USA Greenlights Late-Night Reality Pilot
LOS ANGELES -- January 26, 2006 -- USA Network has struck a deal with the Fox Television Studios to create a show based on the wildly successful extreme content online site eBaumsworld (www.ebaumsworld.com). The one-hour pilot, EBAUM'S WORLD, is being eyed as a late-night companion special to air with USA's highly successful WWE show, MONDAY NIGHT RAW. The announcement was made today by Jeff Wachtel, USA's executive vice president, original programming. EBAUM'S WORLD is being developed in USA's alternative series and specials division, with Fox Television Studios' Simon Andreae executive producing.
Named as the "number one ultimate website" on FHM magazine's top 100 list, eBaumsworld.com is the top extreme video site in the world, boasting four million regular users and registering more than 1.2 million hits a day. eBaumsworld began in 1998 as the brainchild of New York high school student Eric Bauman, who used it as an outlet for his secretly audio-taped footage, created when he provoked his least favorite teachers into screaming at him. The site rapidly became required viewing among fellow students, and eBaumsworld spread virally across the state, the country and then the world. Soon, Bauman started receiving submissions from fans of whatever they found funny, shocking or outrageous. The website now receives more than 21,000 submissions a week, counts Howard Stern and comedian Tom Green among its fans, and has made Bauman a legend among his young male audience.
"We're thrilled about the potential EBAUM'S WORLD gives us to do something cutting-edge and original," Wachtel said. "We want to build and expand on the younger audience USA has tapped into thanks to MONDAY NIGHT RAW, and this project is a step in that direction. With its young male viewpoint, hip counter-culture feel and home-video sensibility, EBAUM'S WORLD promises to be the craziest late-night show in all of television."
Holly Jacobs, executive vice president, alternative development, Fox Television Studios, said, "The marriage of EBAUM'S WORLD with executive producer Simon Andreae is a perfect partnership. Just as he did in the UK when he produced provocative cutting-edge shows like 'The Autopsy,' 'Bodyshock' and 'Jump London,' Simon plans once again to push the envelope and break the mold with EBAUM'S WORLD. Simon understands and embraces this youth-culture audience, and its funny, raw and irreverent sensibility ? just as USA does. We couldn't be happier to be working with the network on developing this unique type of programming."
In its television incarnation, EBAUM'S WORLD will bring the most shocking and extreme content to late night programming in a fast-paced, irreverent hour of outrageous clips, jokes and commentary. The show will feature clips from the website as well as new, exclusive content, and interviews with past and new eBaumsworld video subjects who will be asked to account for their outlandish behavior -- if they dare.
EBAUM'S WORLD is being executive produced by Simon Andreae through his production company, The Incubator, in association with Fox Television Studios.
"EBAUM'S WORLD is everything that late-night television should be," said Andreae. "It's exciting, hip, irreverent, funny and completely unpredictable. The impact will be phenomenal and will add some real sizzle to late-night programming."
Simon Andreae is an award-winning producer and one of the most highly regarded executives in unscripted programming, having created and produced innovative and provocative shows for many of the best-known broadcasters in Europe and the United States. His credits include the alternative series' "Bodyshock," "Psycho" and "House of Obsessive Compulsives," and the breakthrough specials "The Autopsy" and "Jump London," among many others. In addition to his TV credits, Andreae is a published author and a member of the American Academy of Clinical Sexologists, and has written articles about love and sex for Esquire, The Observer, Daily Telegraph and The Independent on Sunday. His published titles include Anatomy of Desire: The Science and Psychology of Sex, Love and Marriage, as well as a best-selling series of books, written with his twin brother, Giles, based on the animated character, Purple Ronnie.
USA Network is cable television's leading provider of original series and feature movies, sports events, off-net television shows, and blockbuster theatrical films. USA Network is seen in over 89 million U.S. homes. The USA Network Web site is located at www.usanetwork.com. USA Network is a program service of NBC Universal Cable a division of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience.
Fox Television Studios is a program supplier to the major U.S. and international broadcast and cable networks. Current series include The Shield and Thief (a co-production with Regency Television premiering in 2006) for FX; The Girls Next Door for E! Entertainment Television; Inked for A&E; and Cheerleader Nation for Lifetime. Through Regency Television (a partnership with New Regency) productions include Windfall for NBC and The Bernie Mac Show (a co-production between Regency Television and TCFTV) for Fox Broadcasting Company. The studio's shows have garnered numerous Emmy, Golden Globe, Peabody and Humanitas awards. FtvS has production studios in the UK (Scream Films), Australia (Fox World Australia) and New Zealand (NHNZ).
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