MTV TO GIVE VIEWERS A DAILY DOSE OF POLICE BUSTS AND PRANKS WITH THE SERIES PREMIERE OF "BUSTED" AND THE RETURN OF "HIGH SCHOOL STORIES"
"BUSTED" Sneak Peek Airs August 18 At 10:30pm ET/PT Following "The Hills" Season Four Premiere
Daily Programming Block Premieres August 25th With "BUSTED"At 6pm ET/PT And "High School Stories" At 6:30pm ET/PT
NEW YORK, August 18, 2008 � MTV viewers are about to find out that you can run and you can hide but when the police catch up with you, you'd better have your story straight. The network will give the phrase "You're so busted" a whole new meaning in a daily dose of police busts and outrageous infractions with the series premiere of "BUSTED" and the country's best high school pranks in the return of the series "High School Stories: Scandals, Pranks and Controversies." On Monday, August 18 at 10:30pm ET/PT, following the Season Four premiere of "The Hills," MTV will offer a sneak peak episode of "BUSTED." Then beginning Monday, August 25, the network will debut a new daily programming block Mondays through Thursdays of 20 new half-hour episodes of each series with "BUSTED" airing at 6p.m. ET/PT and "High School Stories" following at 6:30p.m. ET/PT. "BUSTED" will offer viewers an action-packed and high stakes look at crazy misdemeanors and illegal transgressions through real police footage and not only the perspective of the law enforcers involved in the busts but also that of the young people featured themselves. "High School Stories" takes a look at the high school-related pranks, sports mishaps and scandals that have set towns abuzz from coast to coast through re-enactments by the students involved. Both series will offer the unique point of view of the transgressors and pranksters themselves through first-hand accounts and show the consequences of their indiscretions.
Season One of "BUSTED"will range the spectrum of knuckleheaded misconduct from skinnydipping to underage drinking and backyard wrestling to marijuana possession. The August 18 sneak peek preview episode will put the spotlight on several troublemakers that include a 19-year-old male who gets pulled over for driving without headlights and proceeds to run from the police and two twenty-something females questioned outside a club on suspicion of solicitation.
On August 19 following the "BUSTED"sneak peek, viewers can log onto http://Busted.MTV.com to view the series trailer, play a "BUSTED"trivia game, check out the series production blog complete with behind-the-scenes info from the field crews, watch "Ask A Cop" videos that will feature exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews with cops from the series explaining everything from their equipment to how they clean the interior of their cruisers, and view the "BUSTED Moment" weekly for singular incredible moments from each episode. Fans can also head over to iTunes to download the sneak peek episode for a full week leading up to the August 25 series premiere. Then on October 4 viewers can tune-in for "BUSTED LIVE," a three-hour special and series marathon to watch their favorite "BUSTED" episodes and see MTV camera crews ride-a-long on LIVE police patrols in multiple locations across the country as they wait for the opportunity to capture actual crimes in progress.
Covering everything from class pranks to public school stunts in its third season, the August 25 "High School Stories" premiere episode focuses on seniors at an Ohio school who are dismayed to discover that their homecoming game will not be against their rival high school thereby destroying a long-standing tradition of an annual homecoming prank. Not to be dissuaded, the students decide to partake in the homecoming prank anyway and paint their homecoming rival's spirit rock with their own school colors. Also featured in the episode is the senior class president of a small town Pennsylvania high school and a group of his classmates who hauled bales of hay borrowed from a friend's farm to build a hay wall blocking the front entrance to the school and rolled a 1000 pound bale into the school principal's reserved parking space.
"BUSTED" is a co-production with ZOO Productions and One Louder Productions. Barry Poznick and John Stevens serve as executive producers for ZOO Productions. Bob Kusbit and Francis Lyons are executive producers for One Louder. ZOO Productions is producing "BUSTED" the series (producers of "Speeders," "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader," and "Redneck Dreams"). Sean Olsen serves as Co-Executive Producer. George McTeague executive produces the series for MTV and Tony DiSanto, Liz Gateley, Valerie Elustondo and Alexis Reiner serve at the executives in charge of development for the network. The Executive In Charge of Production of series for MTV is Lisa Litter.
"High School Stories: Scandals, Pranks and Controversies" is executive produced by Dave Sirulnick and Marshall Eisen for MTV.
About MTV
MTV is the dynamic, vibrant experiment at the intersection of music, creativity and youth culture. For over 26 years, MTV has evolved, challenged the norm, and detonated boundaries�giving each new generation a creative outlet and voice that entertains, informs and unites on every platform and screen. On-air, MTV has been the number one rated 24 hour ad-supported cable network P12-24 for 16 straight years. Online, MTV.com scored double-digit growth in 2007 and MTV launched 15 dynamic online communities and eight new virtual worlds. On the go, MTV Mobile is the #1 music brand in the wireless space � delivering 90% more streams than in 2006. And MTV's successful sibling networks MTV2, mtvU and MTV Tr3s each deliver unprecedented customized content, super-serving music fans, college students and young American Latinos like no one else. MTV is part of MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms.
About ZOO Productions
Since 1994, ZOO has created shows based in reality with the emphasis on comedy. Partners Barry Poznick and John Stevens have developed a reputation for producing shows that fit a network's brand and attitude. ZOO is currently in production on Season 3 of the successful primetime game show "ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER," for FOX (produced in partnership with Mark Burnett & distributed to more than 100 countries); Seasons 6 & 7 of "SPEEDERS" for TRUTV; Season 1 of "MTV's BUSTED" ("Cops" for the MTV demo); Season 1 of "SPEEDERS FIGHT BACK" (the �Speeders spin-off) for TRUTV; and "CMT's REDNECK DREAMS". Current pilots are "PHOBIAS" for MTV; "HOW'D YOU GET SO RICH?" for TVLAND.Other recent projects include MTV's "Tila Tequila's Spring Break Fantasy Couple"; >"LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL" � a Las Vegas docu-soap for Lifetime; and "BANDITS VS. SMOKIES" - a cops and robbers clip show comedy for CMT. ZOO produced 4 seasons of the hit Oxygen prank show, "GIRLS BEHAVING BADLY" (described as "Candid Camera-meets-Sex & the City"). It is syndicated internationally in more than 50 countries & in 100% of the U.S. In addition, ZOO also launched two caught-on-camera spin offs on Oxygen, "GUYS BEHAVING BADLY" and "KIDS BEHAVING BADLY" and recently shot a Showtime twist on hidden-camera comedy called "HARSH". ZOO's long relationship with MTV resulted in several successful series'�"THE BLAME GAME" (135 episodes), "THE MORNING AFTER" (35 episodes) "THE MANDY MOORE SHOW" (40 episodes). And as part of a 3-year overall deal ZOO produced Spring Break, Summer Beach House and Snowed-In specials. While under a two-year deal with 20th Television from 2003-2005, ZOO developed "The All-New American Bandstand", "Secret Lives", and "On-Tourage with Britney Spears".
About One Louder Productions
In 2002, veteran Executive Producer Bob Kusbit stepped away from his position as SVP of Production for MTV to form his own television production and development company, One Louder Productions. In five short years, One Louder developed and produced such series as MTV's MADE, Camp Jim, Boiling Points, Nick Cannon's Wild n' Out, Trailer Fabulous, Scarred and the successful event MTV's BASH, as well as the NBC Specials The One That Got Away and Home Intervention. In 2007, Executive Producer Francis Lyons joined as VP of Development, overseeing all One Louder Development and Production, as well as continuing in his role as Executive Producer of the 2007 & 2008 Emmy Award winning series MADE. Now, with numerous pilots, series and specials in production 2008 is looking bigger and better.
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