Jonathan Murray reveals the show was a failure because it was “badly cast”.
Reality Show, Utopia was a major disappointment and failure for the producers of the show. After only a few episodes the show was cancelled in November after less than two months of filming. The social experiment was to build a new society and was based on a reality show from the Netherlands.
However, Bunim-Murray Productions chairman Jonthan Murray told the annual NATPE Market & Conference earlier today that the show was a failure because it “was badly cast and executed.”
From Deadline:
The failure illustrated that major broadcasters often are short-sighted when they look to model shows after overseas successes. “We have innovative ideas in America that we’re coming up with,” Murray says. “But trying to get CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox to take those ideas seriously is hard.” When they go with an overseas concept, then “if it fails, they can say, ‘Well, it worked in Israel or it worked in Holland’ — I’m sounding like Sarah Palin now.”
Bunim-Murray Productions is essentially the creators of reality television. The production company co-created MTV’s The Real World’ which later launched hundreds of new reality shows.
You can check out the interview below:
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