USA: MTV and Rolling Stone launch new reaity series
- 00:00:16
- ITN Source
USA: MTV and Rolling Stone launch new reaity series
If you've seen the Hollywood blockbuster "Almost Famous," then the premise may seem familiar. But this time, Rolling Stone - one of the music industry's best known publications - teams up with MTV - the biggest brand in music television, to tell the stories of six aspiring writers aged 19-25 as they compete to win a year-long contributing editor position at the magazine in New York. Rolling Stone's Executive editor Joe Levy said the two brands teaming up was a natural fit. Levy said that Rolling Stone envisioned a show that would have a "documentary" feel, rather than the "sexy" feel of other MTV's reality series like "The Real World" or "Road Rules." "When we started we didn't want something sexy. We wanted it to be fun and exciting and to be about the world that we live in here at Rolling Stone, which is a world that could include, oh I don't know - a chance encounter with Axl Rose or an opportunity to say hello to Jay Z or a shot at listening to Beyonce's record with her. That's pretty cool stuff, that's the sexy part." Levy says that while the six cast members were considered interns, they were treated as freelance writers and he didn't go easy on them. Cast member Peter Maiden, a Sydney native, says he tried out for the show on a whim. The UC Berkeley graduate says he's always enjoyed writing, but hasn't had any professional experience. Maiden was the only cast member who hadn't written formally for any publication. He says a big challenge was learning to separate partying from his dream job. "The hard thing originally was I'd always gone to concerts for fun, and then the second thing is that lead singers want to hang out and drink even if it's with the writer. So I'd sit around, and you booze with these writers, a musicians, and then you'd have to get home and write an article and you've got a file time at am and you wouldn't have got your interview until Am.. So I'd sit at home and try to get as much done and then hand it in and they're like 'you're not taking this seriously, you were out drinking with them.' And I was like, well that's part of the story. That's how I got these quotes. That's how this happened. So I had to start to adjust and take the, I mean I had to start dealing that a concert was more of a job rather than I didn't go as much to enjoy it, it's more to criticize it." Maiden says the cast were not competitive with each other because they each received separate and different writing assignments. 'It was like a three month job application. There wasn't so much competition. That was the good thing about it. We all had our own thing to do doing our own stories. In the end they were going to choose who fit in most but they gave us so much opportunity it was good." Asked what the toughest part of the show was, Maiden laughs saying that it might have been showing up for work on time. All jokes aside, he speculates it was the criticism. The six weren't spared when editors critiqued their work and ordered rewrites on assignments. For him however, being a novice worked to his advantage. Maiden says he didn't have to deal with any ego bruising while accepting criticism. So how does this tale of six youngsters living out their dream in NY end? As with all reality shows, only one person can win their dream job. The winner will be revealed at the end of the 10.5 hour series that airs on MTV on Sundays.
ITN Source | January 11, 2007
