Web meets TV at Universal
Daytime talk show to air from theater at Islands of Adventure
Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted November 9, 2006
Universal Orlando and NBC are turning an Islands of Adventure theater into a live broadcast set to house a new daytime TV talk show that will be seen around the country.
iVillage Live will be a television version of NBC's established iVillage women's forum on the Internet. The TV show will mix that Web site's formula of lifestyle and entertainment segments, gossip and news with live gab from a set of hosts, including former Miss Florida Molly Pesce, guests and audiences.
Starting Dec. 4, the show will be broadcast at noon, five days a week, from the former Toon Amphitheatre. The audience will be a combination of theme park visitors and people who reserve seats and arrive through an outside entrance.
iVillage Live will appear nationally on NBC's Bravo cable TV network, plus on 10 of NBC's corporate-owned stations including those in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami, but not WESH-Channel 2 in Orlando. The show also will be webcast live on iVillageLive.com.
Because the show is based on an existing, successful Internet site, iVillage Live will be more Internet-based than anything else on TV, said executive producer David Shenfeld. The Internet and devices at each of the show's 300 audience chairs will allow people at home and in the audience to communicate with producers, hosts and guests to help drive the show.
"This is the future of what we need to do," Shenfeld said.
The risks are high.
"The road to daytime talk-show success is littered with carnage," said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University in New York.
While intrigued by the concept of iVillage Live, Thompson expressed doubts about the show's prospects to attract much of the Web page's audience. The ways people use the Internet and TV are very different, he said.
People like TV because "it's so darn uninteractive," Thompson said. That's particularly true of daytime TV, which people often use as background noise for busy daily lives. So soap operas and talk shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show are programmed to make sense to people who are just listening, he said.
Universal and NBC officials said the success or failure of iVillage Live won't be measured just by TV ratings, because the show serves so many purposes. It will provide original programming that the NBC-owned stations demand. NBC's iVillage Internet property, the Universal Orlando Resort and the show all will cross-promote each other. And it will be a new theme park attraction.
"We're going into this with the deliberate intent of making this an ongoing, long-term programming commitment from both the parks and the broadcasting group," said Tom Williams, chairman of Universal Parks and Resorts.
Pesce, a former Central Florida resident, and the other four hosts all are relative national no-names.
Pesce's most recent role was as a hostess on an Animal Planet show. Sissy Schaefer and Naama Delaney arrive from local TV in Cleveland and New York respectively. Guy Yovan was a host on the Home Shopping Network. Comedian Bob Oschack, who will do live, remote cut-ins from around Universal, arrives with some Tonight Show and Comedy Central credits.
Steve Schwaid, senior vice president of the NBC Stations Group, said they had "a couple high-end celebrities approach us" to be hosts. Schwaid said producers wanted people who viewers would associate with "life experiences," not fame.
"If you look around at all the shows that launched with celebrities, very few of them ever make it, whether it's the Wayne Bradys, the Tony Danzas, the Tyra Banks," Schwaid said. "This is not about the celebrity. It's about the content. And the community."
iVillage Live will explore most themes and topics found on the iVillage Web page, such as beauty, style, health, fitness, love, parenting, food and celebrities. But Universal is a family resort, said Cindy Gordon, vice president of Universal television program development.
So no ______ talk.
iVillage.com draws about 12 million unique visitors a month, according to the Nielsen//NetRatings, which measures Web traffic. Michael Pond, a Nielsen//NetRatings media analyst, said the audience is sizable and stable, but "not in any particularly strong growth mode," especially since NBC bought iVillage this past spring for $600 million.
Long before that purchase, Universal and NBC had been trying to develop a resident TV show for the theme parks, Gordon said. The parks frequently host visiting shows, such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Emeril Live!
"The resort comes to life with an incredible energy when we produce TV shows and movies on property, and that in turn creates a 'wow' experience," Gordon said.
People may attend iVillage Live two ways. Islands of Adventure visitors can walk in from inside the park (though reservations are advised and will be taken at the front gate). There also is a new, outside entrance to the show, so people can make reservations to attend without buying a park ticket.
Rehearsals start the week of Nov. 20, and actual broadcasts begin Dec. 4. Those who wish to make reservations should call 1-866-448-5360 or visit the iVillageLive.com Web site.
Scott Powers can be reached at 407-420-5441 or spowers@orlandosentinel.com.
Daytime talk show to air from theater at Islands of Adventure
Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted November 9, 2006
Universal Orlando and NBC are turning an Islands of Adventure theater into a live broadcast set to house a new daytime TV talk show that will be seen around the country.
iVillage Live will be a television version of NBC's established iVillage women's forum on the Internet. The TV show will mix that Web site's formula of lifestyle and entertainment segments, gossip and news with live gab from a set of hosts, including former Miss Florida Molly Pesce, guests and audiences.
Starting Dec. 4, the show will be broadcast at noon, five days a week, from the former Toon Amphitheatre. The audience will be a combination of theme park visitors and people who reserve seats and arrive through an outside entrance.
iVillage Live will appear nationally on NBC's Bravo cable TV network, plus on 10 of NBC's corporate-owned stations including those in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami, but not WESH-Channel 2 in Orlando. The show also will be webcast live on iVillageLive.com.
Because the show is based on an existing, successful Internet site, iVillage Live will be more Internet-based than anything else on TV, said executive producer David Shenfeld. The Internet and devices at each of the show's 300 audience chairs will allow people at home and in the audience to communicate with producers, hosts and guests to help drive the show.
"This is the future of what we need to do," Shenfeld said.
The risks are high.
"The road to daytime talk-show success is littered with carnage," said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University in New York.
While intrigued by the concept of iVillage Live, Thompson expressed doubts about the show's prospects to attract much of the Web page's audience. The ways people use the Internet and TV are very different, he said.
People like TV because "it's so darn uninteractive," Thompson said. That's particularly true of daytime TV, which people often use as background noise for busy daily lives. So soap operas and talk shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show are programmed to make sense to people who are just listening, he said.
Universal and NBC officials said the success or failure of iVillage Live won't be measured just by TV ratings, because the show serves so many purposes. It will provide original programming that the NBC-owned stations demand. NBC's iVillage Internet property, the Universal Orlando Resort and the show all will cross-promote each other. And it will be a new theme park attraction.
"We're going into this with the deliberate intent of making this an ongoing, long-term programming commitment from both the parks and the broadcasting group," said Tom Williams, chairman of Universal Parks and Resorts.
Pesce, a former Central Florida resident, and the other four hosts all are relative national no-names.
Pesce's most recent role was as a hostess on an Animal Planet show. Sissy Schaefer and Naama Delaney arrive from local TV in Cleveland and New York respectively. Guy Yovan was a host on the Home Shopping Network. Comedian Bob Oschack, who will do live, remote cut-ins from around Universal, arrives with some Tonight Show and Comedy Central credits.
Steve Schwaid, senior vice president of the NBC Stations Group, said they had "a couple high-end celebrities approach us" to be hosts. Schwaid said producers wanted people who viewers would associate with "life experiences," not fame.
"If you look around at all the shows that launched with celebrities, very few of them ever make it, whether it's the Wayne Bradys, the Tony Danzas, the Tyra Banks," Schwaid said. "This is not about the celebrity. It's about the content. And the community."
iVillage Live will explore most themes and topics found on the iVillage Web page, such as beauty, style, health, fitness, love, parenting, food and celebrities. But Universal is a family resort, said Cindy Gordon, vice president of Universal television program development.
So no ______ talk.
iVillage.com draws about 12 million unique visitors a month, according to the Nielsen//NetRatings, which measures Web traffic. Michael Pond, a Nielsen//NetRatings media analyst, said the audience is sizable and stable, but "not in any particularly strong growth mode," especially since NBC bought iVillage this past spring for $600 million.
Long before that purchase, Universal and NBC had been trying to develop a resident TV show for the theme parks, Gordon said. The parks frequently host visiting shows, such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Emeril Live!
"The resort comes to life with an incredible energy when we produce TV shows and movies on property, and that in turn creates a 'wow' experience," Gordon said.
People may attend iVillage Live two ways. Islands of Adventure visitors can walk in from inside the park (though reservations are advised and will be taken at the front gate). There also is a new, outside entrance to the show, so people can make reservations to attend without buying a park ticket.
Rehearsals start the week of Nov. 20, and actual broadcasts begin Dec. 4. Those who wish to make reservations should call 1-866-448-5360 or visit the iVillageLive.com Web site.
Scott Powers can be reached at 407-420-5441 or spowers@orlandosentinel.com.
