A NEW KIND OF REALITY SHOW, IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

Knowing of my affinity for reality-bed TV shows, my good friend Renee tipped me off to a new show called "Courage Colorado," which is set to air on a yet-to-be-named cable network sometime in the spring of 2004. What makes this particular show so intriguing isn't so much the contestants but the way the show came together in the first place. (Oh, about the contestantsÖ theyíre rumored to be a family from North Carolina, including a mother and father and their 10 children, one cousin, and a nanny in tow.)

Faced with a budget shortfall of $1,000,000,000.00 (that's One Billion), the State of Colorado awarded its Tourism Office an extra $9,000,000.00 in funding for efforts aimed at increasing tax revenues via an increase in the number of tourists flocking to the state. And what do you suppose the Colorado Tourism Office's big idea was for generating the type of revenue needed to sustain the State of Colorado? You guessed it... A BRAND SPANKING NEW REALITY TV SHOW, featuring the North Carolinians criss-crossing the state, sampling food, outdoor recreation venues, and high country culture all along the way.

And who did the Colorado Tourism Office turn to to get the show off the ground? None other than the Walt Disney Company and a well known Colorado-based PR agency named PRACO, whose clients stretch the gamut from the ritzy Broadmoor Hotel, Resort, and Golf Club in conservative Colorado Springs, to the raunchy and repulsive and often investigated Don King Productions (of the boxing world). One thing's for sure... the show should be interesting. Whether or not the CTO and PRACO can quantify or qualify if it earned the state back its $9 mill will remain to be seen.

I'm not a huge fan of Owens, but he's unfortunately the best head on the block. It doesn't surprise me that he's got an administration willing to support such nonsense.

I'm not a democrat! But, this stinks of republican, piss-poor economics - think Bush II tax cut.

Hmmm... Mikal, you've been writing an awful lot of posts with Colorado undertones. Is there a little bug in you thinking going back is what you really need/want? ;-)

They are a family from North Carolina!! They are the Van Eerdens. They have 10 children and I know ALL of them. They homeschool and range in age from 15-to about just a little over a year old. They are a Very neat family!!