TLC is taking a trip into the glitz and glamour of show business, with new reality-based series on an established star and three wannabees.
Country music star Tanya Tucker will be the focus of “Tuckerville,” a 26-episode reality series that will follow Tucker and her family as she records an album and runs a business while looking after her two children.
“Tanya Tucker can’t have it all, and invites viewers along as she faces heartfelt decisions about making a career comeback and being a single mom,” David Abraham, executive vp and general manager of TLC, said at the Television Critics Assn.’s summer press tour in Beverly Hills.
While Tucker has had a career that has stretched more than 30 years, “Going Hollywood” highlights three young people who interned at Hollywood companies and tried to survive the cut-throat world of the entertainment industry. The reality series followed the interns at The Robert Evans Co., Method Man Enterprises and Kevin Spacey’s Trigger Street Productions. Whether any of the three got jobs after their five-week internships is the drama of the show; none of the three are talking.
But what they are talking about is how “Going Hollywood,” while about the entertainment industry, isn’t a competition like some other reality shows.
“This is a documentary series,” said Michael Klein, the show’s executive producer. “It’s presenting real life in these companies. We weren’t coming in to manipulate anything.”
Tara Flynn, one of the three, said: “I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world.”
Yet another TLC show involves a celebrity in a non-celebrity role: “The Adam Carolla Project” follows the former “Man Show” costar showing his skills in his first career, carpentry. Carolla bought his North Hollywood boyhood home. During the course of the series, Carolla remodels it with a handful of non-actor friends with the express purpose of selling the newly reworked house.
“No one has previously done any home improvement shows. They’ve just done home improvement,” Carolla said. The 13-episode series begins at 10 p.m. Tuesday, Oct 5.
Travel plans
Abraham promised a new energy and a new style to the network, which has seen its ratings slide in recent years after the smash successes of shows like “Trading Space.” He said there was fresh excitement and energy at TLC.
“My vision for TLC is that our series will always move you, that they’ll be spontaneous, unpredictable, less formulated,” Abraham said. “I’m trying to shift the channel from being a little bit less ’listen and learn’ to a bit more ’live and learn.”’
Travel Channel, its Discovery Communications sibling, also announced several other shows at TCA, including: “Stranded with Cash Peters,” taking the former public radio journalist’s cash, credit cards and mobile phone and dropping him somewhere for him to survive and “5 Takes,” about five young people who take a six-week tour of Europe with only $50 a day and a Eurail pass. A key part of the show is that they’ll be taking their own video and daily web blogs of their journey, giving the viewers a chance to follow them in real time.
Meanwhile, Discovery Times Channel will have a second season of “Off To War” beginning in October. The documentary series follows an Arkansas National Guard unit at home and then on its deployment to Iraq.