LEGO Reality Shows in the works

[fallentomato]

Not sure if anyone else had heard about this, but it sounds like it could be interesting.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111801030...yid=14&cs=1

[Darth Legolas]

No... just no.

Probably going to be the biggest mistake Lego has ever made. No one would watch it. AFOLs would find it stupid, kids would find it...kiddy.

[Tereglith]

AARGH!!!! Reality TV will be the downfall of civilization, you watch.

Glad to here the board games will be released in the US soon, though.

[JCC1004]

I can't believe this! I hate reality TV! TLG has really messed up. This is a terrible idea. This will not turn out well.

[Zorro]

Hmmm...I don't know what to think of this.

I doubt this has much to do with LEGO itself anyway.

[davee123]

I can't see much working with the "docuseries" about the Master Builders. It'd probably have an hour-or-so worth of material before you'd get bored. There's only so much you can watch of Master Builders making models and showing them to kids. AFOLs might find it interesting to see how they approach different building problems, but I don't see it being mainstream enough to really hold people's attention for a whole "series".

The game show idea is a little more plausible. I could see kids being into that. You set up some team competitions where a group of (say) 3 kids build a certain thing, and have some time limit. Then, you pit them against each other, tournament style. Obviously, you'd cut significant portions of the show out (since nobody wants to watch 30 minutes of solid building), but would show snippits of the kids building, and show their results and the judging at the end. Sort of like "Project Runway" or "Iron Chef" or something. ... Only, make the judging a little less harsh, since you don't want to insult kids' creations.

You could do that with FLL, too, and could make for some great TV. Looking back at Battle Bots or at rtlToronto competitions, it makes for some fun entertainment. The only real interesting part of the show is (of course) watching the robots "do stuff" (like fight!) at the end, but the remainder of the show is easily filled with some lead-ins introducing you to how each team approached the challenge. Also could be reminiscent of Junkyard Wars, too-- again, some good potential.

Generally, though, LEGO isn't a good topic otherwise for reality TV. Much of reality TV relies on putting "real people" into situations where they'll react emotionally, and then empathizing with them as they're exposed to whatever the producers think up to throw at them. LEGO is pretty tame on that metric. Most of the time you spend with LEGO is quiet building, or even quieter showcasing. There's not a great deal of interaction between people to fill up the necessary "emotion" that you expect with a typical reality show. You've got to make sure that there's something else (like robots who do stuff) to keep the show interesting.

DaveE

[DarthSion]

Is it confirmed he is doing a reality show, I thought he was doing no scripted show which doesn't mean reality tv.

Might not be so bad, maybe it will be Beauty and the Lego Geek lol.

[BlueBard]

I agree this could be one of the worst ideas TLC has ever had... In what machiavelic world Reality Shows and Lego could be joined?

[avoidz]

"Lego seemed like such a powerful brand, and I don't think they were thinking about reality TV"

- and for good reason!

This is a terrible idea

Edited October 27, 2009 by avoidz