Lights! Camera! Internet!
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Written By Reprise Media | July 11, 2006 | Share This
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A trio of online bigwigs are picking up cameras, opening their TV eyes and trying their hands at showbiz this week. Let’s see how they’re faring:
Huh. We heard 7 8 them. First up is Yahoo!’s Pepsi-sponsored video blog “The 9,” which first aired yesterday. 
It’s a daily vlog (see if this starts sounding familiar) hosted by a comely blonde that runs down the “9 best, weirdest and funniest photos, sites, stories and videos on the ‘net.” Users can vote on their favorite item, or submit one that The 9 might want to cover called “The Pepsi 10th.” Hostess Maria Sansone, a veteran of mtvU, seems a little uncomfortable so far, but as the show’s logo proclaims, The 9 is still in ‘beta.’ Actually, we can think of a few traditional tv shows that could use a caveat like that…
The wisdom of a crowd of unruly fans MSN, meanwhile, is debuting “Fan Club: Reality Baseball,” which it hopes will catch on with armchair managers who think fantasy baseball leagues aren’t hands-on enough. ClickZ says that, using online polls, viewers will vote on what actions will be taken by the Schaumberg Flyers, a real minor league baseball team from Illinois. Fans will control everything from player selection to batting order to choosing up road trip bunkmates, then watch the havoc they’ve unleashed consequences of their decisions “via short-form video and text narrative.” For their part, the players and their families will provide reportage using MSN Spaces blogs. Suddenly “closer by committee” is taking on a whole new meaning.
Rather surprising move? AOL is cooking up something potentially big as well, although for now it remains in the ‘talks’ stage. According to The Hollywood Reporter, AOL is trying to woo Dan “Please-Don’t-Mention-the-Whole-CBS-Thing” Rather for an as yet undisclosed Internet gig. Having made several other post-network commitments already, it’s unclear how enthusiastic Rather is about working with AOL; it might be a case of an anchor joining a listing ship. If it doesn’t pan out, though, we hear Rocketboom’s still hiring…
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