I swear he has had the longest 15 minutes of fame EVER.

Anyway, this show was mentioned in the Big Brother threads. Has anyone heard anything about it? From what I can tell, it hasn't found a network yet. Isn't that unusual, to film a reality show before it has a home?

On the 8th of July Rob did this interview with Reality TV Magazine in Nashville. Lots of words, not much information, but what there was boiled down to

• It wasn't his idea; he doesn't know who dreamed it up.
• It's going to be on "one of the big networks"
• He'll be travelling along with the contestants.
• Amber's not involved at all
• casting: "We’re going to eight cities in eight weeks. Everywhere from like Dallas and New York and Boston and LA, the big cities, but we’re also hitting St. Louis, Nashville, Minneapolis,"
• they expect to finish up casting calls sometime around the middle to end of August and start second round interviews about then.
• When asked about any prizes for second or lower placing he says the winner gets the whole $10 million. which doesn't really answer the question

But a lot of his responses don't really answer the question that was asked.

Yeah, Rob makes me really proud to be a fellow Boston U. alum. Just like Bill O'Reilly and Howard Stern (sarcasm font).
I suppose I should be thankful Amber's not in this.

There giving this bozo yet another show? Oye! Why have you abandoned me tv gods?

Yeah, Boston Rob seems horribly miscast as a host. Don't you have to be articulate and have a good camera presence? Whenever he appeared in the confessionals, he always seemed like he just woke up from a long nap or something. The guy has some skills as a contestant, but I don't think it translates over to hosting.

That seems to be a pretty obscure title. Or am I the only one who had to look it up? Weren't there any English terms left for Boston Rob to mangle?

I had no clue what it meant, either, kuromaku, until I Wiki'd.

Boston Rob has a reality show. They just give anyone a show now-a-days.

Hey, like in the Simpsons with the Fighting Hellfish!

Is he shirtless? Otherwise, zzzzz...

Is he gagged?? Otherwise...

Not only is he not going to be gagged, and probably not shirtless, he's going to be the host. Which means he'll probably be doing a fair bit of talking every episode. Myself, I'm planning on giving this one a miss, just on general principles, unless the comments here and elsewhere are really positive once it starts.

So, do we know when it starts? I'm one of those rare Boston Rob fans, but even I'm not sure how well he translates into hosting. I actually really liked his segments on the CBS Early Show - Rob to the Rescue. He was very nice to everyone, very non-Rob like in fact. And doing everyday ordinary things like babysitting with Amber, helping kids build a float, and helping to teach someone how to swim. I never had a problem with his scheming and 'evilness', it was very entertaining to me. But conversely, it's nice to see what he's like in a non-competitive environment. Maybe this will surprise everyone, I don't know.

Was this the best title they could come up with?

In that interview I linked to upthread, he says that San Diego in August is their last casting call and then they'll go to second interviews. I can't imagine that they'll be done with casting before mid-September, and October seems more likely. About going to Antarctica, he comments that they'll be there during "the cusp of their Summer," which should be December/January-ish. I'm guessing that they'll be filming November-December-January-February or December-January-February-March (since it's supposed to last 100 days, that's 3 1/3 months.) Assuming that editing starts as soon as they've got footage, it could be on as early as February. The Tontine Website says that the San Diego casting call is August 11th, and the eligibility requirements say that filming is scheduled to begin in September, 2007, but that that may be changed at the producer's discretion.

New interview with Rob/article about Tontine:

Here's the big reveal:

That explains two things: where they were going to get the prize money without going the annuity route, and why there was that limitation in the application rules that you couldn't spend more then $20.00 out-of-pocket to go to an audition. They didn't want no po' folks applying.

My name's Jason, I made it to the 2nd rounds of the auditions, and i'm a professional gamer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_FOvexui-0

vote for me to put me through to the show. yeah i'm putting up my net worth, so that makes me nervous, but i know i have what it takes to be on the show and take everyone else down.

I don't agree with the show being named Tontine, because like that description said, a real tontine involves people pooling money and the LAST ONE STILL ALIVE gets the money. (Or maybe that's a twist that they haven't mentioned yet....)

So the concept is that all bar one of the contestants will finish the show literately penniless? Colour me sceptical on that one.

It seems so. However, unlike a real tontine, the other participants will probably* sill be alive at the end and will have the rest of their lives to re-accumulate wealth.


*Ok, they'll be alive. Even Boston Rob wouldn't put THAT into the contract.

Doubtless they'll have some sort of lame exit ceremony in which someone is ceremonially 'killed'. By, I don't know, having a torch snuffed. Or something.

Actually, anyone care to predict Boston Rob's exit catch phrase? Along the lines of 'I'm sorry to say you've been eliminated from the race', 'The tribe has spoken' and 'See you later, decorator'.

Heh -- "Sayonara sucker, we have all your money"?

Rob punches potential contestant.

It was reported that the potential contestant became irate when he learned of the premise of the show and decided to take it out on Rob. In an interview, Rob says the man was saying stuff that went too far or something like that.

What a weird premise for a show. Unless the contestants are rich assholes (e.g. Donald Trump, Boston Rob) I can't imagine watching a show where anyone loses their net worth. I'll be stunned if it ends up on one of the major networks.

And likeable.

I don't know what the show is about, but its a bad idea. How long until Amber has enough of him trying to get by on his old fame and dumps him? Of course, that will put in in the news AGAIN, probably with some other reality show.

They made a show about their wedding, so the next logical step is to make a show about their divorce.

I wonder if Tontine will ever show in Australia. Judging by the networks' treatment of TAR and Survivor, it'll be shown five months after US broadcast, given some terrible timeslot like 10pm and no advertising, and then the network will act surprised that it didn't rate into the millions and move it to midnight Sunday. (Me, bitter?)

So do we know what's happened to this show? Is it still going ahead, or have the networks knocked it back as (a) stupid and (b) likely to be a colossal flop?

Well, I occasionally check in on a site called "Tontine Nation" to see what's up, and one of the producers (apparently, I guess. A mucky-muck of some sort anyway,) named Tad Patrick Frank has a post dated 12:55 January 12th, 2008 that said "We will pick the BEST people for the 15 slots. SOME will be TN people SOME will possibly be not. We will make our decisions on many factors."

In other words, they haven't finished casting yet.


Oh, wait, Tad Patrick Frank is/was a casting guy. Gotcha. IMDB lists him as producer/casting director: producer for Age of Love and Gay, Straight or Taken, and casting director for Beauty and The Geek Season 4. The Tontine page says that he did casting for TAR and the Bachelor "and many other shows"... but those aren't listed on imDb, so make of that what you will.

The Official Tontine website hasn't been updated since sometime prior to August 31st, 2007.

Oh dear lord, they have senior staff from Age of Love? There goes the tiny amount of hope I had for this show.

I have to agree. And it gets worse. I found his resume online, on a site called realitystaff.com:




Many of them I can't verify, but he's not listed in the credits as casting director for TAR for either season he claims (that would be Lynne Spellman) nor is he even in the list of "casting associates". About Survivor, he's also not listed as a casting director. Survivor doesn't even list a "casting director". But he's not in the list of "Casting by: ..." As to "Casting Consultant -Joe" for Joe Millionaire, I'm not sure that picking Evan Mariott is anything to brag about.


Yeesh.



Besides, they were supposed to be well into filming by now, if not close to done.

I'm wondering if it's ever going to come off, or if their "network commitment" is going to fall through, since they're going to be close to a year behind schedule (if they want to include Antarctica, that will almost have to be done between November and March; they're running out of time for this season.)


Hmm. Just found some guy's blog, who has applied. His last entry is dated November 23rd, 2007. I quote: I'm not linking because he says he's going to take it down...

The Tontine Nation site had some reference to a creative dispute last month with said unnamed network. The network wanted to drop the premise of leaving the losers all destitute because it would scare off advertisers. The producers wanted to keep their creative vision. I'd think the producers would rather do something that would actually get their show on the airwaves but that's just me.

The more delays seem to pile onto this project, the more it just seems like the very idea is unworkable. If no network is willing to publicly commit to this thing yet even during an extended writers' strike, how will we ever see it?

Except, even with a trashy project, there's a line beyond which it's no longer your show at all. Like the producer who says "We love your idea of a Casper the Ghost movie, except... can he not be a ghost?" A tontine, by definition, leaves the winner with everything, the others with nothing. (It also leaves the others dead, but I presume they got talked out of that one early on.)

Essentially, though, I agree: the idea seems inherently unworkable. It'll be actually kind of interesting (in a watch-the-wreck sense) to follow what happens with it, if anything ever does.

If they had a reality show called "Drop Boston Rob and His Parasite Wife Into A Volcano" I'd watch. Otherwise, forget it.

This idiot needs to go away forever.

See,it's the whole "leave the losers destitute that is sticking in my craw. A tontine doesn't require the investment of everything you have, necessarily; they were often used as ways to distribute a windfall, although there were some that were investment schemes that paid out an annuity to all involved, then the last one standing got the principal. So I don't know that the "gamble your net worth" is integral to the idea.

When the show was first announced, it was "tontine -- as in winner takes all"; there would be no smaller prizes for the losers. That idea worked for me, and I was interested in watching it, despite Rob. When it became "losers are going to lose everything they have", it lost a lot of its appeal for me, for several reasons:

1) The players are more likely to be all self-centered assholes. They almost have to be, to play hard, knowing that what they do could cost someone else their whole net worth. This means that it's likely that there won't be anyone for me to root for because I like them.

2) This one's personal. I've been poor. It's not something that I would wish on my worst enemy. So I'm not going to be able to root against anyone, either, no matter how much of a self-centered cold-hearted asshole they are.

3) Unless all the competitors are single with no kids anywhere in the picture, it's going to be even more uncomfortable to watch.

I sort of doubt that they plan for competitors to lose their net worth. Knowing reality producers, it's probably some marketing thing along the lines of "The losers will lose EVERYTHING THEY HAVE! (up to a maximum of $5000)".

This show is apparently off the rails for good:

"The "original plan" for Tontine was for it to be filmed beginning around late September 2007, and for it to air in Spring 2008. Unfortunately, despite going fairly far into the audition process... it does not appear that the producers of the show ever came to terms with a major network. So the status of the show was basically left in limbo.

Could it still happen someday? Maybe so. Will it ever happen? Your guess is probably as good as mine at this point..."
I don't know how reliable this guy is as a source, but ...