reality TV for smart people: engineering challenge on Discovery

[Temis the Vorta]

Anyone who has a Nielsens box, please watch this show. Maybe it will spark a trend?

Discovery Channel has ordered eight episodes from the untitled series. It will be set at WET (Water Entertainment Technologies), the renowned Los Angeles-based water/fire feature design and engineering firm which is behind some 200+ installations, including such technological landmarks as Fountains of Bellagio at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas and The Dubai Fountain, the world’s biggest fountain. The show, which will be produced by Piligian’s Pilgrim Studios, will have design engineers competing against each other in extreme challenges that push the boundaries of technology, creativity, ingenuity and craftsmanship.

Sounds like this will be specific to fountain technology, but who knows, future seasons might tackle other engineering topics. I can't see fountains being interesting for more than one season. Next year, robots! Anyone up for a little genetic engineering?

 

[Owain Taggart]

Interesting. I could see watching that if the scope of engineering challenges is bigger.

 

[The Green Mushroom]

I thought that documentaries already filled the "reality-tv for smart people" niche. Since they're about reality not stupid people acting stupid for cash and prizes. Or possibly in this case smart people acting stupid for cash and prizes.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Documentaries are a separate thing (although I've seen docs mislabled "reality TV" often enough - annoys the hell out of me). Real reality TV has a competition aspect that makes it distinct from a true documentary, because a documentary maker shouldn't be setting up some artificial circumstance to film. But in this case, at least the competition isn't stupid. Reality TV is more like game shows than documentaries.

 

[propita]

These are the reality shows I like, where people have to produce something. I'm in.