DirecTV Takes You Into MyWorld

By Steve Donohue -- Multichannel News, 9/24/2006 6:09:00 PM MT

DirecTV plans to debut a weekly reality show Oct. 2 -- one of the top direct-broadcast satellite provider’s first forays into original programming.

The program, Project MyWorld, features three young women from Los Angeles traveling the world to meet friends they’ve met on social-networking Web site MySpace (www.myspace.com).

“We are investing in original programming as a point of differentiation to attract and retain customers,” DirecTV executive vice president of entertainment Eric Shanks said Friday.

DirecTV is developing additional original programming for its channel 101 -- the same channel that will carry Project MyWorld and that currently runs weekly music program CD USA.

Although DirecTV majority owner News Corp. also owns MySpace.com, Shanks said the Web site wasn’t involved in the development of the show. He added that the three stars of the show -- Shaina Fewell, Renee Intlekofer and Taryn Southern -- developed the concept and pitched it to DirecTV themselves. Southern is a former contestant from Fox’s American Idol.

DirecTV said Fewell’s role in the program is to seek independent bands, one of which will be selected to produce a video for CD USA. Intlekofer’s role is to date men in each of the cities the group visits, while Southern is charged with planning adventures, such as getting the trio involved in the La Tomatina tomato-throwing festival in Valencia, Spain.

Shanks said DirecTV has already shot 10 episodes of Project MyWorld. The company -- which has already reserved rights to slap the Project MyWorld brand on everything from lunchboxes to CD covers -- may pick it up for additional seasons if it generates buzz, he added.