Reality TV

In an interview posted on a Verizon blog, Wednesday, Verizon FiOS TV executive, Maitreyi Krishnaswamy, provided some insight into the service's interactive TV widget plans for 2010.

According to Krishnaswamy, the service will roll out more widgets for multicultural audiences, more sports widgets, a wider choice of widgetized games titles, and various program-specific widgets, including widgets for reality TV shows and other series.

US broadcast network, Fox, on Tuesday launched a user-generated content (UGC) promotion that invites fans of the reality show, "American Idol," to create "video testimonials sharing what they love" about the show, and upload their testimonials to a special "Idol Fans" section of its Web site (http://www.fox.com/idolfans).

NBC Universal-owned cable channel, Bravo, said Tuesday that it has signed up Sprint as the first ever multiplatform ("360") sponsor for its reality franchise, "The Real Housewives," in a deal that will provide the carrier with an on-air, online and mobile presence for the fifth season of "The Real Housewives of Orange County."

Dori Media Group, an Israeli TV formats, production and distribution company best known for its telenovelas, announced last week that its interactive cross-platform "control game"/reality show, "uMan" (known in Israel as "Megudalim"), has won three Accolade Awards: an Award of Excellence for reality programming, an Award of Merit for creativity and originality, and an Award of Merit for viewer impact and entertainment value (note: according to Dori Media, the awards recognize "film, television and videography professionals who demonstrate exceptional achievement in craft and creativity, and those who produce standout ent

CBS Interactive contacted [itvt] Monday to let us know that its CBS Mobile arm has launched a "Survivor: Samoa" mobile Web site and Palm Pre application for Sprint customers. According to the broadcaster, the new offerings, which were developed by Treemo Labs and are sponsored by Sprint, allow viewers to:

Bravo is trumpeting the success of its new, weekly, live, late night interactive TV show, "Watch What Happens: Live." The show, which is hosted by Bravo's SVP of original programming and development, Andy Cohen, is based on a live broadband TV show that aired for several years on Bravotv.com and that focused on eliminated contestants and other personalities from Bravo's stable of reality-TV series. The show, as Bravo describes it, features Cohen chatting with guests from its most popular shows, as well as other celebrities, about "what has transpired on-air and in pop culture that week for a live half-hour full of viewer interaction." It allows viewers to interact with Cohen and his guests via email, phone, video, Twitter and Facebook.

According to Bravo:

Endemol has been tapped by social networking company, Bebo, to produce a second season of the interactive online reality show, "The Gap Year." The show, which will be sponsored by the New Zealand Tourist Board and produced by Endemol's Digital Media arm, will feature five Bebo users as they travel through New Zealand. Each weekday, the Bebo users will post short videos about their travels on the show's home page, and will interact with viewers via Twitter and Facebook. "Working with Endemol and Bebo will allow people from all over the world see young travelers getting the most out of what New Zealand has to offer," Tourism New Zealand CEO, George Hickton, said in a prepared statement.

Broadcast network CBS announced Wednesday an extensive multiplatform initiative around the 11th season of the US version of the Endemol reality-TV show, "Big Brother" (Premieres July 9th, 8:00PM Eastern/Pacific). According to CBS:

French interactive TV technology provider, V4x (note: the company's flagship product is its V4x Interactive Factory platform, which it bills as enabling the creation, management and delivery of synchronized contextual interactivity for video, and as offering a set of authoring tools and the backoffice infrastructure for delivering video channels and interactive services to multiple platforms, including Adobe Flash, Air and Flashlite and the iPhone and Blackberry smartphones; its customers include Orange FT, Portugal Telecom, Luc Besson's production company EuropaCorp, and Antena3), announced Wednesday that M6 Web, the Intern