Reality television has made its way to the wonderful, wide world of sports. ESPN is producing a reality game show in a search for the next SportsCenter anchor.
The contest, called Dream Job found itself in the heart of Buckeye country at the Buckeye Hall of Fame Café yesterday, searching Columbus for sports enthusiasts who think they have what it takes to be the next Stuart Scott.
“I travel a lot for ESPN, and anywhere you go the first thing that people say when they hear you work for ESPN is ‘Oh, that’s my dream job,'” said Carol Silver, creator and producer of Dream Job. “Then they go on to say their opinions about who they like, and who should be on ESPN. Everybody thinks they can do it better than the people who do it, so we set out to find a diamond in the rough and reward them.”
Columbus is the sixth stop in a search that has ESPN traveling across the to 29 cities across the United States, to find worthy candidates to be contestants on the seven-to-eight week game show.
Auditions began at 9 a.m. yesterday and lasted until 6 p.m. The candidates went back in a group of seven or eight people and took a seven-minute trivia test that consisted of 30 fill-in the blank questions. After the test, they gathered for a round-table sports discussion led by former OSU running back Raymont Harris, and the voice of the Blue Jackets, Dan Kelly. Kelly and Harris are celebrity judges helping with the selection process.
“We give them a written test to see what their sports knowledge is because to get anywhere in ESPN you have to have a good knowledge of sports,” Silver said. “In the discussion we are looking for personalities to come out, for candidates to have their own personal style.”
Jamie Bates, 25, of Camden, Ohio, played baseball at Heidelberg College and read about the ESPN tryouts in the USA Today.
“I thought I would just come out and give it a try,” Bates said.” I listen to five or six hours of ESPN Radio, and then go home and watch it at night.”
Another candidate, Rob Mulvaney, 28, of Dublin, had the idea coming in that the audition would test your knowledge, and was well prepared for the challenge.
“After I would get to work and read my e-mail, I would go to www.espn.com and read the sports page,” Mulvaney said. “I also tried to lead the discussion and be persuasive to try to separate myself from the other candidates.”
Here’s what the candidates are competing for: The reality game show consists of 10 contestants who will be flown to Bristol, Connecticut to participate in a competition called the “Game.” Contestants will live together for the entire “Game” at the expense of the producer of the show. They will be monitored on a 24-hour-a-day period, seven days per week, similar to the life of a participant of MTV’s reality show the “Real World.”
The “Game” will require contestants to perform a variety of sports anchor tasks. These tasks could include on-the-spot reporting, reporting from an anchor desk in the studio, or interviewing an athlete or other individual. At the end of each round of tasks, one or more contestants will be voted off the program by a panel of judges or by viewers.
The last remaining contestant will be awarded the prize of a one year on-air contract with ESPN.
The Dream Job open casting tour started Sept. 16 in New York and will end on Oct. 26 in Houston. According to ESPN’s Web site, candidates lined up as early as 4 a.m. at the New York ESPN Zone for their opportunity to be the next SportsCenter anchor. One woman was outside the Buckeye Hall of Fame Café at 3:45 a.m. Approximately 3,000 people have tried out in the first five cities. Columbus added another 300 contestants.
