My Wife and kids love watching all the “Master” shows on TV like Master Chef, Master Baker etc. (OK I like them too, there I said it!)
You know the ones with the celebrity/star judges and the normal people being judged on their cooking creations. Of course there is the drama too! Somebody doesn’t like the way the other person does something and sparks fly. This makes for good TV, but it is also real-life too.
I think that The Apprentice, Donald Trump’s business show on NBC was the forerunner to these types of shows. They brought average people together to compete in teams and ultimately for their own ultimate prize, an apprenticeship with “The Donald” himself. They would bring in experts from major brands to act as judges observing the teams as they worked and reported back to Donald. Of course I always thought, though not confirmed, that these were “product-placement” on steroids! Think about it, the brand they represent gets massive exposure! I would love a case-study to be done on the inner-workings of how that all works to see how the strategic alliances are formed. For example, New Media Group reported in a press release “the Chrysler Voyager makes an appearance in the May Top 20 being The Apprentice’s car of choice to ferry the contestants around” and BlackBerry Bold & the iPhone were featured. I know I loved when the projects centered around companies like Kodak, Universal Studios and many, many more
This popularity of this business competition show-format made TV producers sit up and take notice because then we started seeing shows like: Shark Tank, The Profit, Save Our Business, The Pitch, Bar Rescue, Restaurant Impossible. Many of these shows bring in celebrities to either compete or be judges contributing the the content and expertise. Who knows whether it is just to capture interest from viewers or if they are just really good!
So here’s my “Big Idea”:
I have always thought it would be a really cool idea to have characters from one show or movie appear together! Think about a character from The Good Wife appearing in an episode of The Big Bang Theory as themselves, not just the actor/actress. Then maybe in the episode they go eat at a restaurant where Robert Irvine from Restaurant Impossible just did the makeover and get their input! Now, I think there could be too many layers and “reverse product-placement” becomes corny….but if done right, it could be really cool!
I love the business shows mentioned above and would absolutely love to see a show like this: (producers feel free to call me to help make this happen!)
Introducing: “Master Coach”: The Ultimate Business Competition & Makeover Show!
- A business owner who is in trouble is spotlighted with a brief back-story that endears the viewer to them.
- The All-Star cast of Judges are introduced and spotlighted like “You know them from”…..
- The cast of competing Business Coaches are introduced and spotlighted who will be structuring a business strategy to help the business. Of course, competing against each other for the ultimate prize of Master Coach!
- Marcus Lemonis and Peter Jones from The Profit and Save Our Business come in to oversee the Coaches as they diagnose the problem(s) in the business. Of course, there would also be appearances from Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Damon John, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner & Robert Herjavec from Shark Tank.
They appear as themselves representing their shows so this is a massive Strategic Alliance with the various TV Networks. Never been done before, to my knowledge. Very powerful! - They may see a need for a PR/Advertising campaign or re-brand. Then the next episode would be based on The Pitch where competing agencies put together their ideas, of course, all of the Coaches are managing the process of the competing PR agencies and choose the winner to implement in the business.
- The Coaches work with the business to fine-tune (or create from scratch!) their Elevator Pitch so they can bring them to the Shark Tank. So this episode of “Master Coach” is an actual episode on Shark Tank! Cool. The Coach is awarded points according to the Shark’s evaluation and mega-bonus points if they invest (literally invest so the business owner benefits)
The missing ingredient to all of the shows mentioned above will be solved in “Master Coach”. They continue to work with the business implementing the recommended strategies as the Coaches compete for the ultimate prize of Master Coach! Too many times I watch an episode of The Profit and wish there were more, and when Shark Tank does the 5-minute update on a business from a previous season, it is too limited. Weren’t there struggles and victories that happened? Didn’t one of the recommended strategies fall flat?
The entire Season would be a complete business makeover from start to finish with Business Coaches competing for the ultimate prize….maybe their own show, like HGTV does with their Design Star series. Celebrity judges from other business shows who oversee the competition, this is great PR for their shows. And let’s face it, we all watch dozens of different networks anyway so none of the networks should worry about losing the spotlight. I’d even recommend rotating the Network Master Coach is broadcast on to further amplify all of the brands! Hmmm….talk about the ultimate strategic alliance. All of the participating networks promoting the same show because it will be broadcast on their Network and their logo and show will be spotlighted in each episode. Powerful.
So what do you think? Would you watch the Ultimate Business Competition and Makeover Show?
