How many reality shows do we have running currently. Many would say entirely too many but not portal power AOL with their RED service for teens. They are running an online reality show about college freshman called “Project Freshman” that should increase the hold on AOL’s 75 million or so visitors even further and probably attract a few more.
The premise of the show covers the adventures of six freshman at six different colleges. The students will keep up with their own recording as no crews will be there following them. They will have to cover “the good, the bad and the ugly” portions for the show. They will shoot their own college life, film confessionals and keep a daily blog posted on the AOL RED site.
“This is a must-see for any college freshman or high school senior, and since each episode is available on-demand, it is perfect for any busy teens schedule,” said Malcolm Bird, Senior Vice President and General Manager AOL Teens & Kids. “Their reports are extremely honest and refreshing and each episode really captures what the first semester of college is really like. This will be a real eye-opener for the RED service’s five million teen members.”
The upside for users and AOL both is that the program can be loaded and viewed whenever. There’s no worrying about competing with American Idol or the Gilmore Girls, it’s available at any time for downloads.
This honestly is probably a good play by AOL and works well with their recent upgrades to their IM service for a more youth oriented market. While Yahoo works for more overall media coverage, at the moment, it looks like AOL is working hard on the teenage market.
It’s probably safe to assume that a lot of their ad copy will come from parent company TimeWarner, as they run ads for movies, games, comic books and lots of other things that might appeal to teenagers. It will probably be a lot like the fare on the WB network and if this show goes over, I think it would also be safe to assume you’ll see more shows like this and appealing to the same WB market, particularly as this audience will shift into the highly coveted 18-34 demographic.
John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.