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Tacked onto news of a new reality show!?
>UPN plans reality show on the Amish
>Copyright © 2004
Scripps Howard News Service
This story was published Thursday, February 12th, 2004
>By DAVE MASON, Scripps Howard News Service
>(Sh) - Its "Star Trek: Enterprise" might not be soaring through space next season but, back on Earth, UPN hopes to bring the Amish into a reality show.
>At a recent news conference, CBS chairman Leslie Moonves - who oversees sister network UPN - discussed some of the network's upcoming plans.
He said the fate of the "Star Trek" prequel, now in its third season, is uncertain and will remain so for the next several months.
But Moonves and UPN entertainment president Dawn Ostroff did announce plans for a yet-to-be-titled reality show later this year in which five sheltered Amish teens live in the outside world. "It's going to be ... interesting," Ostroff said.
Meanwhile, network execs must decide what to do with "Enterprise."
Despite a change in the series' storyline and the addition of "Star Trek" to its title, the ratings haven't improved from the previous season, Ostroff said.
Moonves and Ostroff said UPN will review its 2004-05 schedule in April.
"We just picked up three drama pilots. We'll pick up a few more after that," Moonves said.
"You see the new stuff, you see the old stuff, and you compare and say, 'What is the better schedule?'
"So it's not like, 'Gee, if "Enterprise" is up 10 percent between now and May, it will get picked up.' It's rather - you know, it's not a science, but it's, 'All right. How do we build Wednesday better?' 'Does it include "Enterprise"?' Very possibly. 'Does it not?' Possibly as well."
It's possible that, instead of being
cancelled, "Enterprise" could move to Friday nights,
Moonves said.
"Star Trek: Enterprise" co-creators and executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga tried to attract viewers with a story arc this season in which the USS Enterprise searches for an alien species that attacked Earth during last season's finale. But while liking some episodes, some fans have expressed disappointment with the series at gatherings of "Star Trek" clubs and on Internet chat lists.
The series has fallen short of the popularity of "Star Trek: Next Generation," but Ostroff noted "Enterprise" will have many twists and turns for the rest of the season.
UPN, meanwhile, has found ratings success in reality television - namely, the Tyra Banks-produced "America's Next Top Model" - and plans the summer reality show in which the network would put five young Amish adults in a home with others their age in the outside world.
The series would cover rumspringa; the Pennsylvania Dutch word for "running around" - a time when 16-year-old Amish youths are allowed the freedom to explore the customs of the outside world before deciding whether to join the Amish church for life or leave the community altogether.
After the news conference, Ostroff said UPN had not yet contacted anyone in the Amish communities, which shun using modern technology or watching television. "It's going to be an interesting mix of our different cultures."
Moonves said UPN will hire Amish advisers if it can find them.
The series will have a sense of humor, Moonves said, but he added, "This is not intended to be insulting to the Amish but to have people who have never had television, who will walk down Rodeo Drive and be freaked out by what they see.
"And I think it will be somewhat interesting," he said, "but yeah, this will not be denigrating in any way."
But wouldn't Amish youths naturally be teased when thrown into big-city life? "I can't say how others would respond," Ostroff said.
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