Al Gore is Ready for a Close-Up

Yahoo! announced today that Al Gore is ready for his close-up. Unfortunately, no one else is, so he's turning to his beloved Internet.

The project, formerly known as "INdTV," will launch as "Current" on August 1. We prefer the title "Bore TV." Wonder twins Gore and entrepreneur Joel Hyatt have been working on the venture for a while now. The idea is to have viewers upload and view cheaply produced content on the Current Web site. Viewers can vote and complain about chosen clips a la "American Idol," and then the winners are broadcast over the air. Current already has deals with DirecTV, Comcast and Time Warner. Gore likens his amateur audience to "citizen programmers." We liken them to the producers of "Bumfights."

The press release says the network is created by, for and with an 18-34-year-old audience. Fellas, I think we're going to need to see some I.D. Gore and Hyatt may not pass the age test, but the idea is to the young-ins, interactive. In other words, you'd better like it because you're now playing program director (without the nice car and expense account). Gore says it's not going to be "America's Funniest Home Videos." We're going to have to agree, since that formula seems to be a huge success.

The network plans "short-form programming" in order to keep up with attention spans of today's generation. The "pod" segments (Mr. Gore, Apple's lawyers are on the line) will be anywhere from 15 seconds to five minutes, covering issues from fashion and TV to politics and parenting. -- Rachel Cericola

Posted by Mac at April 4, 2005 5:55 PM | TrackBack