Wall Street Crisis as a Reality Show
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By CARLA BARANAUCKAS
Published: November 2, 2008
The producers of the reality TV series âWall Street Warriorsâ find themselves in a case of life imitating life.
The show documents life on Wall Street by focusing on a handful of traders, brokers and fund managers, and the producers, Sean Skelton and Scott Gill, had a front-row seat as the bottom fell out of the financial markets.
âWeâve been capturing a lot of drama lately,â Mr. Skelton said Friday as he was shooting in Manhattan. âWeâve got the backlash of the credit crisis from last year, which we started capturing about halfway through the second season. So things started off bad this year. But about halfway through our season this year, things have gotten really bad with the bank failures and the bailout and the drama.â
Then about a month ago, the bottom fell out for âWall Street Warriorsâ itself when the high-definition cable channel that has been carrying the show, MOJO-HD, announced that it would cease operations in December.
âIt kind of happened at the same timeâ as the markets were diving, Mr. Gill said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles.
Mr. Skelton added, âI guess itâs somewhat ironic that itâs happening.â
But MOJO, which reached only about 10 million homes at its peak, told the team to finish production and promised to work with it to find a new home for the show. âWarriorsâ reached No. 1 on iTunes in July for downloads of reality television series.
âWeâll be done with production in the next four to six weeks,â Mr. Skelton said. âWeâll be done editing the show probably by February or March.â
He said that the team is continuing to document the turmoil on Wall Street, and is committed to finding an outlet to distribute the series.
And with the optimism of stock brokers telling their clients to stay in the market, Mr. Skelton and Mr. Gill say they are confident that they will find a new network. âI think,â Mr. Skelton said, âweâll be around for a fourth season.â CARLA BARANAUCKAS