Super Cheap, Super Sexy. Yep, that just what we ordered!

Filed in archive Announcements on September 1, 2006

Every time News Corp. launches a new television business, it turns to programming that entrenched players decry as schlocky and culturally debasing. Then, in many cases, the company starts printing money.

Next Tuesday, Fox Television will flip the switch on MyNetworkTV, a new broadcast network that will feature a novel format for mainstream U.S. television: Super-sexy -- and super-cheap -- prime-time soap operas that air six nights a week for limited runs. It's an over-the-top format borrowed from Spanish-language broadcasters.

While story lines on American soaps can drag on for years, Spanish soaps, or telenovelas, deliver immediate gratification. They wrap everything up after 13 weeks, offer a cliffhanger in each episode and culminate with shocking finales that can rack up Super Bowl-size ratings -- just the formula that MyNetwork hopes to duplicate.

Traditional network dramas cost upwards to $3M for each episode. MyNetworkTV's shows are taped on a shoestring budget of $200,000 to $500,000. Sets are simple, re-editing may be non-existant and MyNetwork has largely hired actors with limited experience. And in another bid to save money, it is buying telenovela scripts from Mexico, Cuba and other Spanish-speaking countries and translating them into English.

The plot points are rapid-fire. "Desire" is the tale of two brothers who are on the run from the Mafia and happen to be in love with the same woman; one brother sleeps with two different women, dodges a spray of bullets and escapes from an exploding building -- and that's just in the opening 10 minutes of the first episode.

"Fashion House" stars Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild as executives who run rival clothing labels. The show is replete with fang baring, scenery chewing and face slapping: In one scene, Ms. Fairchild, known for saucy roles on 1980s soaps such as "falcon Crest," tries to stab Ms. Derek with a syringe in a hospital room. "I'm sure they'll put us in the mud next," Ms. Fairchild says.

MyNetwork executives offer no apologies: At a time when production costs at the traditional networks are spiraling out of control due to an increase in everything from license fees to cast sizes, they think their way represents the future.

Read the Whole Story in the Wall Street Journal. While there, you can review the trailers for both shows mentioned in this blog.