MU May be Setting for New Reality TV Show
By Laura Meyer
Staff Reporter
MU students may not have to watch reality television anymore. Instead, they may walk around campus and see it firsthand.
Warner Brothers is considering doing a new reality television show at the University of Missouri in the fall.
The show, Big Man on Campus, would be a collegiate version of the reality show, The Bachelor.
MU is one of three schools being considered for the show.
“ Missouri is a good representation of college life,” said Luke Conklin, Lead Casting Producer for Big Man on Campus. “The student body has personality, and the campus is beautiful.”
Big Man on Campus would follow one male student on dates with different college women.
“Our goal is to capture what it is like on a college campus, and provide an opportunity that students would never have before, and all the while, they could meet someone great,” said Ashley Edens, Casting Producer for Big Man on Campus.
Greek Life Coordinator, Kerry Fleming, said some of the National Fraternity and Sorority organizations have expressed hesitation about their members being involved with reality television.
“I hold some concerns mainly from viewing shows like MTV Fraternity and Sorority Life,” Fleming said.
Edens said Big Man on Campus wants to find the best students to represent MU. “We would never show Greek letters,” Eden said. The show would be able to say the student was in the Greek system, but would not say which fraternity or sorority he or she was a member of, Eden said.
“This is a show that we want to run for a long time,” Eden said. “If we present sororities and fraternities in a negative light, no school is ever going to want to participate.”
Students are excited about the opportunity of being on television and what it could do for MU.
Ashley Douglas, a sophomore Alpha Delta Pi, said, “I think it would be good for the campus, definitely great exposure.”
Delta Upsilon President, Ben Coen, had mixed feelings about Big Man on Campus.
“If it was portrayed right and actually showed the values of Mizzou and the values of our Greek Life here on campus, I think it would probably be a really good thing,” Coen said. “But, if it was portrayed in the wrong light and edited wrong to make us look bad, it could definitely hurt us in the long run.”
Aric Yackly was Vice President of Sigma Chi Omega, the fraternity featured on Fraternity Life 1 when the show was filmed. Yackly is currently a Graduate Assistant in the Greek Affairs Office at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He offered advice for student’s considering reality television.
“Be prepared for the experience to change your relationships and reputation on campus, but it will depend a lot on how you handle things,” Yackly said.
Yackly also suggested utilizing the university’s administration.
“Work as closely as you possibly can with your school's administration,” Yackly said. “They can do many things for you and are there to protect you as students, but you have to be open with them in order to do so.”
Casting Producers have been at MU this week recruiting and talking with students. Today, they are scheduled to hold a casting call in the lower level of Pershing Hall under Hitt Street Market.
“We’d love to be here, in Missouri, for the show,” said Edens.
The other schools being considered for Big Man on Campus are the University of Arizona and the University of Texas-Austin.
Producers will select which school they will be filming the show at during the summer. If MU was selected, filming would start at the beginning of the fall semester, and the show would be scheduled to air for the spring 2005 season.
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MU May be Setting for New Reality TV Show
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