Just checked out the first episode of The Next Internet Millionaire. It's a similar concept to The Apprentice with Donald Trump. Prize is $25,000 and doing a "joint venture" with Joel Comm. Not quite sure what the "joint venture" part is... A lot of people use that to mean they'll send out an email blast with an affiliate link. Joel has a big list, so maybe that's worth putting all your business (and I'm not just talking about what you do for a living) online for everybody to comment on.
And comment is exactly what I'm going to do...
To be fair, I didn't have the patience to sit through all 51 minutes of the first episode. Got about 10 minutes in and started to fade.
Why? I didn't really find the cast all that interesting. Some guy thinks the war in Iraq is great and we should hug a soldier for protecting freedom, another feels the people of the US have been mislead, and another thinks Bush is an idiot. One guy is really tall. The tension mounts...
Then the contestants pitch other contestants to the group using words like, "out of the box," "vision," and "phenomenal."
Of all the people who tried to get in on this thing, are these really the best?
Thank God you don't have to be a great public speaker to make money online... But in all fairness, from what I could see, this was a pretty tough challenge. You can't polish a turd, you know? If you want somebody to sell you, at the very least, you have to give them something to work with.
Mark Joyner talked about Simpleology and the "straight line" rule, which I found ironic since this show jumped around from place to place and left me confused as hell. So I started jumping around myself and hoping that everything would start to make sense.
The show is an interesting concept, but falls flat. It's got big, tension-building music and fast cuts, similar to The Apprentice, but none of the personalities. The cast is boring. I didn't see anybody really likeable or anybody that I hated. And as Dan Kennedy says, "There is no money in the middle." Give me good, or give me bad, but don't give me mediocre.
Even the non-contestant cast is boring. Joel Comm has certainly done well online, but when he's talking to the contestants, in the "Judgment Room," or whatever else, it comes off like a singer in a bar band playing for three people and saying something like...
"ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!! LET'S SEE SOME LIGHTERS OUT THERE!!!"
Doesn't really have the same effect as Paul Stanley talking to 10,000 Kiss fans, does it?
And the show lacks clarity. When Donald Trump gives somebody a task, it's clear what he wants done. And even though I work fulltime in this business and can read between the lines, I was confused as to what these guys were trying to do. Zzzzzz...
More thoughts later, including comments on what I thought were a couple of bright spots. Until then, check things out for yourself and feel free to leave your own comments...