Last week Discovery held their annual sales conference for ad buyers, which included a presentation on Sarah Palin‘s new reality show on the beauty of Alaska. It sucked.
Sadly, we weren’t there. But as anyone who read the headline probably thought: “Well, duh.” We’ve already mocked the show mercilessly (as has every late night comedian worth their salt), so our expectations are incredibly low. And while Palin does have some fans out there, we cant imagine her Tea Partying pals have enough clout to buy up all the ads for the $250,000-per-episode train wreck.
According to an insider from Discovery, who spoke to Cenk Uygur for the Huffington Post, the presentation was a total failure. Uygur reports:
Our source says “the whole thing [was] comical.” Apparently the ad buyers were not impressed. This Discovery insider said, “When the promo was over, people (employees and buyers) were rolling their eyes, snickering, and even laughing. People were laughing and it’s not even a comedy. No one took it seriously.”
This person was concerned that given the lack of interest from ad buyers that Discovery would have to dump the show to “a crappy time slot” to cut its losses. They added, “Bottom line everyone thought it was a new all time low for Discovery. My guess is the show is going to tank big time.”
There is probably only one person more upset about this than Discovery. We’re guessing Tina Fey is ready to shelve her bump-its once and for all, but if Alaska lives down to the hype, she might have to bust out her alter-ego. As Tobias once said: This is ripe for parody.
Discovery Channel Insider: Sarah Palin’s Show Is “A New All Time Low For Discovery” [Huffington Post]