Highlight real: ESPN's 'Dream Job' latest in long line of reality TV

We've seen what it's like to "survive" in the wilderness, live in a house with seven strangers, vie for a supermodel position, and bling-bling like a professional athlete.

Now, it's our turn.

ESPN is turning the camera on itself, throwing its "Dream Job" contest into the pool of reality shows flooding television. The cable network has found 12 contestants eager to be whipped through a crash course in sports journalism to win a one-year contract to become a "SportsCenter" broadcaster. The 12 finalists will be announced Monday, and the show will debut Feb. 22. One hopeful will be bumped each week via votes from judges and viewers on espn.com and text messaging.

This is ESPN's fourth try at a reality television show. Last season, the network aired "Beg, Borrow & Deal," where penniless contestants traveled and competed around the nation. ESPN has also aired shows such as "The Season," which was a documentary-based reality show following teams and players like Roger Clemens.

But other networks have joined the genre, too.

The Golf Channel recently concluded its first season of "The Big Break," where hack golfers vied for one spot on the Canadian Tour. And the Urban American Television Network launched "Urban American Outdoors," in which host Wayne Hubbard of Kansas City takes a multicultural slant on outdoors life.

" 'UAO' will continue to give you the outdoors from a different prospective," Hubbard said. "We're going to take the outdoors and inject it with a little adrenaline. I want to get a little fish, get a little Busta Rhymes and pass the Courvoisier."

More than 10,000 applicants scrambled to 29 cities for the initial tryouts for "Dream Job" last fall. And 140, myself included, received callbacks to attend one of four regionals. From that group, 35 advanced to New York for the final selection.

I opted to duck out after being asked to attend the Los Angeles regional tryout. For one, ESPN didn't spend a dime in traveling costs — which is why reality shows are such a hit. People starved for fame spared no expense in chasing this dream around the country, sometimes sleeping in cars while waiting for early-morning interviews.

"You're basically signing your life away," said one assistant at the Seattle tryout in October. "They don't have to pay you anything or provide any insurance because it doesn't fall under the rules of the Screen Actors Guild. It's free talent."

Besides being stingy with my savings, I didn't want to be typecast as the show's ABW (angry black woman). It seems you can't have a reality show without one — see Heather on MTV's original "The Real World" or Camille on UPN's "America's Next Top Model" — even though ESPN promises the show won't be about drama.

Sure. This is coming from the station that brought you a gay football player in its dramatic series, "Playmakers," and salivates at the mere mention of a Sunday chat with fireballs like Bob Knight.

But Mike A'ntinoro, ESPN senior coordinating producer, says "Dream Job" will mirror Fox's "American Idol" more than NBC's "The Apprentice," where 16 contestants are competing to be president of one of Donald Trump's companies, complete with a six-figure salary. The "Apprentice" contestants are showing no mercy, using sex and manipulation to scrape their way to the top.

Even "American Idol" can be a bit ornery, with creator Simon Cowell spewing quips such as, "You're the musical equivalent of a sleeping pill" to wannabe singers.

"We're going to get a heated competition," said Carol Silver, "Dream Job's" producer/creator. "But so much of reality television today seems to exploit people and sometimes humiliate. That's not this show. Yet, it will inevitably change people's lives for the better."

A'ntinoro added: "That's not an element of what we want to do. It's more like they're buddies, all in it together. We're not looking to fabricate any more than it would naturally."

So, couch potatoes who once muted the sound to read the "SportsCenter" highlights on closed-captioning will really see broadcasting is not all makeup and slam dunks while wearing comfy jeans and sneakers under the desk.

Yes, it's impossible to say Cleveland center Zydrunas Ilgauskas' name. Yes, you work eight hours to produce two minutes' worth of footage. And yes, there are the Suzy Kolber-Joe Namath incidents. You know, where a tipsy Namath said he wanted to kiss Kolber.

In college, I interviewed a high-school running back named Trung Canidate, who now plays for the Washington Redskins. To make sure I had his name correct, I asked him to spell it.

"So, that's T-R-U-N-G Canidate?" I asked.

"Yeah, as in 'Can-I-date (pause) you?' " he responded with a laugh.

Like Kolber, I bashfully shrugged it off.

"If you ever rolled a camera on what we do during the day, it would be pretty wild," said Paul Silvi, who has been a sports anchor for KING-TV the past 10 years.

"And having a (rookie) try to edit footage on deadline would be funny. It would be more entertaining if you put all the hockey names out there for them to read. For us in the business, it would be hilarious, and the average sports fan would find it pretty amusing, too."

But does it make journalism a gimmick?

"Not at all," Silvi said. "People realize it's TV and we're here to inform as well as entertain. If you put a stiff up there, people aren't going to watch. You want the person to be lively and fresh."

As television analyst Marc Berman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Success breeds imitation on television, and the success of reality on the broadcast nets has morphed into cable. It's what you would call expected."

Yeah, but does sports need a reality check?

After all, it is reality.

"People are interested in watching other people that are no different than themselves," Silver said. "They're chasing their dreams and would do anything for it. That's the appeal."

Jayda Evans: 206-464-2067 or jevans@seattletimes.com