You're reading it here first. I've been BEGGING South African television to do something like this, and now, a while after I left a one of the places that would have made viewers' jaws drop on the floor with what they would have seen, my dream is coming true!
A BRAND NEW LOCAL REALITY SHOW SET INSIDE A LOCAL MAGAZINE.
Get ready for
Style Apprentice! Words is the glossy women's mag
FAIRLADY is doing a reality show for M-Net Series (DStv 110) called
Style Apprentice. The show is loosely modelled on the American reality show
Running in Heels which you can see on The Style Network.
Filming of the show will start in January.
Now, besides just watching something that has the potential to be so much fun (girl, can i tell you about backstabbing and deadlines and crazy colleagues and Wilhemina Slater type behaviour and goody bags and a jetset lifestyle in the literal sense of the word and awesome experiences - all of which the show should bring to viewers), people can also
ENTER to actually be the people who get to work at
FAIRLADY.
This is how it will work:
The producers are looking for energetic, creative and talented individuals between 18 and 30.
Okay, so you have to be kinda ruthless and ambitious. It's all about girl power. If you've EVER EVER watched
Ugly Betty (i call THAT show a docmentary, NOT a dramedy. It's VERY VERY REAL) - that is what you can expect. All those characters and types are at EVERY magazine. I've lived it. I'm living it.
You have to have a strong desire to make it big in the FASHION WORLD and beauty.
20 gals will be shortlisted for one on one interviews with the judging panel headed by . . .drumroll please,
FAIRLADY editor Suzy Brokensha.
Suzy (yes, I worked in the very same building as her. Yes, i dropped by a few times to exchange my one magazine for a FAIRLADY) will hand-pick her top 6 interns, who will then battle it out for the title of Style Apprentice, a paid internship at the magazine and a foot in the door of the super glam mags in this country. Ooh!
Huge opportunity, but as I've said, also be prepared for what awaits. Of course the pace and drama (and there WILL be drama) will be caught on camera, reality TV style and broadcast on M-Net Series from 26 March.
The gals will live together in a Cape Town penthouse for the duration of the production.
''We're very excited about being able to give such a fabulous opportunity to the hundreds of talented young South Africans we know are out there,'' says Suzy. ''We thought this was really a great way to combine print and TV.''
I guess! Done right and it will be AWESOME!
People will be able to apply from 9 November until 14 December. Entry stuff will be in the December and January issues of FAIRLADY. Entries can be submitted to FAIRLADY
here.
Besides the 6 month paid internship at
FAIRLADY, the winner also gets a new wardrobe, a laptop, a cellphone and ''all the right accessories''. No. That isn't code for ''hot boyfriend''.
And here is what you REALLY win - and what they won't tell you:
Networking opportunities with the who's who in the publishing biz and media world.
Late nights working on amazing but terrifying projects with impossible deadlines.
NO social life - except when the producers deliberately take you to a place (and going to work functions and media events don't count as ''social life'')
Access to a terrifying world at once grandeur and spectacular as well as hamster wheel like where you spin all the hay away like Rumpelstilzkin just to come back with heaps more work on your desk.
I've worked at many publications and all I can say is, if you've EVER contemplated entering this biz, this is a golden opportunity!
