In the last issue we met Michael Hochman and Annie Adlin, two career poker folks who along with Matthew Kaphan are in the process of making a dream come true. TV people have been trying their hand at poker shows for a number of years and now these terrific poker people are trying their hand at doing at TV.
The TV show PokerBeat came from the birth of an idea to full-blown production over the course of two years.
During this time both Hochman and Adlin have literally worked two jobs as they developed the show: their "real" jobs at Canterbury Park and their jobs as producers for this new television show.
We left off in the middle of the lineup for the content of the show, which includes Poker News, current poker events, all lightweight and upbeat and a view from the "Railbird" which will teach (with a comedic flair) viewers a lot of what not to do in a poker environment. Hochman continues, "We will have interviews with famous poker personalities; this segment is called "People in Poker". [Yours truly has the privilege of hosing this segment.] This will get the inside story and great tips from some of the top poker pros in an interview type format. (Sort of Chip Chatter Live.) "We'll have a segment that will be a view from the inside with famous poker players talking to the audience about their favorite subject, poker! This will be sort of a one-man show. We have Greg Raymer on one show and Daniel Negreanu in another. It's like they host their own segments... very interesting and entertaining.
"Probably my favorite segment, if I had to choose a favorite is the 'Player Panel'. The player panel is made up of four pro players, discussing the play of certain hands and other poker subjects. This is completely unscripted-just spontaneous conversation and maybe a little heated debate."
Everyone involved in the project; writers, producers, filmmaker, anchors, talent, and guests are all poker people. Annie continues, "Not one person who worked on the pilot said, 'What's in it for me?' These are the people who represent what is good about poker.
They were here before poker was hot; they love the game, and love the idea of what we are trying to do. These are the wonderful people we want to showcase. They are not in poker for the here and now but for the long haul."
Adlin, Hochman, and Kaphan came to Las Vegas where they began shooting footage for the pilot. "We did it sort of 'gorilla style'", Hochman admitted. "We crammed into a van and ran up and down the strip filming-permission to film? We didn't even think about that. We didn't get arrested and the final project looked unbelievably professional.
We are professionals!
Professional poker people-trying to cross over into the world of television." Once the pilot was "in the can" as they say in the "business" the next step was to sell it.
They sent the demo to their local Fox Sports Net (FSN) program director. He loved the concept and set up a meeting at FSN National headquarters in Los Angeles.
"I was nervous as hell", Michael admitted. "But they liked what they saw!"
Unfortunately the national network wanted to stick with tournament programming (for the present), so PokerBeat would have to start out on regional programming. Annie continues, "It was not an easy road because we aren't 'TV people.' Therefore, we didn't have an 'in'. The next step was to find a sponsor so we could get our episodes produced.
"We knocked on doors until our knuckles bled ... and then we knocked on the door of Dan Goldman, VP of Marketing at Pokerstars. That was the right door".
About the show PokerBeat Goldman states, "When I first met with Annie about PokerBeat, it was clear she was onto an exciting concept. There has been a lot of poker on TV in the past few years, and a lot of online and print news about poker, but no one had caught onto a fundamental missing piece - covering poker as news in a light-hearted, TV newsmagazine format. Annie and her team have put together a concept as exciting and revolutionary, in its own way, as the World Poker Tour."
As this issue of Poker Player goes to print, PokerBeat is in the final stages of postproduction. It will air in the fall on regional FSN stations. It also will air nationally on America One Sports. If the show is well received and the ratings go through the ceiling as hoped, Adlin, Hochman and Kapahn will be popping champagne and developing new ideas for their second season!
Interested? Call your local FSN network and ask them about PokerBeat.
Log onto www.pokerbeat.com and be sure to check out the show this fall!
