Spy Game

As I’ve drifted off to sleepy land the last few Thursdays I’ve come across an intriguing reality show imported from the BBC and televised on PBS. It follows a group of would be spies as they go through training and exercises that real spies go through. Now I don’t have to tell you that US television is always looking over seas for the next big hit. Sometimes it’s a failure like Coupling or Greed. Other times, it’s a success like The Office or Family Feud. I propose that we take this grand idea of a show and flush it out with something any American could endorse; gratuitous use of celebrities. Here’s my pitch:

Premise: Alias + Punked= Ratings Gold

Full Description: Twelve contestants are kidnapped from their day to day life and brought to LA’s FBI headquarters. Your host (I’m thinking Richard Dreyfuss because he’s got that great voice for narration) welcomes the players and informs them they’ll go through a series of challenges and training sessions to become master spies. Unbeknownst to the contestants a lot of the challenges will have them interacting with celebrities who will not be in on the joke but their agent/staff/loved ones will be. At the end of the day, the contestants are broken into 3 teams of 4 and assigned to safe houses around the LA area.

Early on the group goes through challenges and training to test their observations skills, their ability to blend in, and their ability to find and collect info. An example of a challenge would be; gain access to an invitation only Hollywood party at Judge Reinhold’s house. Yet another would be to obtain a copy of the script of the hot new Rob Schneider flick by infiltrating the auditions. Teams will be narrowed down by their teachers based upon performance. Think the Apprentice but set in an interrogation room.

When the players are narrowed down to the final two, they will choose 3 previous contestants each to execute their final mission. Each team will be assigned to an advanced mission and like the previous missions the celeb victims are not in on it. For example, Team 1 would have to kidnap Kevin Federline and strand him in a remote region. Team 2 could be tasked with the mission of obtaining Katie Holmes pre natal records. Now here’s where the show could really succeed, if the team carries out their mission successfully they are given a choice…return the person/information and the team leader receives a $500,000 prize or choose to keep/share the information from/with the world.

Think about the possibilities we could clean up our celebrity filled lives and have a hit TV show all at the same time.

(On a side note I must admit that part of the inspiration for this came when I dubbed myself the world’s first Brinja this past weekend. What’s a Brinja you ask? A Brinja is one who combines the dance moves of Brittney Spears with the stealth of a ninja. As the world’s first and most acclaimed Brinja I do feel I must speak up and say to Brittney, “Lose K-Fed and the kid ASAP and by any means necessary and then get back to shaking your booty and making obnoxiously bad music!” As you can see Brinjas are not very zen and demand action.)