This is it. The end of days. The Last Mile. The Final Enchilada. Some rude beast is slouching toward Bethlehem, and it's not just Oprah in a muumuu.
They're turning Twitter into a reality TV series.
Let me say that again, in case you missed it: They're turning Twitter into a reality TV series.
[ Stay up to date on Robert X. Cringely's musings and observations with InfoWorld's Notes from the Underground newsletter. ]
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but 140 characters of pure drivel.
For reasons that are only clear if your brain has been overexposed to cathode rays, two Hollywood production companies are cooking up an unscripted show built around the microblog. Per Variety:
The San Francisco-based web phenom has partnered with Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment to develop an unscripted TV skein described as "putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format."
Good-bye talk shows; hello stalk shows.
Top Twit Biz Stone played down the hype in his blog, declaring, "There is no official Twitter TV show... We have a lightweight, non-exclusive, agreement with the producers which helps them move forward more freely."
To Brillstein et al., it's the next Big Brother. To Stone, it's more like a hospital gown.
Reactions across blogville have ranged from mild derision to extreme derision.
Here's the truly horrifying thing: If the series goes through as planned, Ashton Kutcher (aka @aplusk) has threatened to stop tweeting, depriving his 2 million followers of such bon mots as "I am so beyond excited for a three day weekend. I may go off line for a couple days just to ground out" and "I'm here by retiring the names 'tool', 'tool box', 'I'm unfollowing you tool', and 'aplusk, why are you such a tool?'"
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