It looks like most of the contestants for Court TV’s upcoming reality show The Chase: Trackdown will come from Comcast Corp. markets.
The network is teaming up with four Comcast systems to run auditions for The Chase, which will feature contestants playing fugitives that will be chased across the country by a team of professional trackers.
Winners get a $10,000 prize if they can elude the trackers for 24 hours.
Court TV senior vice president of affiliate ad sales and marketing Ellen Schned said Comcast systems in Baltimore, Dallas, Boston and Miami-Fort Lauderdale will make money on the promotion by selling site sponsorships for the auditions to area shopping malls.
In exchange, the Comcast systems agreed to run 100 tune-in spots for the show, which premieres in the second quarter of 2005.
Court TV also asked the Comcast systems to run 300 30-second cross-channel spots to promote the local auditions.
The spots contain a 10-second tag that Comcast can sell to local advertisers. Schned said the four auditions would be held in mid-September.
Court TV wants to recruit two to three contestants for each of the six episodes of The Chase. While most of the contestants will come from Comcast markets, the network will also hold a separate audition in New York to fill out the roster, Schned said.
Court TV plans to set up obstacle courses at the local auditions to test local contestants. Hopefuls will also have to set down for a two-minute interview with the casting director.
Finalists from the local contests will be flown to New York for a final audition.
