Channel Ten will not yield in their apparently endless quest to give Sydney PR person-of-note Roxy Jacenko her very own TV series.
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Ten has announced their second round of Pilot Week programming set to test the waters on air later this year. Last year’s inaugural Pilot Week initiative commissioned a series of one-off episodes that eventually resulted in several shows being picked up for a full series, including Taboo, Bring Back Saturday Night with Rove McManus, Kinne Tonight, and the Kyle Sandilands-fronted Trial By Kyle which has mercifully not gone to air yet but lord help us when it does.
Jacenko was heavily rumoured to be involved with Disgrace! – a Sam Dastyari-fronted comedy panel show delving into “the biggest scandals of the week” – but wound up not featuring in the pilot. The show received positive reviews but wasn’t picked up by Ten bosses.
This year, however, Pilot Week is neck deep in Jacenko thanks to the commissioning of a pilot for I Am… Roxy!, an apparent Keeping Up With The Kardashians-style reality show based on Jacenko’s life.
Per the press release this afternoon, the potential series will “delve head first into the daily madness of PR guru, publicist, talent manager, reality star, author and mum-of-two, Roxy Jacenko. This entertaining and comedic access-all-areas pilot pries into Roxy’s everyday life behind her world of high glamour and outrageous excess.”
To add to that, the whole thing is being executive produced by close friend of Jacenko, Michael Wipfli, who you may know better as Wippa of Fitzy & Wippa radio fame.
I Am… Roxy! isn’t the only barnburner in this year’s Pilot Week crop. Elsewhere there’s:
- Sydney’s Crazy Rich Asians, another reality-style program following “the opulent lives of six very ‘extra’ characters and their local fixer who waits on their every want and need.”
- Catfish Australia which is a local production of the US MTV series exploring internet relationships that go bung, which is no-shit set to be hosted by Casey Donovan and Walkley-nominated documentarian Patrick Abboud. Mull that one over for a hot few seconds.
- My 80 Year Old Flatmate, yet another reality-style show featuring young people being given cheap rent by older Aussies “in exchange for company and help around the house.”
- Part Time Privates, the only scripted series in the bunch this year, following two mothers at a “local primary school” who decide to start a private investigation business together. As you do.
There’s no word on when any of these pilots will air. But they’re all happening. For better or, probably more likely, worse.
