Business in racing: 'NASCAR Wives' show tells story of women in sport
COMMENTARY
Americans have already demonstrated an apparently unquenchable hunger for the scoop on “The Real Housewives of New York,” and Orange County and Atlanta, so it was only a matter of time before life in Darlington’s infield and Charlotte’s exurbs came to life.
The actual title of cable network TLC’s docusoap (combining documentary-style footage with soap opera-level depth) tied to the racing world is the aptly titled “NASCAR Wives.” It debuts with a one-hour show on Jan. 24 at 10 p.m. EST after the Miss America pageant and then resumes in the spring with an anticipated run of eight to 16 half-hour episodes.
Produced by NASCAR Media Group for TLC, the show follows several women as they navigate marriage, motherhood, careers, travel and tending to spouses and family members who make their living in racing. The first episode airing this month includes Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, sister of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his main business adviser; DeLana Harvick, married to driver Kevin Harvick; and Shana Mayfield, wife of driver Jeremy Mayfield.
TLC pays NASCAR Media Group production fees and for use of NASCAR logos. In exchange, the network sells all advertising around the show and keeps the revenue.
Networks love this kind of “reality television” because costs are low compared with traditional series – and because viewers seem to have an insatiable appetite to watch other people engage in stunts along the lines of shopping, stammering, sighing and furiously abusing cell phones. (To be fair, Jack Bauer performs similar wireless heroics on Fox hit “24” and it is a docu-free series.)
Executives at NASCAR Media Group began working on the concept for the show a couple of years ago but failed to land a deal until late last year. The Charlotte-based media division includes 160 to 165 staffers dedicated to producing shows, documentaries and mining archival footage for DVDs, commercials and online vignettes. If you’ve watched “Dale” on CMT or any of a slew of highlight shows and clips on Speed and ESPN, you’ve seen NASCAR Media Group’s work.
The latest venture marks a departure for the media group – even apart from its former all-access drivers’ show on FX, “NASCAR 360.”
“The key for us was to find a network that saw NASCAR as a brand that could help them branch out into a new consumer base,” says Jay Abraham, chief operating officer at NASCAR Media Group. “And for us, find a network where we would be able to bring some new viewers to NASCAR.”
Like similar shows (think “The Real Housewives” entries on Bravo), “NASCAR Wives” will build drama by splicing documentary footage of the various women going through day-to-day life. Day-to-day life, that is, if it’s shot with great lighting, snappy editing and all the quotidian elements snipped out.
Expect few antics or diva moments with the NASCAR show. Abraham wants a show portraying the stock-car spouses in what he describes as “heroic terms,” with an eye on promoting the sport to a new audience.
Sadly perhaps, these standards all but rule out prospective brawls along pit road. Thus an encore of the 2006 spat at Texas Motor Speedway between Greg Biffle’s girlfriend, Nicole Lunders, and Kurt Busch’s fiancée and now wife, Eva Bryan, seems unlikely.
Producers hope to minimize track footage and focus on what the women’s lives are like amid the constant juggling of travel, family and career. The wives featured on the show have outside interests and careers, from running philanthropic foundations to managing off-track aspects of their husband’s careers and beyond.
“What this does is celebrate women in general,” Abraham says. “Their lives and their challenges and their day-to-day is probably no different than many women in America. They’re independent, they have their own business affairs, their own hobbies.”
All true, with the possible exception of the private jets and multiple houses, assets seldom found in most car-pool lanes.
The basic point Abraham makes appears to have merit, and, no doubt, the show provides a potential hook to snare more female viewers with a companion soap opera to NASCAR’s male version (i.e., Is Jimmie Johnson really getting along with Dale Earnhardt Jr.? And how much will Tony Stewart miss crew chief Greg Zipadelli after leaving Joe Gibbs Racing?).
True to form, it also hits another familiar NASCAR marketing theme: family. Hammering home the message of happy, ambitious couples makes for nice image-buffing, something every sports league craves.
If “NASCAR Wives” does well, expect more genre-defying stock-car fare. As Abraham says: “We can build original programming to support all kinds of things in the sport. In a tough economy, it’s the people with creativity who win big. That’s exciting.”
