Is @AlisonRosen the Future of TV?
A decade ago during the golden age of AOL we launched a little box called AOLTV. At the time I boldly proclaimed that someday the Internet would be hooked to every TV and everyone would be able to have their own TV Shows, just like they have personal web pages. While constrained by the bandwidth of the era, the box allowed you to "favorite" your TV shows, manage your program guide, time shift and chat with buddies while watching TV. How cute? No one ever accused me of being late to market with ideas.
In 2005 I re-articulated the concept of interactive TV in a guest feature for CNET called MeTV. Flash forward to 2010. TV over the Internet is here and racing directly toward your living room flatscreen. Twenty-somethings are plugging their laptops directly into their big screens as a great way to watch all of those torrents and other goodies. ROKU has sold 500K of their little NetFlix on-demand Internet TV boxes. Every new Flatscreen is shipping with built-in Internet. We are at the leading edge of people looking to drop their expensive cable packages (just like they have dropped their landline phones) in favor of watching TV via computer via Hulu, iTunes, and JustinTV. There still is no slick easy-to-use consumer IPTV package yet, but surely its on the way. I still maintain this is Apple's market to have when they decide to get serious.
But hardware is the boring part of the story. It's the tsunami of content that is waiting for us where the fun really starts. In the last few years, we have gotten a real dose of the creative force behind user-generated video via YouTube, and it ranges from the ridiculous to the sublime. But what happens in the gap between professionally produced TV content and the munchie-crunchie YouTube video snacks? Alison Rosen ("your new best friend" via USTREAM) happens.
For the uninitiated, USTREAM is a free platform that allows anyone to live broadcast their very own video programming while the audience chats along in an adjacent window. It all gets stored and is available on-demand to watch at a later time. Of course then you will have missed out on being an integral part of the entertainment. Note that USTREAM has stiff competition from JustinTV.
Who is Alison Rosen? She is an ambitious journalist and celebrité minora; a new breed of savvy social entertainer who is using the tools of the web to build her own brand. Unlike an iJustine (who has built her brand strictly on the Internet) Alison has old media cred, both in print, as a writer, video journalist, and as a weekly regular on FOXNews' Red Eye.
Liberated by the complete creative freedom of her own two hour "TV" slot she puts forth a kitschy "talk show" from her Manhattan apartment on Wednesday nights. Generally some 250 "regulars" join in to chat it up and apparently some thousands will cruise by in lurk mode. Make no mistake, many in her largely male audience consistently try and drag her into the gutter, but this is strictly legit, and they are promptly censored (and ultimately booted) if they persist in asking the color of her lingerie.
So what is the show about? I am not exactly sure, yet it is fascinating no less. Generally she is accompanied by a male "friend" side-kick, who appears to provide her a sense of security should she be seduced into some lurid form of web camery. Each week she usually has an "on couch" guest of some sort and a variety of interviews with phone guests. These folk also have some form of notoriety, but are not exactly household names.
This week's show featured "Andrew," admitted to be an emergency stand-in due to the snowpocalypse. It was unclear exactly from where this character came. It seemed Alison may have bumped into him on a subway ride and dragged him up. The very chatty bloke had a close resemblance to Quint from the movie Jaws, complete with missing tooth but with a distinctly stoner glaze. Yet during the course of the night he seamlessly drifted from barely literate drivel about whacko wrestling, to MFA level discussions of fine art, to Roman style sex to, well I have no clue. It ranged from scary to priceless.
Later, a phone conversation with an utterly disinterested and uncooperative comedian Michael Showalter, had Alison nervously fidgeting as if clenching to hold in an SBD. And here-in lies the charm of this show. Broadcast from the relentless point-of-view of a web cam she is seen splitting her attention between the camera, guests and the stream of comments via chat. It is impossible for Alison to have any show-face. What you see is pure genuity. And Alison wants to be your best friend. So the net effect of watching and joing in the chat is like a big hang-out in Alisons' Apartment. Complete with Alison's Dad on the side.
Last week a guest gave her what seemed to be an unscheduled haircut (really just a trim). Clearly Alison obsesses about her hair and what transpired was a Reality TV-quality freakout that would make the Real Housewives of Jersey shrie in jealousy. Later in the show she had a phone interview with Adult Entertainment Starlet Courtney Cummz. The effervescent porn star sent Alison into a bit of a tiz. She got a little too personal too fast by asking Allison if she likes to cum. Alison's face wrinkled with a curious disgust that was hilarious. It had one pondering why did she ask her on the show. But then again, the comments of the peanut gallery made it very clear why. Alison does have a valuable male demographic to nurture. And according to her regulars, even seeing her grossed out is sexy.
There is a strange form of genius behind what Alison is doing. We are observing the birth of a new form of entertainment. It's sort of like observing your kids playing "make believe," they are very silly but deadly serious. This is vividly displayed in her now regularly featured "Pencil Dance." No doubt, a voyeuristic thread is the beat of the show.
Where does all of this go? Perhaps her own gig on "real" TV. A movie deal? Right now Alison would be happy with a sponsor for her USTREAM show. I think she should be talking to Faber Castell.
In the meantime, I have seen the future of TV and it is Alison Rosen.
