Survivor for geeks? The Next Internet Millionaire

August 7, 2007

You must have thought about it, just as everyone back in the days of the gold boom thought about packing their bags and mining the mountains, hoping to strike it rich. We think about doing something on the Internet to make millions of dollars. It must have crossed your mind at one point or another, either in passing, or as an obsession that keeps you up at night, and I mean late at night / early morning. So late that the dog looks ticked off because you woke him up.

So late that the only thing on TV is infomercials about making infomercials. So late that one channel has Billy Mays asleep. So late that when you get on the internet, the only page you can get up has bars of different colors, and says that the internet has reached the end of its broadcast day. Anyway…

Joel Comm and Eric Holmlund have created a web only show called “The Next Internet Millionaire”. The show is a “reality TV meets the Internet” contest. 12 contestants will be competing to win a joint venture with Joel Comm. The details are a little sketchy, but the contestants will be learning from the “masters of marketing”.

I’m pretty anxious to see what the show is going to be like. The site is pretty heavy with advertisements and sponsors, but hey, they have to make a buck, right? As I mentioned, there are 12 contestants, and the last time I could see the list, they were split down the middle between men and women.

The first episode airs August 15th, and although I haven’t been able to get myself to watch a TV show on my computer, except when I’m traveling, I’m going to try to watch this show.

It seems that filming has already finished, and they must be working on the editing now.

Hopefully this will be successful, and maybe broadcast television will market some shows to us geeks, besides “who wants to be a superhero”. Something like “Network Protocol Jeopardy”, or how about celebrity squares, but with Internet and computer industry celebrities. They could put Bill Gates and Larry Ellison on opposite sides of the board, or Jason Calacanis and Jimmy Wales would be on opposite sides too, just in case.