As Ellison’s boys run secret TV tryouts and spend a small fortune trying to figure out how to make sailing interesting to the unwashed masses, our old friend Brad Van Liew continues his tradition of being way ahead of the establishment, today announcing a high-powered TV deal he’s been working on for some time. The announcement says that Exodus Film Group has teamed up with Phil Keoghan, Emmy-winning star of the hugely successful ‘The Amazing Race’ and creator of the award-winning ‘No Opportunity Wasted‘ to produce an adventure reality show based on the 2010-11 Velux 5 Oceans Race. The show will not only focus on footage captured on the boats; it will include the trials and tribulations of the shore crews, the racers’ families’ stories, and the kind of high-stakes drama – ashore and afloat – that makes round-the-world racing so compelling to so many of us.
Is this the first step to bringing US solo ocean racing the kind of incredible attention that it enjoys in France? We won’t know that for some time, but with the calibre of team assembled for this TV show, US sailors might finally have a TV presence that we can be proud of in a year or two…
Read the full release here, and have a look at a short teaser done by Exodus right here. The Velux just announced the start dates for each leg of the race today too – check ’em out here.
