MTV and Major League Baseball team up; David Ortiz to produce show
The World Series MVP is now producing for MTV.
Fresh off a World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, along with Pittsburgh Pirates’ centerfielder Andrew McCutchen, will executive-produce a weekly, 30-episode series for MTV2 to highlight baseball’s stars off the field.
This effort to bring baseball to MTV comes as the sport has had trouble pulling in viewers from the younger generation, who are often more inclined to tweet about twerking than triple-plays. While the most recent World Series saw an improvement in the ratings compared with last year, the 2012 contest was the lowest-rated Fall Classic ever.
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The Ortiz/McCutchen-produced show, which will premiere in April next year, is part of a new multi-year deal between Major League Baseball and MTV to create shows and Web content that blend baseball and pop culture and give the big league stars more exposure to the Viacom-owned channel’s young male viewers.
“We will blur the lines between lifestyle and sports entertainment, spotlighting MLB’s most exciting players in a way fans have never seen before,” Stephen Friedman, president of MTV, said in a statement Monday, when the deal was announced.
Shot in the MLB Fan Cave in New York City, the yet-untitled show will showcase player “personalities and passions” with interviews, features and celebrity appearances. The league created the Fan Cave as an interactive event space in 2011.
So far, the Ortiz show is the only part of the MLB-MTV deal’s starting lineup that has been announced. The companies said more shows and content from the partnership will be revealed at a later date and will get distribution online and across MTV’s multiple channels.
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