Over the past few years, one of the most popular forms of television programming has been that of reality shows. This genre – especially those that feature some form of competition between its featured players – are popular with television viewers because of the “regular Joe” participants and popular with networks because of their low cost overheads for production. If it is picked up, a new show will focus on the world of poker with one of its more popular female players.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, a Canadian director has created a reality program called Living The Life. Director Josh Kimmel created the premise of the series and is directing the two-part pilot that he is shopping around to potential suitors. The premise of the program is simple: two players travel the world competing against each other not only on the poker tables but also in various tests. Kimmel has found his first two competitors, one of them a familiar face to the poker world and both very familiar to reality show junkies.
Kimmel has enlisted Trishelle Cannatella to be one of his first competitors on the program, with Cannatella bringing an extensive background in poker and reality shows to the effort. Cannatella, a former sponsored poker player with a slew of sites, has had a bit of success on the poker circuit with her most notable performance being a third place finish at the World Poker Tour’s WPT Invitational in 2010. Outside of poker, Cannatella has made a bigger impression on the world of reality television.
In 2002, Cannatella was a part of The Real World: Las Vegas and would go on to take part in Road Rules and the resulting competition program between the two shows. She also showed up on an episode of Fear Factor, posed for Playboy Magazine and dated professional wrestler Mike “The Miz” Mizanin. Along the way, Cannatella also picked up some credits for actually acting on film (such classics as Ninja Cheerleaders) and on television (Criminal Minds and Dr. Steve-O).
Cannatella’s competition in the proposed reality show will be former Miss USA competitor Amanda Kimmel (no relation to creator Josh). Kimmel was Miss Montana USA in 2005 (she failed to place in the Miss USA competition that year) and would more on to participate in the Miss Earth pageant later that year. Those two pageant competitions potentially prepped her for what her future would be.
Kimmel is the veteran of three different seasons of the popular reality show Survivor. In 2007, she competed in Survivor: China (finishing third) and would come back in 2008 to be a member of the Survivor: Micronesia cast and finish as the runner-up. Obviously an astute player of the Survivor game, she came back for a third try during Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains in 2010, but was bumped off in ninth place.
Mr. Kimmel brings up the appeal of the series, which began in his mind as a documentary and quickly blossomed into the premise for a reality show. “Documentaries don’t have the big fan base that reality TV series do,” Kimmel explained to the Reporter. He also is promising a no-holds barred approach to the reality show.
“They’re both extremely competitive and they don’t like to lose,” Kimmel is quoted by the Reporter. “If they lose and they go up to their hotel room and smash the TV set, that’s interesting to me.”
Whether it will be interesting to fans might be the bigger question. At this time, there have been no buys for the potential reality program. That isn’t stopping the show from moving forward, however, as filming is currently in action at the European Poker Tour stop in Barcelona, Spain, with plans to head to Los Angeles and potentially Las Vegas following that.
