ABC 'Summer' lovin' Net lathers up beach-set reality skein
By JOSEF ADALIAN
ABC and "Real World" producer Bunim-Murray are hitting the beach for a docusoap this summer.
Project, tentatively dubbed "Summer Share," will follow the lives and loves of a group of people who'll spend their weekends in a summer house on New York's Fire Island. Casting has already begun, and the show has a six-episode order.
"It's 'The Real World' meets 'Laguna Beach' for adults," said ABC alternative supremo Andrea Wong. She said the Alphabet has been looking "to do a fun, frothy show for a while now.
"Jon Murray came in with this great development, and we thought it was perfect," Wong added.
Exec said producers are casting for "strong personalities," some of whom may already have pre-existing relationships. While the focus will be on their lives together during the weekend, "When the story bleeds over into the week, we'll follow them," Wong said.
Goal is to create a show that has "the look and feel of a great summer soap."
Murray, an ex-New Yorker, said he and other Gothamites "live for 3 p.m. Friday during a hot, humid summer when everybody gets out of town."
Rather than set the show in the Hamptons -- site of several other docusoaps, including an ABC documentary series a couple years back -- Murray said Fire Island was chosen for its "looser, more down-to-earth" environment.
"There are no cars on the island, so you won't get run over by crazed publicists," he quipped.
CBS has long enjoyed summer sudser success with "Big Brother," which returns for its seventh season in July.
Bunim-Murray's most recent production for ABC was last summer's "The Scholar."
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