Rural Athenians and Ohio University students with outlandish talents could earn $10,000 and airtime on the network that airs new episodes of Mad Men and Breaking Bad.
The AMC network is holding auditions in eight select cities for the upcoming documentary series Road Show, which will feature rural American people with talents.
The casting company that AMC hired for the show will send representatives to Athens on Monday to hold the first round of open auditions. They will choose their favorite talent to send to AMC producers and then spend the rest of the week filming their lives here in Athens.
The producers will select four finalists to be featured on the show. Those finalists will then compete in a concert held in Athens, and the winner will be selected by an audience vote in order to win $10,000.
AMC is working with the Athens Convention and Visitors Bureau on the project.
“They want to showcase … people who have called Athens their home for quite some time,” said Jenna Dill, marketing and sales manager for the Athens County Convention and Visitors Bureau, in an email. “They want to focus on the townies that truly make our little gem unique.”
Producers are looking for unrecognized talent to put on the show, and a flier advertising the auditions said that any talent qualifies for the show.
The network chose Athens, Dill said, because the new show will feature small, rural towns in America.
“Part of the direction of the show is that we picked the cities very carefully,” said Dominique Ferrari, a casting producer with Kassting Inc. “We wanted to find a city that had a small-town community vibe but with a great downtown and rich in the arts and culture.”
The show is set to air in Spring 2013.
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