Tom Brady is Getting His Own Reality Series on Fox? Yes, Please!
Source - An hour into its upfront presentation, Fox threw a hail mary.
The network teased that it was working with Super Bowl champion Tom Brady on an unscripted series.
Charlie Collier, CEO of Fox Entertainment revealed that it was working with Brady but didn’t give any more details. “We also have an unscripted project with Tom Brady, yes, that Tom Brady,” he said.
We’re hearing that the project might be produced by Love Is Blind and Married At First Sight producer Kinetic Content.
The show will likely be produced by Brady’s own production company 199 Productions, which Deadline revealed in March 2020.
Well alright then. I'm not sure where this idea is coming from now, all of a sudden. Tom Brady's been a high profile public figure for going on 21 years now. So I don't get why before this his TV career has been limited to one night of hosting SNL and getting sexually harassed by the Griffin family.
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But better late than never. Even if did take an impossibly long run of sustained excellence and unmatched success to get us to this point. You don't quibble about timing when your all time greatest athlete gets to finally work with the people who brought us Love is Blind, which is described as "Singles who want to be loved for who they are, rather than what they look like, have signed up for a less conventional approach to modern dating," and Married at First Sight, which was, "A reality show that follows singles yearning for a life-long partnership as they agree to a provocative proposal: getting legally married to a stranger the moment they first meet." You simply do not pass up the chance to potentially work with America's leading producers of "total strangers banging one another the moment they meet"-themed entertainment.
I do have a couple of questions though. One, what is this going to be exactly? I mean, based on the production company I imagine it's going to be Tom getting free agents he's never met to sign with the Bucs sight unseen the first time he meets them. But failing that, is it just going to be like Tom vs. Time was? A little behind the scenes of the Brady Bundchen being their genetically perfect selves in their seaside mansion, followed by endless training montages with Alex Guerrero and a sort of product placement infomercial for TB12 Fitness? Because that was fine the first time around. But even that was compelling in part because you got the sense he and Gisele were growing frustrated with the demands of him playing in New England. I can't imagine you'll get that same tension with Bruce Arians just doing his Coach McFriendly act and letting Tom run the team for him. I'd have to think Fox could do better with yet another animated series or a reboot of "24" or something. Been there. Watched that.
But my other question is pretty much a rhetorical one. I'm an Irishman, which means I forget things I should remember and remember things I should forget. And I can't forget that it wasn't all that long ago that Brady was America's Public Enemy No. 1. He was a cheater and a fraud and a liar and was a laughingstock from coast to coast. Even sports program was vilifying him on an hourly basis. People didn't want him to have his day in court. His fellow union members were demanding he be suspended, if not outright have his rings taken from him, his labor rights and due process be damned.
So my question is: Is that pretty much over with now? Are we done with that narrative? Because I know in 2015-16 Tom Brady couldn't have gotten booked onto a reality show unless it was Locked Up Abroad. Hell, he had to put Tom vs. Time on his Facebook page because no one else was interested in picking it up. The only difference between then and now is the uniform he wears. But now that he's network television's sweetheart, I guess it's fair to conclude it was never the player that was hated, it was the team he played for. That'll be good to know as he's winning all the Emmy Awards for his new show.