The Vegas Channel

Cafe Society
#1

Hypothetical mental exercise:

Let us say that I just took down the casino of your choice for a bundle. A BIG bundle. Now I want to start a Las Vegas Channel for cable. What should be the programming?

We can’t play Vegas Vacation 24/7. There needs to be some variety here. We need to fill 61320 hours of airtime as cheaply as possible.

My initial syndication buy:

TV
Las Vegas
Vega$
Route 66
Viva Laughlin!

Movies
The ouevre of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Elvis Presley, Sammy Davis Jr., and Ann-Margaret
*Ice Station Zebra *(every night at midnight)

Infomercials
The house feeds from various casinos on how to play craps, etc.
That’s only a couple of months of programming, people! Help me fill the rest.

#2

The WSOP from before 1998.

#3

Texas Hold-'Em

It’s already popular on TV and it would fit in with the Vegas theme.

#4

Ocean’s 11-13

#5

More movies:
Leaving Las Vegas
Viva Las Vegas
Honeymoon in Vegas
Casino
The Hangover
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

oh, let’s not forget CSI

#6

Buy up all of the Travel Channels great hotels specials which featured Vegas resorts.

Diamonds are Forever, Bond movie set in Las Vegas.

#7

Movies:

Where The Buffalo Roam
Corvette Summer
Lost In America
The Stand
Swingers
Con Air
Pay It Forward
3000 Miles To Graceland
Rush Hour 2
The Cooler
The Hangover

Sports (neither of these minor league teams have any TV contracts or coverage):

Las Vegas 51s
Las Vegas Wranglers

#8

Does it make a difference? In a year it’ll be Real Housewives of Vegas, Survivor Vegas, Vegas Ink, Celebrity Rehab Vegas, Snooki does Vegas and Wife Swap: Brigham & Bellagio. Might as well just skip the lofty dreams and sell out now.

#9

First thing I thought of on seeing “The Vegas Channel” was a CSPAN-esque live feed from random security cameras in the Strip casinos. (Okay, delayed by 10 minutes.)

#10

Pawn Stars

#11

Well, you gotta have some original programming too, right? I suggest a travel show, where every week the host (me, of course) is given $50,000 to blow through and go to a different hotel, restaurant, casino, etc., to show off all the great aspects of the town. New restaurants, gambling in different casinos, going to all the shows and attractions. Each week the viewer will get to see new and exciting aspects of the great city, and live vicariously through the host (me).

It will be the greatest show ever. As far as the host (did I mention, me) is concerned, anyway.

#12

Get the rights to all of the sitcoms that had their “Las Vegas” episode during their run - this would cover about every sitcom in the past decade or so.
Oddly, most of those sitcoms (as well as many movies) always show that slot machine where you put in a quarter and win millions!
Perhaps you could show us exactly where this slot machine is that allows you to win millions with a single quarter…we locals would love to find that one.

More fun would be to have a reality show that shows people wild-eyed and half crocked, getting off the plane, screaming and laughing, ready to party-hearty and win those millions!
Then show them 4 days later, getting quietly back on the plane, hangovers the size of Wyoming and asking to borrow $3 to buy some orange juice on the plane later…

Didn’t/doesn’t The Travel Channel and A&E offer all those “secret tips of Las Vegas” shows, where they tell you the tricks to winning big bucks and eating at buffets until you are eventually dragged out on a stretcher by paramedics?

#13

Hey, you keep your reality out of our reality shows!

#14

Las Vegas Idol, a competition between the various musicians that perform on the bridges crossing the strip.

Follow the Money, where a tracking device is imbedded into a quarter and given to one of the people asking for a handout to see where it goes (fictionalized, of course–this is Vegas, nothing is real)

#15

There should be tapes of the old Frank Rosenthal show from The Stardust Hotel from the 70’s somewhere.

Those would be a blast to see now.

#16

Isn’t there a “cops”-like show set on Las Vegas Boulevard on the Court TV channel these days?

For reality, how about “Real Porn-slappers of the Vegas Strip”

#17

Yep. It’s called “Las Vegas Strip.” Pretty cool show. I really like the black Supervisory Sergeant. Seems to be a cool guy who doesn’t tolerate bullshit, but understands what Vegas is. He always has a smile for the crazies until they fuck up, then off they go.