New Reality Show '@SummerBreak' Will Unfold on Social Media

The next potentially big reality TV phenomenon won't actually require a TV. How's that for innovation?

The Chernin Group is targeting the connected generation with @SummerBreak, a new series that will exist exclusively on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube and Vine.

The Premise

@SummerBreak tracks a group of high school seniors as they spend their last summer together and prepare for college — all while immersed in social media on various gadgets.

"People have their phones in their hands all day and all night, and these social platforms are really the way that young people communicate with each other," Billy Parks, the show's producer, told Mashable. "It's the way they tell stories and share information."

The show, which will go live on June 17, was a yearlong collaborative effort between BBDO, AT&T and Chernin, in which the groups brainstormed interesting, cutting-edge ways to use social platforms to distribute and tell a mobile-first narrative, Parks added.

How It Works

@SummerBreak will ditch the standard 30- and 60-minute TV format, and will instead play out in a 24/7 stream of tweets, photos and videos. Additionally, 60-second daily YouTube webisodes will get posted, and three- to five-minute weekly wrap-ups will round out the show's eight-week run.

With regard to the removal of the TV screen, Parks said he doesn't necessarily think TV is dead, but he does view social media as a powerful way of delivering content to Millennials, the series' target audience.

The show is reportedly costing less than $5 million dollars, with AT&T serving as the sole sponsor and primary financial backer. Chernin's jump from TV to second screen distribution spotlights the changing viewing habits of the 12- to 17-year-old demographic.

"In your typical reality series," Parks explained, "you shoot a group of people and then maybe three months or four months later it airs, so when you're shooting the people they don't actually see what you're creating — they don't see the edits."

Parks said the kids they selected needed to be authentic — but also comfortable with the quick turn around of the series. After seeing week one, essentially as it's happening via social media, Parks said, the kids will already be in production for week two.

"We needed them to be able to see themselves and not be afraid or freaked out," he said. "We're really separating documentary filmmaker from documentary subject in a sense."

The show looks like it will be jam packed with micro moments of meta-tweets and videos, confessionals, road trips, parties and summer romances.

"We really love what's going on in young people's lives when they're making that massive transition from being a kid to being an adult," Parks said. "All the Millennials and the younger people are talking about their summer bucket list, and we really wanted to insert ourselves into that conversation."

The Cast

@SummerBreak taps into the social feeds of nine #realkids (above) from Los Angeles-area high schools in #reallife and in #realtime. Naturally, the cast members have plugged the show on their own hashtag-riddled feeds, giving potential viewers a taste of what's to come.

Getting recognized in line at 6 flags by 6 young girls was so funny

— Kostas G. (@kostas95) June 13, 2013

Ive just never been the relationship type

— Alex Done It (@AyeDenn) June 13, 2013

Where's a blonde when I need it

— conbrah (@conbrah) June 13, 2013

To build the cast, the show's producers centered on four to five L.A. schools and interviewed hundreds of students to curate what Parks called a group of social media-adept cast members.

"We don't expect them to all have large social followings," said Parks, who also is EVP of production and programming at Chernin Digital. "We just want to make sure that they're living their lives out loud and that they're using the platforms."

The Crew

Will the kids party? Parks did concede that teens will be teens — and for that, there is a moderation system in place. The producer explained that the kids cannot do anything illegal. So don't expect any Instagrams or Twitpics of Smirnoff-wielding youth to be uploaded.

A team of moderators will work 20 hours a day to monitor the kids' posts for illicit content, cyber-bullying and "horrendously profane" language. Aside from that, Parks said the team is allowing the kids to be themselves.

"They're teenagers," Parks said. "They make mistakes. So generally, we've not asked them to change their behavior much."

The cast will be using Hootsuite and Dropbox to send their social content to the moderators, who will then green light, yellow light or red light the material.

"Part of the greatness about this," Parks said, "is that it's not different from following the kids without a show. We, as marketers, have an ability to amplify what they're doing so it reaches a wider audience."

Though the show will be broadcast on multiple platforms, Viewers don't need to experience all the pieces to get a sense of the whole. You'll be able to watch the footage on YouTube and Tumblr, check out the selfies on Instagram or dive into pre-college streamof consciousness on Twitter.

The production team has already been following the kids for roughly 10 days, as they wanted to nail down the show's workflow and to let the kids get comfortable with the cameras.

In the process, though, the team has bagged a load of back-story footage, which will give viewers a bit of context. The @SummerBreak feeds will release four to six clips on Sunday to introduce the kids and establish where the cast members are today, with the hopes of setting up the series' many sporadic, summertime storylines.

"Balancing authenticity with the need to produce a cohesive narrative is going to be getting the show right," Parks said.

Will you be following this new "reality TV" format on your social networks? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Images, footage courtesy of YouTube, SummerBreak; Mashable composite