DX: Let’s talk about Hell Date. I gotta be honest. Watching that show I feel like the participants know what’s going on and there has got to be some acting going on. You know?
JD: Honestly, I mean the show was so successful that we couldn’t do it again. No one knew that the first season was going to be so successful. And then just to answer your question, really- I did a show for years: Blind Date, and also the Fifth Wheel. And the first question you ask yourself on Hell Date is “Why would these people stay? Why would they put up with that?” And they don’t really know. Because no one really wants to think that they’re being pranked- that they just got a crazy one. And some people may have an idea, but they don’t really know until the very end. And I think if you watch the show all the way through when we get the reaction at the end when the devil came out, just from their face you can see that: “Man I knew,” but they really didn’t know. They weren’t 100% that that was the case. So it is definitely not written for them. Sometimes a lot of shows happened where we were like, ”Something’s fishy here,” where they’re not giving us what we really need. We’ve had to kill those shows, meaning we shot but we couldn’t air it because it’s just not good because it’s not a true reaction. So some people do figure it out or did figure it out, and some people don’t-but what you’re seeing on the air is definitely those people who feel like they’re on a real date.

DX: How much of the concept for Hell Date came from Blind Date?
JD: Well that show is an example where somebody had the idea for Hell Date and took it to BET, and BET brought it to me for me to develop the concept out and do a pilot. The show is actually a mix between Blind Date and Punk’D. And developing that, I just really wanted to make people feel like, "I’ve been on that date." Or "I know my friend or my neighbor or whoever can relate to Hell Date," because we’ve all been on a date like that a time or two in our lifetime. So I think the stories that we come up with or the pranks or the bits that we come up with are all targeted so that somebody can say I’ve been in that situation before.

DX: Given your experience in the entertainment industry, what’s the role of TV in Hip Hop? I mean, when you think back to seminal shows like Yo! MTV raps and The Basement etc, how influential is television?
JD: First of all I really miss Yo! MTV Raps. I wish that somebody would really come back with a show like that but more raw, with a tone like The Wire. The essence of what Hip Hop is all about. With that said, I think TV is the new way of promoting music right now. Every artist is trying to get a reality show or some type of show to tell their story because I think what they realize now is fans love the music when they feel like they know the person behind the music a little better. And I think you see that for instance with Keyshia Cole. Keyshia was a star before I ever met her. She was platinum already with her first album. But, you know, I see she’s gained a lot more respect from people who didn’t know her or had this perception of what they heard from other people and now they have a clearer understanding. I get a lot of emails at my office saying, “I wasn’t really a fan of Keyshia’s, but now after watching the show not only did I go out and buy her new album, I went out and bought the old album as well.” So I think that when artists understand the new way of marketing and the new way of getting the music out, it’s getting people to understand the person behind the music. So I think television has done a great deal for music artists in that regard. Take a look at the Making The Band franchise for instance. They come out the first week and sell 200,000 copies right off the television show. Otherwise, no one knows these guys or the young ladies, (Danity Kane and those people). So I think TV has greatly influenced the music industry as a whole.

DX: Do you think that reality shows like Keyshia’s and Making the Band, etc actually have television value outside of marketing the artist to the public, or is it just like you said, just new media?
JD: I think shows like Keyshia’s definitely have a place outside of media because she’ll be the first to tell you that everywhere she goes people say, “Thank you for the show, its saved my family or saved my life, it made me realize that there is somebody of celebrity status that was going through it and made it out and gave me the will to say I can make it too.” So I think that depending on what the content of the show is it definitely has a value outside of just the music in that regard. I’m not saying that every show does but I do think that Keyshia’s has been able to cross a lot of boundaries that you didn’t think a reality show like that could do. If you watch the show you know that a lot of it is not about her music. It’s really about her being a strong young black woman and even though she’s a celebrity and has money and so forth at the end of the day its all about family. And how no matter what your family goes through you have to love your family. And I think that something that we can all relate to. To me any successful TV show that’s been on for quite some time has had that family element. You take the Cosby’s you take Run’s House, you take any of those shows right now and if it is dealing with how to deal with the family that show will have some success or staying power if you will. Continued on page 3 »