Breaking Greenville Breaks the News Behind the News

At one point in my life, I got to go behind the scenes of a small market network affiliate for a morning show. It was eye-opening, to say the least.

Watching the pilot episode for BREAKING GREENVILLE brought back those memories. The truTV reality series takes you inside the inner workings of two competing stations in the Mississippi delta region -- ABC affiliate WABG and CBS affiliate WXVT (you can check them out yourself at www.yourdeltanews.com) -- which manages to draw comedy out of the mundane. And, having witnessed those workings firsthand, it has a certain verisimilitude.

The setup for series is the latest ratings release: WXVT has always trailed WABG, but suddenly they're right on their heels. It's time for stunt programming. But the WXVT morning show anchor is already ahead of them, preparing to launch a series on healthy habits beginning with a live weigh-in of herself. This prompts the more petite anchor at WABG to think bigger -- potentially a problem, as her vocabulary centers around the word "awesome" and she can't stop herself from high-fiving local farmers in her coverage.

I'd be very curious to watch this series being made. These are two news entities who now have to script their work around one more camera in order to get the BREAKING GREENVILLE footage. Does this impact their actual broadcasts in any way? Are the stories they're reporting juiced up a little to make the clips that get into Breaking Greenville funnier?

Color me leery. It's eminently watchable, and I'll tune in to see how the series progresses. But I fear the precedent it might be setting.

BREAKING GREENVILLE premieres January 29 at 10:30 / 9:30C on truTV.