Bethenny Frankel is returning to her reality TV roots with a competition series at HBO Max.
The Skinnygirl founder and former Real Housewives of New York City star will front an eight-episode series called The Big Shot With Bethenny, in which aspiring business moguls compete for a job on Frankel’s executive team. The Apprentice-like show hails from MGM TV, Mark Burnett and Frankel’s B Real Productions.
“I first met Bethenny when I put her on the first season of The
(Real Housewives of New York City, and she’s always both impressed and entertained me,” Jennifer O’Connell, executive vp original non-fiction and kids programming at HBO Max, said Wednesday in a statement. “It’s incredible to see her empire continue to grow, and I know that candidates will be clamoring to work for her.”
Said Frankel, “Aside from motherhood, what truly defines me as a person is being a driven, passionate and hard-working woman determined to make the impossible possible. My mantra is to come from a place of ‘yes’ and to find and create the solution. I am an executor of visions, and I share and impart that information to those who work with me. MGM has been neck-in-neck with me with ideas and their execution. I couldn’t be more thrilled to continue my longstanding relationship with Mark Burnett on this series and pay this American Dream story forward.”
Frankel’s first TV exposure came on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart (a spinoff of Burnett’s Apprentice franchise) in 2006, where she finished as runner-up. She also has made several appearances on Burnett’s Shark Tank on ABC, in addition to eight seasons on Real Housewives, two seasons of the spinoff Bethenny Ever After and a syndicated talk show that ran in the 2013-14 season.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter