If you’ve ever agreed with the sentiment that the destination is only half of the journey, then you might be part of the potentially large audience that will be watching Travel Channel’s newest experiment. Called Slow Road Live, the program will have a 12-hour runtime and will chronicle a live road trip in its entirety. (We’re hoping Bret Michaels isn’t on this one.) Be sure to plan lots of bathroom breaks and have snacks at the ready, because it’ll be a long one.
That’s right, the often food-oriented Travel Channel is living up to its name by giving viewers a half-day of nothing but traveling for a trip whose route and destination are still unknown in these early planning stages. But they do have Black Friday, November 27, as the planned airdate. So whether you’re trying to nab a cheap TV at Best Buy or are hungover from all the turkey and stuffing, know that there is a place on TV that will serve as the scenic route to your soul. And the network, which will team with LMNO Cable Group for the project, will also have a dedicated second-screen promotion, along with a heavy social media presence.
Here’s how it was described by Travel Channel’s SVP of programming and development Ross Babbit, according to Deadline.
While everyone else is out hustling and bustling to get the latest deals on Black Friday, we’re giving our viewers a chance to unwind with 12 hours of reality in real time. This live programming event will get everyone together to simply enjoy the stunning, beautiful scenery and realize the only big character in this show is the world around us.
If you’re wondering where in the hell this concept came from, you can thank Norway, which kicked off this “slow TV” mini-phenomenon in 2009 with Begensbanen, a ratings-busting program that depicted a train trip from Bergen to Oslo that took over seven hours. They followed that up a couple of years later with the massive 134-hour cruise ship trip down the coast, titled Hurtigruten: Minutt for Minutt. In 2013, they slowed it down even more with National Knitting Evening, which featured over eight hours of people knitting and spinning. You can check out a heavily condensed version of the cruise ship program below to get an idea of what Slow Road Live will be like.
However you look at it, watching nature pass you by is a more understandable depiction of “reality” than a bunch of different-minded people forced to live together/compete against each other until they’re eliminated. Hope you don’t get carsick.
