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Local fisherman reels in reality television show
By Molly Parker
Staff Writer
After years of fishing the world’s waters, Adam Paul is finally reeling in the big one: a TV show.
GillznFinz.com LLC, headquartered on East Bay Street in downtown Charleston, recently scored a contract with Leverage Sports to produce a reality-based sports fishing show that will air in a minimum of 30 U.S. markets starting June 1.
“It’s kind of the first reality-based sports fishing show on television right now,” Paul said. “It’s really a slice-of-life type show.”
MGM will distribute the show through its partnership with Leverage Sports, a sports marketing company based in Fort Mill that co-produces Three Wide Life, a NASCAR reality show.
Paul expects the show to air in about 85% of U.S. markets by next year. It is already showing in 47 million households, he said.
The show, called the GillznFinz Show, is a spinoff of Paul’s Web site, an online fishing community that works in a way similar to social networks such as MySpace and Facebook.
Members from around the world create profile pages and share photographs, videos
and stories.
A trailer on Paul’s Web site describes the show as “fishing at its finest.”
It will highlight the big catches, but also all the cuts, bruises and hangovers that go hand-in-hand with the “fishin’ life.”
The site also includes several high-profile captains who offer advice and post snippets of their adventures, including 19-year-old Jordan McCullough.
The teenager is a regular on ESPN2, and is only one fish away from joining an elite group that can brag of catching all nine of the world’s billfish species. She only needs to hook a striped marlin. One of the 26 original episodes will follow McCullough as she attempts to do just that.
Paul, 28, started the Web site about a year ago. “It was kind of a no-brainer,” he said. “I just wanted fisherman to come together from all around the world.”
Since then, about 1,700 people from dozens of countries have signed up for member profiles, he said.
Sponsorships for the show are available by contacting Leverage Sports at parker@levsports.com.
Molly Parker is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at mparker@scbiznews.com.
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