'Jersey Shore' team heads South at Comedy Central
Exclu: The producer of "Jersey Shore" is teaming with Comedy Central for her next partygoing reality show.
Sally Ann Salsano’s 495 Prods. is shooting footage for a proposed series billed as a more comedic, Southern-based version of her "Jersey" format.
The project’s initial blind casting notice — which included the promising working title "Party Down South" — created a stir on the Internet a couple of months ago among fans of the MTV hit.
Since, the project has found an unexpected home at Comedy Central, which only has aired a handful of bona-fide reality shows, including the single-season efforts at celeb reality "I’m With Busey" and the competition show "Reality Bites Back."
Network sources said Salsano and the channel’s executives realized that "Jersey" is only a couple of edits away from being a flat-out comedy.
They cautioned, however, that their intention isn’t to do a stereotypical hick show.
"It’s not ‘Redneck Jersey Shore,’ " an insider said. "We’re looking to have viewers laughing with the cast, not at them. We want a cast of funny people with stories to tell."
With the project still at an early stage, the network isn’t ready to officially comment. Programming executives soon will make a decision about whether to continue with the project, which could mean a direct-to-series order.
Meanwhile, the casting guru behind "Jersey Shore" and "Party Down South," Doron Ofir of Popular Productions, has a few other "Shore"-offsprings that have yet to be ordered.
The Los Angeles-set "Persian Version" is another working title for 495 Productions that’s in preliminary casting.
Also, a Boston-based show, "Wicked Summer," is being pitched around town by the company.
Neither are expected to end up at MTV, however, which says they’re not interested in either show.
-- Leslie Bruce contributed to this report
