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First things first – Rich Christensen, creator and host of the hit television show PINKS, never starred in a soap opera. “Well, I was in one episode for about five seconds,” he says. That was years ago, when Christensen, fresh from northern Iowa, was an intern at a major network in New York. “I was an intern there for six weeks, and at the end of that time, as a gift to me, the producer put me in one scene for the blink of an eye.”
These days, Christensen spends a lot more time in front of the camera as host and ringmaster of “PINKS,” the SPEED Channel show that features old school drag racing. The catch? The loser must turn over the title (or pink slip) to the winner. The show’s slogan is “lose the race, lose your ride.”
“PINKS” is just one of the hundreds of ideas for television shows that Christensen pitched to various networks over the course of the past 15 years. His faith in his ideas, fueled by his hardcore work ethic, paid off when SPEED gave him the green light for the first season of “PINKS.”
“I was in the habit of making 30 calls a day to keep my ideas and my name in front of the movers and shakers in L.A.,” says Christensen. “I’ve paid my dues – it took me 15 years to become the overnight success I am today,” he jokes.
The response to the show has been overwhelming,” says Christensen. The show is going into its third season, and SPEED already has signed on for season number four. No wonder – “PINKS” is the most-watched weekly show on the network, with two million viewers per episode.
For the first season, Christensen and his crew had to personally recruit racers by calling people and convincing them to compete. It wasn’t always an easy sell. Now it’s a whole difference story -- going into the new season, there is a list of 1,500 racers who want the chance to be on the show. “PINKS” is filmed at locations around the country, wherever there are racers ready to face off.
A large part of the show’s appeal is due to Christensen’s on-air personality. He teases racers, cajoles, screams, whatever it takes to get the race underway. “I’m kind of surprised at how the host thing turned out,” he says. In the beginning, he hosted the show himself for two reasons: first, the show didn’t have a big enough budget to hire anyone to do the job; second, Christensen didn’t trust anyone else to spearhead his vision of what the show should be.
Although his success with “PINKS” has made it easier for Christensen to get his foot in the door to pitch his other projects, he doesn’t take his good fortune for granted. “I sell TV shows for a living. There is almost a 99-percent failure rate for what I do. I wake up each day with one goal – to fight as hard as humanly possible for that one percent opportunity to live my dream to produce great television.”
SPEED is the nation's first and foremost cable network dedicated to motor sports and the passion for everything automotive. From racing to restoration, motorcycles to movies, SPEED Channel delivers quality programming from the track to the garage. Now available in more than 71 million homes in North America, SPEED is among the fastest growing sports cable networks in the country.
Find out more at www.speedtv.com. - ARA |
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