‘The Material Out There Is Endless’, Network Executive Says

Aero-News April 1 Special Edition

With the explosive growth of drones in the hands of ordinary people, the A&E network group is exploring the potential for a new reality show giving some of those drone users a chance to show off.

With a working title of “Stupid Drone Tricks”, the show would scour the Internet for videos posted by drone operators, looking for some of the more outrageous things people have done with them.

“We’ve seen a lot, including things like people attaching guns to their drones, even flamethrowers,” said a network executive not authorized to speak to the media. “Then there is the guy who took out a hornet’s nest with his drone, and they’re constantly flying too close to things like buildings and bridges and crashing them. The material out there is endless,” the source said.

Still, the network is not going to be encouraging people to do illegal things with their drones just to get on the show. “We’ll be making an audio and text announcement at the beginning and the end of the show, as well as after each commercial break, that tells people they are not encouraged to anything that runs contrary to federal, state or local regulations,” the executive told Aero-News. “Those kinds of things will NOT be featured on the program, so operators will get the idea pretty quickly that it’s not worth the risk. And we’ll be forwarding any video we receive depicting illegal activity to the appropriate authorities for investigation and prosecution if applicable.”

Our source said that the show is just in its planning stages so far, but given the popularity of shows like Live PD and PD Cam, there is a good chance it will be greenlighted. Which of the A&E properties would actually carry the show has not been determined, or whether it might be offered exclusively on a streaming service.

FMI: www.aenetworks.com