Amazon-Owned MGM to Produce Reality Show Featuring Ring Camera Footage
Knock knock. Who's there? Wanda Sykes, host of a new syndicated series featuring Ring video doorbell footage.
A sort-of dystopian America's Funniest Home Videos, Ring Nation launches Sept. 26 with clips shared by people from their home security cameras and video doorbells. It's produced by MGM Television, which Amazon acquired last year, and will pull clips from Amazon-owned Ring devices.
The series, first reported by Deadline(Opens in a new window), will present fish-eye recordings of "neighbors saving neighbors, marriage proposals, military reunions, and silly animals." You know, the kind of lighthearted content that often goes viral online(Opens in a new window), but rarely depicts the darker side of video doorbells, like police surveillance.
Ring requires law enforcement to present a search warrant to obtain data from a camera without the owner's permission. It also shares data with cops in emergency cases "involving imminent danger or death or serious physical injury to any person."
As of July, Ring provided police with non-consensual access to camera footage 11 times this year; it told Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) that it "made a good-faith determination that there was an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to a person requiring disclosure of information without delay.”
There is no word yet on the format of Ring Nation—or how people can submit clips—though it sounds like the show will be more dancing delivery drivers and less true-crime-documentary, with running commentary by The Upshaws star Sykes.
The show is produced by MGM Television and Big Fish Entertainment; the latter is an MGM subsidiary(Opens in a new window) that produces A&E's Live PD, which broadcasts live police encounters.
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