TREATMENT

PILOT FOR AN ORIGINAL SERIES

SERIES TITLE: ‘HOT HEADS’

GENRE: 10 x 60 Minute Unscripted Reality

LOGLINE: HOT HEADS is a long way from the cozy cocoon of other reality
shows. Here is a group of eight people, four men and four women, who have taunted society
with their anger and as a result, lost friends and family to their radioactive tempers. Our
eight participants understand that something needs to be done. Step forward HOT HEADS,
a show that reveals life as an arc over which they have control.

INTRODUCTION

In the great turbine of the mind, some people run too ‘hot.’ It’s a measurement that’s applied
to young people, yet it can be a characteristic of anyone at any age.

We’re compelled to talk about each other’s behavior but we know the difference between
‘spirited’ and ‘angry.’ How often we talk about someone as an ‘angry person,’ saying to our
listener: ‘Caution! The man you’re about to meet has unresolved issues.’ This sentiment lies at the
heart of our pilot for this new concept programme.

HOT HEADS has a mission to find the niggling worms that set our participants into the red
zone. Common to each are just reasons for anger, the so-called psychological ‘worms.’ Our
pilot show pushes the reality envelope, leading each participant to a disagreeable truth in
consort with Life Coaches and Therapists, helping our group to isolate their issues before
they metastasize into something more harmful. In that sense, the series operates at the level
of social work.

The image of struggling with anger, is a microcosm of the general challenges of modern life
and therefore our pilot and the follow-up series will appeal to everyone. Participants suffer
for a good cause: their peace of mind. As the pilot show demonstrates, that anger, like a
lump of sugar in water, will dissolve as each participant slowly regains control over their
feelings.

The HOT HEADS pilot enlarges our understanding about ourselves. The show has the virtue
of ‘clarity of concept’ and immediately conveys its purpose and subject in its title.

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 HOUSE PARTICIPANTS

All our participants have self-confessed anger issues, typically radioactive on certain
subjects, with latent anger as a predisposition. In short, they are defensive by nature. The
show’s Life Coaches know this and understand that between anger and peace of mind, lies a
precious intermediate space where our thoughts can be influenced and where new feelings
can unfold.

All our participants exhibit contradictions, unresolved tensions, emotional fracture lines and
life stories that don’t add up. In all cases, childhood issues have left an indelible mark on the
adult personality. They have escaped into an angry, private world where normal life has
become a tedium and where their natural impulse is to always strike back.

All the psychopathic and criminal personalities have been weeded out at the selection stage
and on a positive note, our final group of eight are all unified in the desire to face their
problems. They just need help. People ultimately do not want to disappoint, either the
audience who is watching but more importantly, those people out there who still care about
them.

Many, like Ashly (25) are single parents. They understand that morale is key to survival.
They just need a ladder. Regular words of encouragement from the Life Coaches, ‘if anyone
can beat this, you can,’ carry special significance in front of a camera because of who might be
watching. Again, no one wants to let other people down.

As the pilot show demonstrates, one male participant has raw first reactions and resists
bodily. Quickly identified and dispensed from the house, he’s immediately replaced with
another male participant. The others are seen to yield, continuing to take advice and
exploring the possibilities open to them. One participant, Brandon (28) is coached to describe
his anger, he replies:

“The whole cave of my chest seems to hollow out and fill with anger. I can only hear myself breathe.
My heart either beats too fast or too little. It takes a big effort to contain myself.”

Another pilot participant, Brock (23) says:

“I lived a long time in denial that everything was OK. You know it’s serious when your anger is
visible to other people on the outside.”

Both men and women will pass through phases as a group. No one is assigned a higher
value because of gender or age. No one is left behind. Individuals may oscillate but the
group is entirely responsible for each other and advance as one.

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 THE PILOT GROUP

The idea of bringing a group of ‘Hot Heads’ together sounds risky, but the show’s producers
demonstrate in this pilot that they can mitigate risk with a firm hand, having dismissed
problematic personalities at the selection stage. The eight participants in the current pilot
have all been carefully vetted and drawn from a wide gender spectrum.

Ashly (25)
Female | North Las Vegas | Latino/Hispanic
“Raised in the hood back in Brooklyn, NY, single mother, just me and my little sister. My father
wasn’t physically there but we spoke sometimes over the phone.”

Brandon (28)
Male | Palm Desert | Caucasian
“I came from a very strict household. Became very shy and never branched out. Had a hard time
becoming social for a while.”

Brock (23)
Female | Kentucky | Black/African
“I was an only child for most of my life, so I was raised spoiled. Everything I wanted, I got. I have
never had to ask for anything.”

Dominica (32)
Female | Sacramento | Black/African
“I’m a single parent of a little three-year-old girl named Sariyah.”

Jawaun (22)
Male | Alabama | Black/African
“I was raised by a single parent.”

Josh (29)
Male | New Orleans | Black/African
“My name is Josh, I was born in New Orleans but grew up in Salem, Oregon as well. I came from an
average class background. On my mom’s side of the family, we all had jobs but we were not middle
class.”

Kisha (34)
Female | Philadelphia |Black
“I have been through hell and back. My daughter is 19 and she was taken from me by my mom while I
was in jail and given away to the state because my sentence was too long.”

Manuel (22)
Male | Boynton Beach | Latino/Hispanic
“Born in Queens, NY moved to Miami at 10 raised by a single Latina mother in poverty, in and out of
foster care, teenage runaway, travelled the entire country without a dime.”

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 THE ROLE OF LIFE COACHES & THERAPISTS

The work of two professional Life Coaches and Therapists (male and female) are an
invaluable intercession into the daily lives of our participants, engaging via one-on-one
sessions and activities that house mates must participate in. For viewers, it’s a positive
spectacle where changes in behavior can be observed.

So, our participants are not alone in facing their demons. Initially, they are unaware of the
Life Coaches, who are introduced through a recorded video on TV when they first arrive at
the house.

As you will hear, our Life Coaches are dealing with monumental issues. Poverty and drugs
will have featured large in some lives. Daily routines of denial and rage, bargaining with
disappointed family members, depression and the slide back to rage again. The Life Coaches
do not offer false hope during this journey instead, a range of events that prise participants
open with opportunities to adapt their behavior. It’s a chance to ‘grow.’

Observing our Hot Heads, Life Coaches hear painful stories and tragic events. Periods of
being “cheated” or “disappointed.” You can hear the strain in the tone and delivery of the
participant. As house mate Dominica (32) says:

“I have a don’t give a fuck attitude. I’ve been like this my whole life. When you been abandoned, going
from foster home to foster home and group home, you tend to have that I don’t ‘give a’ attitude. This is
now me. This is who I am.”

Our participants exhibit a kind of elitism as Hot Heads, they think their anger is unique. You
can read that in Dominica’s statement. Life Coaches immediately disperse that myth. It’s
accepted in psychology today that when people share their stories in a group, you can
always find something that is common to all and at that point, the group cease to become
strangers. They understand that their problems are shared by others. People who initially
refuse the group dynamic start to look at each other. We see this important dynamic in the
pilot episode.

As ‘Hot Heads’ they are no push over, but the Life Coaches are well prepared. If a
participant moans ‘Why me?’ a Life Coach might reply, ‘Why not?’

Our Life Coaches provide house mates with an easy to grip ladder. They are significant
players in the dynamic of the pilot show, as they have been identified by their professional
sympathies. Decent points are consistently raised, they patiently elaborate their advice if
misunderstood.

Participants will share intimacies and moments involving what they “thought was love”, as
well as events that have left them low and angry. In a real sense, the Life Coaches help our
house mates to walk away from these car wrecks and close encounters with mayhem.

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 GROUP DYNAMIC & ACTIVITIES

The pilot episode offers our house mates the gift of ‘more useful years’ ahead.

There’s a wager at the outset. If you engage in the program, we’ll need something from you:
your commitment to absorb the advice of our Life Coaches. To participants, this will appear
a reasonable trade. They may encounter crippling truths along the way, but the underlying
message in the show is a positive one: ‘you can beat this.’

The pilot demonstrates mutual support amongst our participants who will always make
heartening noises from the wings. And you can be sure that they will be sympathetic. They
are after all, in the same boat.

As the pilot shows, there are moments of intense dialogue, enthusiasm, a yearning for
change or a longing to build a life with a trusted partner. Our Life Coaches are seen to open
up these new paths as a real possibility. A life that is not so angry but committed to
constructive relationships with the people around them, leaving behind a period of
repression and perhaps violence.

Along the way, Life Coaches will discuss personal judgements, direct passions, help to adapt
the way the participant sees the world, establish a new set of values in which to believe
including a spiritual dimension. Life Coaches achieve this by pushing aside the sense of a
competing struggle. They’ll context bigotry, envy, financial insecurity, jealousy,
consumerism - so that the climb is straight and true.

Life Coaches make their presence felt throughout the pilot show, assuming a very clear-cut
position and withdrawing participants who damage the group dynamic. We witness in the
pilot episode that they are not shy to employ advanced methods of dismissal. These acts go a
long way to ensuring that the other house mates feel safe and secure.

SCHEDULE OF HOUSE EVENTS

The journey for our participants lasts a week and starts on a Friday, as the group are
introduced and left to party their first night away. They go to bed in their new house. A
wakeup announcement at 8am from a Life Coach, tells them to adjourn in the Living Room,
immediately cracking their cycle of non-thinking by warning them about the “unexpected,”
that they have taken their last sip of alcohol and have only ten minutes to get ready.

Each day is characterized by a different activity. Boxing, martial arts, art therapy, a nature
hike, acupuncture, yoga, cooking lessons. A range of solid events that help to control the
overall mood of the group as well as introducing relaxation techniques. They will also be
supported in their faith, to build on their nascent spiritual beliefs which can also be a
continuing source of enlightenment.

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Other exercises are simply feats of the imagination. One example is a group session about
fatalism and how the group would react if they knew the world was about to disappear.

The end state sees each participant writing a letter to an identified person who has caused
them significant grief. Each participant has a choice: they will either explain their letter (and
therefore have it placed in a fake shredder) or have the courage to read the piece out loud to
camera and have the letter destroyed in a real shredder.

In the final moments of the pilot show, the person to whom the letter is directed is either
offered the letter to read or a video to watch, proving once and for all to the outside world
that our ‘Hot Head,’ is a ‘Hot Head’ no more.

OUTCOMES OF THE PILOT SHOW

With family and friends witnessing this fundamental change, all participants will want to
continue this sense of achievement, when they step out of the house for the first time after a
week.

Sharing your emotions publicly, with the Life Coaches and finally with an essential family
member, is a deliberate realism. Don’t be surprised if you hear more than once in the pilot
show, ‘yes, I suppose the time has come to let go of my anger’.

At the close of the pilot, all the participants brim with the excitement of the possibilities, that
by engaging and revealing themselves as ‘Hot Heads’, they have come far. A radical re-
mapping of their universe, bringing with it a sense of harmony and contentment.

HOT HEADS offers our society some significant advantages as a show for good. If children
can be taught life fundamentals, as adults, we will accept these in greater part because they
carry greater meaning. There are four main proofs in the pilot show that bode well for an
extended series:

- Evidence of an individual curbing their anger.

- Evidence within the group of instigating the dynamic of self-help.
- Evidence of corrected behaviour within the wider group.
- Evidence of a scaling down of anger incidents as the week progresses.

And the series has a long future ahead of it. Series Two could be ‘Sporting Hotheads’ with
recognizable sportspeople who have reputations for anger on the field or court. Series three,
‘Hot Headed Truckers’ with people, who have indictments for road rage. The list goes on.

To achieve these invaluable goals only requires engagement by each house mate. As the
producers for this pilot conclude: collaboration prevails over conflict, talk prevails over force,
dialogue prevails over fear.

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 POST SHOW ONLINE SUPPORT

Throughout the pilot and the ensuing series, Life Coaches engage in a precise set of social
tools to help our participants with activities. Life Coaches will have armed our participants
with the ability to anticipate situations that might start a slide back into anger.

When they leave the house however, Producers will be able to sharpen and define what our
house mates have learnt through a dedicated online forum for all ex-HOT HEAD
participants. A sign of the show’s determination to be a platform for self-help.

The reason why Life Coaches are so crucial is that they’re experts at identifying the
emotional baggage of each participant. That advice and support continues to be offered in
the online post-show discussion forum.

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