HPE won’t reveal the winner of its ‘Channel Reality Show’ until June, even though all episodes have now been filmed.
The five-episode show sees nine early-career sales staff from HPE’s UK partner community battle it out to win a ticket to this summer’s HPE Discover in Las Vegas.
Despite its high production values (see trailer in post below), the show is closed beyond HPE’s Approved partners (although they kindly invited IT Channel Oxygen to view the first episode).
An episode will be screened every two weeks before the winner is unveiled, with the first one airing last Friday.
“I’m as compelled as anyone to see what happens next”
The first instalment saw contestants perform a storage pitch to a panel of three HPE judges, including ‘straight-talking’ judge Andrew McDade.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, McDade described the process as “one of the best things I’ve done in my career”, despite filming taking a whole week.
He claimed his wife and 11-year-old daughter are already “hooked”.
“After episode one, both of them asked me about the outcome, which I shall not reveal to anyone under strict NDA,” McDade said.
“I was watching it glued to the screen just like my wife and daughter.
“I didn’t witness a lot of what you saw in episode one, because I was a judge.
“I didn’t see the incident with the crow (while pacing round the grounds of the venue before his pitch, one contestant remarked: “I just watched a crow die; that’s a foreshadowing of how this is going to go”), or the budding bromances or comedy moments, or the significant pressure they’re under at times.
“I’m as compelled as anyone to see what happens next.”
“They will stay friends for a long time”
The show is designed to showcase the talents of early-career staff within HPE’s partner community, and arm them with skills to take back to their businesses.
One contestant put it differently during the show, however, remarking that “we’ve all been stitched up by our MDs”.
“One of the things that surprised me is that the group of contestants who went through the show have created a genuine friendship among each other,” McDade said.
“I genuinely believe they will stay friends for a long time.”
The ‘Simon Cowell’ of the show
Is McDade happy with the production team characterising him as the Simon Cowell of the judging panel?
“Yeah, I don’t mind it,” he responded.
“We wanted to have a judging panel with different personalities and backgrounds. I think I’ve got a reputation for being straight-talking.
“We probably clashed at times for the best possible reasons, to help these people develop and to help them through the processes and the various challenges we set throughout.”
Although IT Channel Oxygen is not permitted to name the partners involved, they will be familiar to anyone who read the recent Oxygen 250 and Oxygen Fast-Growth 50 reports.
HPE’s partners are already asking when season 2 is coming out, McDade claimed.
“They’re asking ‘can we put ourselves forward’, and that’s hats off to the film crew and everybody that’s put effort into this,” he concluded.
