Editor house 2 Anastasia and Ivan. Virtual romance for Choban
It only seems to viewers that everything is fine with the residents of the TV set and they don’t need to worry about everyday life. As it turned out, show participants begin to be humiliated even on the approaches to the perimeter, during castings. Reporters made their way to the selection of recruits.
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Potential Dom-2 stars are screened out in the building of a former bowling center on the outskirts of Moscow. Three girls represent a kind of examination committee. They don’t hesitate to say nasty things to the contestants’ faces and look at the reaction.
“You’re so boring. It’s boring with you... Everything is very sluggish,” “Why do we need you on the project?”, “What sets you apart from the crowd and makes you different?”, “What, is your penis something special? Fork it into the steering wheel.” twisted, shamrock?" – the hostesses of the casting ask questions pointedly.
Those few who survived this meat grinder and withstood the pressure are asked to record a video message to the producer and prepare to be called to filming. When the approved “lucky ones” end up on a veteran project, they begin to break them.
Over the 13 years of its existence, about two thousand participants have passed through Dom-2. Some didn’t last even a week, while others managed to “get stuck” on the TV set for many years. For example, Ksenia Borodina is the permanent host of the show. And the record-breaking participants are Daria and Sergei Pynzari, who devoted about nine years of their lives to the project. They met at Dom-2, fell in love, got married, and had two children.
June 26, 2017This amorous reality show had several hosts. According to the RBC website, for almost ten years the structures of Valery Komissarov, the creator of the famous program “My Family” and a former State Duma deputy, were responsible for the work of the project. And at the beginning of 2014, one night the show moved to the site of a new general contractor - the company of Alexander Karmanov, a famous businessman, ex-husband of the host of "House-2" Olga Orlova (this explains the employment of the ex-soloist of "Brilliant" in a lucrative, enviable position).
During the change of management behind the scenes of the television production, the idea of closing the show was discussed. Igor Mishin, who headed TNT in 2014 (until 2016), told reporters that at the beginning of his work the project was becoming obsolete both morally and physically. “Dom-2” was produced in the most difficult conditions, the premises had a barracks-like smell, and we had to work on old, worn-out equipment,” Mishin recalls, not without a shudder.
Former participant of “House-2” Rustam Solntsev also brought fear. “The chairs there were breaking under my ass from old age. We lived in a garbage dump, the place was uncomfortable,” the showman complained.
Former presenter of the show Ksenia Sobchak, who started together with Ksenia Borodina and left the project at the peak of its popularity, said that the former owner of the TV show Komissarov “saving a lot.” Like, the end of his era was logical, because TNT wanted to make shows at a modern level.
It was then - from April 22 to 23, 2014 - that an emergency night escape of the Dom-2 stars from the old (now abandoned) site to the new one took place. Several buses arrived at the television building. Project participants were forced to quickly pack their things and leave the perimeter.
The boys were transported to an area surrounded by a two-meter metal fence. There they saw modern cottages and a new, stylish “front place”. “The move was a special operation, we ran away with our trunks secretly from Komissarov,” Solntsev shared his memories. According to another star of the show, Gleb Klubnichka Zhemchugov, everything happened “abruptly”, since the project was “taken away” from the creator.
The new curator of the television production, Karmanov, made sure that the chairs no longer broke. According to estimates by RBC, about $50 million was spent on the arrangement of Polyana and City Apartments. About six months after changing the contractor, the star of “House-2” found their paradise on Earth - an additional film set in the Seychelles called “Love Island”.
First, project participants selected for the resort were accommodated in tents covered with reeds. There they were flooded during tropical rainstorms. Therefore, the children were moved to normal houses on the island.
Now about the rules and living conditions at Dom-2. Since the launch of the project, the television production has been led by general producer Alexey Mikhailovsky and chief editor Alexander Rastorguev, who are called “the good and the evil police.”
According to one of the veterans of the show, Mikhailovsky and Rastorguev discuss their storylines with the participants of “House-2” during personal conversations, outside the television cameras. They can speed up the development of a couple’s relationship or influence certain events.
Although the project does not have a clearly defined script with the roles and actions of the characters, editors can still intervene in what is happening on the site and suggest to the participants of “House-2” which development of events will most interest the audience. However, Gleb Klubnichka assured that no one forced him to fight or build relationships.
Episodes of the filmed show are aired with a week delay. To prevent spoilers from getting onto the Internet, the stars of the project were initially prohibited from using mobile phones. According to Olga Solntse, the project leaders believed that the participants in the television production could reveal the intrigue in a conversation with relatives or friends.
“There was one landline phone, only one participant per day could call it. My turn came only in the second week after the launch of the project,” said the Sun.
According to Sobchak, it was impossible for the participants of the TV show to “live in a prison format.” Andrey Chuev also compared Dom-2 to a prison. An ex-participant of the project said that at some point the stars of the show were prohibited from traveling to the city “on business.” They had a day off once a week. Alexandra Gozias complained that the phone could only be used for an hour a day, and then only after midnight.
The guys also dispelled myths about supposedly “cosmic” earnings. The first participants of "House-2" lived in poverty. They were not paid any money at all. Having gone to Moscow for the weekend, they begged for money and cigarettes on Arbat. “People recognized us, took autographs, and we asked for money,” recalls Stepan Menshchikov. Then the channel management had to introduce monthly payments to the project stars.
The first 101 days a participant “builds love” is free. This is presented as a probationary period. And only then, if the candidate has not left during this time, TNT enters into an agreement with him and pays him for the previous period at a minimum salary of about 16-17 thousand rubles per month.
According to RBC magazine, which cited several ex-participants in the project, the most successful stars of “House-2” have been earning up to 150 thousand rubles a month in recent years. Less scandalous “quiet people” and newcomers are content with 30-40 thousand rubles. Salary directly depends on activity on the site and popularity with the audience, Solntsev shed light on this delicate issue. According to Rustam, Dom-2 has a well-thought-out system of fines. Current participants are punished for smoking on camera or returning to the “Glade” later than the agreed time.
After participating in the TV project, some heroes wanted to earn money easily and a lot
For 13 years in the television project “Dom-2” its participants live on everything ready, receive a salary for participating in the show (after passing the probationary period). Some participants, having appeared in a popular TV show, having learned the taste of “high life”, are in no hurry to work, looking for easy money. Despite the fact that the presenters Olga Buzova and Ksenia Borodina (pictured above) teach the children to live and love honestly, some are “blown away.” We have made a selection of former participants of “House-2” who have either already expunged their criminal record or are still serving a sentence.
Sergey Sichkar
Sergei Sichkar was a favorite of fans of the television project “Dom-2” - an athlete, a handsome man, “man of the year”. And then an exemplary guy from Belarus was sent to prison for three years: Sichkar was selling stolen cars. Seryozha was released early for exemplary behavior, although partially - he has been living in Minsk for five months: he continues to serve his sentence in an open correctional facility. During the day, Sergei works as a fitness instructor, but is required to spend the night in a special institution.
The guy was in the colony from March 27, 2016 to February 17, 2017. Sergei was supported by his family; the ex-girlfriend from the television project “Dom-2” also did not stand aside - she constantly called relatives, helped, and was in court when the verdict was announced. Sichkar promises that he will not let down the trust of the people who supported him - he plans to study music and earn extra money as a host of various events. His family is paying off the loans that Serezha’s mother took out to pay off the damage to the victims.
Sasha Skorodumova and Sergei Sichkar.
Sergei Sichkar said in an interview that the conditions in prison were quite acceptable: “There are three meals a day. If a person is adequate and understanding, then he will be fine everywhere... There are all sorts of people there too. There are good ones, from whom you can never say that they were imprisoned, but there are also not very good ones... You can live: there were rewards for good behavior, there is a store, transfers...” Having learned about Sergei Sichkar’s past in the colony, he was assigned to a “special” position - guy talked with newcomers, explaining the rules of behavior in prison.
Behind the scandalous tinsel of the reality show “Dom-2” lies a corporation with a turnover of more than 5.7 billion rubles. in year. The beneficiaries of the television project were a State Duma deputy, the vice-president of the RFU and a major supplier of pipes for Transneft.
Photo: Mitya Aleshkovsky / TASS
A room in a former bowling center on the outskirts of Moscow. Three girls, like an examination committee, are conducting a casting for the show “Dom-2”. 26-year-old Ivan arrived in Moscow from Yekaterinburg a few days ago. “You're so boring. It’s boring with you... Everything is very sluggish,” the “examiner” concludes after a 20-minute conversation with the candidate. Last time, at the casting in 2011, he was told the same thing, he admits. The representative of the selection committee advises the guy to finally formulate “his own story” and come again.
Before the examination committee there are four applicants, alternately answering provocative questions: “Why do we need you on the project?”, “What sets you apart from the crowd and makes you different?”, “Is your penis something special? A shamrock twisted into a fork?”
The RBC magazine correspondent also decided to try her luck at the casting. The editors liked the legend about the feminist who liked the project participant, the former priest Walter: she was the only one of the eight people who came to the casting who was offered to record a video message to the producer and was told to prepare for a call to filming.
“Dom-2” is one of the main long-livers of domestic television. The reality show premiered on TNT on May 11, 2004. Since then, more than 16 thousand episodes have been aired (including reruns), according to research company Mediascope. About 2 thousand participants went through the project: some did not last even a week, others spent years at Dom-2. The record holders are Daria and Sergei Pynzari, who met on the project, got married, had two children: they spent a total of about nine years under cameras. However, only a few were able to “build their love” on the project: 16 weddings took place over 13 years, but some families broke up after leaving the show.
Every day, TNT allocates 4.5 hours of airtime to “House-2” - morning, evening and night episodes, the last two following each other. When the name of the program is mentioned, the progressive public usually frowns with disgust, but you can’t argue with the statistics: dramatic discussions like “is SMS texting an “ex” considered cheating” were watched on average by every eleventh Russian over four years of age over 13 years who turned on the TV during the broadcast of a reality show ( Mediascope data).
The conventional “universe” of “House-2”, in addition to TV episodes, includes a website (attendance of about 5 million people per month), pages of the TV project and participants on social networks (almost 8 million subscribers), a magazine with a stated circulation of 450 thousand copies and a line of food products under the show brand - from tea to stewed milk and condensed milk.
For almost ten years, the structures of Valery Komissarov, the creator of the famous program “My Family” and a former State Duma deputy, were responsible for the work of the reality project. And at the beginning of 2014, one night the show moved to the site of a new general contractor - the company of Alexander Karmanov, one of the largest suppliers of pipes for Transneft.
Valery Komissarov, creator of the famous program “My Family” and ex-State Duma deputy (Photo: Natalya Lvova / TASS)
RBC magazine correspondents, amid daily shouts and arguments from the TV screen, figured out who turned the most controversial project of modern television into a money machine and who benefits from it.
Next door to United Russia
In the prestigious Istra district of the Moscow region, on an area of 2.2 hectares on the river bank near the village of Leshkovo, there is an abandoned film set for “House-2”. It is hidden from prying eyes by a high fence with barbed wire, the territory is guarded, workers working on the renovation of a neighboring house told an RBC magazine correspondent. However, the drone we launched safely flew over the cottages with a faded pink “I love you” sign, a stage with peeling paint and the famous “frontal place”, where from the first issue until the spring of 2014, the “residents” of “House-2” decided who kicked out of the project. The bridge over which the eliminated participants left the show to the shouts of the remaining “We are happy!”, over several years was overgrown with nettles and rusted in places.
The land under the former film set belongs to producer Valery Komissarov and his relatives, as indicated in Rosreestr. The famous showman of the 2000s launched a number of television programs dedicated to family relationships. The most famous was “My Family” with the heading “Mask of Revelation”, the hero of which hid his face from the audience and told, for example, how his father paid for the services of a prostitute for him. In the 2000s, Komissarov also created two radio stations, was involved in the publishing business and, according to Kommersant, oversaw the publication of the party publication United Russia. Being a media person, he was elected to the State Duma three times from the party in power.
Komissarov was invited to work on a new reality project for TNT by Dmitry Troitsky, at that moment the general producer of the channel. The creator of “My Family” then actively collaborated with TNT, for example, he did the talk show “Windows” with Dmitry Nagiyev, which often ended in a fight between opponents.
“House” was based on the Under Construction format of the British company Zeal Entertainment, and paid licensing fees (the amount was not disclosed), says Troitsky. In the first “House,” which aired on TNT in July-November 2003, the participants in the show were married couples who were building a cottage under constant video surveillance. The winners of the project were Renata and Alexey Pichkalev, but instead of the square meters they won, they took the prize in money (8 million rubles). “It’s impossible to live in it, and the pool almost collapsed,” entrepreneur Vitaly Davydov, who bought the plot in 2016, told RBC magazine under the house.
The following year, the channel launched the second season of the television project. This time, it was not families who were invited to the show, but “singles.” “We realized that with established couples there would be no development of relationships,” explains Troitsky. Content production was taken over by the company House of Television and Radio Workers, owned by the Komissarov family; this company is still listed as the founder of the Dom-2 television program in the Roskomnadzor media register.
Former general producer of TNT Dmitry Troitsky (Photo: Yuri Martyanov / Kommersant)
Having launched the show, Komissarov “remotely participated in resolving key issues,” recalls the first presenter of the project, Ksenia Sobchak: “I remember someone tried to commit suicide, he got involved, “resolved” this situation.” Komissarov himself tried not to advertise his connection with the scandalous television project, recalls an acquaintance of the producer: “I met him once in the corridors of the State Duma, I said: “Valera, you’re crazy, you’re the chairman of the information policy committee and you’re making Dom-2!” And he: “Quietly, don’t tell anyone.”
Sex in a defense research institute
The first episode of the new season of the reality show began with the participants getting into a “groove” in Moscow, arriving in Leshkovo, and on a wooden bridge over a ravine they were met by the “commandant” and “foreman” of the construction site - the show’s hosts Ksenia Sobchak and Ksenia Borodina. Between the house built by the participants of the first “House” and the bathhouse on the banks of the Istra, a temporary cottage was erected for the new season, a bathhouse, a dining room and that same “frontal place” were built.
Like the first season, Dom-2 was supposed to run for three months. At first, the program’s ratings “did not inspire enthusiasm,” but then they began to grow, Troitsky recalls, and they decided to continue the show. In 2004, about 700 episodes were released; on average, every tenth Russian who turned on the TV in the evening watched it (Mediascope data).
Gradually, the concept of the show - building a house and fighting for it - came to naught: the project acquired the slogan “Build your love,” and the participants finally stopped pretending to be active at work and became immersed in relationships with each other, says Troitsky. According to him, TNT notified its British partners that the format had been redesigned and paid compensation for termination of cooperation in the amount of “several hundred thousand dollars.” The Digital Rights Group, of which Zeal became a part, did not answer questions from RBC magazine about the details of cooperation with TNT.
The new format hooked viewers for another couple of years, but in 2007 ratings dropped to their lowest level since the show’s launch - 8.2% nationwide (Mediascope data). The project was left by such “stars” of the TV set as May Abrikosov (hereinafter the period of the participant’s stay on the TV project is indicated in brackets; 2.5 years), Victoria Bonya (almost a year) and Alena Vodonaeva (three years).
Photo: Alexander Zhdanov / Kommersant
The creators of the show decided to make changes again. For example, at the end of the year they opened a second film set called “City Apartments” (the first one in Istra was “Polyana”). However, what looked like apartments from the screen was in reality non-residential premises in the fifth building of the capital's Scientific Research Institute of Technical Glass on Krzhizhanovsky Street. As of 2008, 49% of the shares of the research institute, which develops glass for military aircraft and government limousines, belonged to the Komissarov family (now the institute is part of Rostec). The defense institute did not hide the unusual proximity: on the roof of the building occupied by Dom-2, a neon sign “City of Love” sparkled. There was also a cafe of the same name.
The peak of popularity of the television project occurred in 2010-2012 - the share of the show’s audience among Russian viewers reached 11-12% (Mediascope data). The producers further complicated the twists and turns of the plot: their parents began to live with the participants at Polyana, established couples played weddings, gave birth to children and looked after them under the gun of video cameras. Presenter Sobchak left the show. “I was already involved in other journalism. I began to have a split personality, like the heroine of Buñuel’s “Beauty of the Day”: in the morning I talk about sex, in the evening about Kadyrov,” she says about the reasons for leaving the project.
Two people from Komissarov’s entourage assure: the creator of “My Family” made “very good” money from “House-2”. The production of the show in the early 2010s cost the TNT channel and related structures approximately $2 million per month, recalls an interlocutor close to the creators of the project. None of the former top managers of the channel, ex-participants in the project and acquaintances of the producer could remember how the relationship between Komissarov’s structures and TNT was formalized from a legal point of view. Komissarov himself was at various times listed as the founder of about 30 companies.
In the credits of “House-2”, the official producer from the moment the project was launched was indicated as “TNT-Teleset” (holder of the Roskomnadzor license for television broadcasting; part of the Gazprom-Media holding). In 2009, Comedy Club Production (KKP) became the “coordinating producer of the show,” company founder Arthur Janibekyan told Kommersant. Since the fall of 2010, KKP has taken the place of TNT-Teleset in the project’s output. The real structure of creating a reality show became increasingly confused: in particular, as RBC magazine found out, the partners appeared, the mysterious “Independent Television Studio”, behind which it was no longer Komissarov.
"House-2" from Strogino
The show could cause “mental harm to the health of minors,” activists of the All-Russian Parents Committee considered and at the beginning of 2011 they filed another lawsuit against the TNT channel. They demanded a ban on the screening of “House-2” from 04:00 to 23:00 due to the “systematic exploitation of the topic of sex.” The KKP and the Independent Television Studio were involved in the case as third parties. The latter was called as the real producers of the show, lawyer Alexey Belyavsky, who represented the interests of the committee in court, told RBC magazine. “KKP, as I remember, was an intermediary that had an agreement with the Independent Television Studio,” says a former employee of the channel.
In the 2000s, the owners of the “Independent Television Studio” were the director of the “Ball of Fortune” television lottery, the head of the NP “Strogino Football Club” and even the driver of the FC. All of them are associated with entrepreneur Sergei Anokhin. The “independent television studio” “was Anokhin’s company,” says the interlocutor, who was involved in the production of “House-2” for several years. Anokhin himself, in a conversation with RBC magazine, did not deny that he was related to the company.
The ex-director of FC Strogino Anokhin now heads the Moscow Football Federation and holds the post of vice-president of the RFU, he has assets in construction and trade, he told Sports.ru in 2016. At the same time, Anokhin was always attracted to show business: he was vice-president of the Russian High Fashion Association, married the ex-soloist of the group “Brilliant” Anna Dubovitskaya, and was involved in producing films. In 2008, the book “Females” about Moscow raiders was published under his name, which the entrepreneur dictated at the request of the Rossiya TV channel and the Ministry of Culture. The stately football functionary often becomes the hero of gossip columns - for example, in 2015, Anna Semenovich came to a party in honor of his birthday, Life wrote.
Vice-President of the RFU Sergei Anokhin (Photo: Yuri Samolygo / TASS)
It is not clear exactly what functions the Independent Television Studio performed in the creation of Dom-2. The interlocutor, who was previously involved in the production of the reality project, assures that Komissarov continued to produce the show, but the purchase of content was carried out through intermediate structures. “There were no representatives of Comedy at the Dom-2 sites,” says an ex-TNT employee. Anatoly Burnosov, ex-director of the “coordinating producer of the show” KKP, refused to discuss relations with the Independent Television Studio. Anokhin told RBC magazine that he is ready to talk “about football, but not about Dom-2.”
When Komissarov came to TNT to re-sign the contract in the spring of 2014, he was informed that “Dom-2” would now be made by another company, recalls ex-participant of the television project Rustam Solntsev (he spent about three years on the show in total). By that time, Komissarov could be seen more often in the United States than in Russia, several acquaintances of the producer told RBC magazine. In 2011, he resigned early as a deputy, declaring that he intended to create a television channel for the Russian-speaking population living abroad, and Gazeta.ru even called him a potential buyer of the RTVi channel from Vladimir Gusinsky. Komissarov refused to discuss any issues related to Dom-2 with RBC magazine. The land on Istra, where they “built love” until 2014, is up for sale, said a Moscow developer who tried to buy the site in 2016.
Behind the scenes of the television production, the idea of closing the show was discussed, Solntsev recalls. Igor Mishin, who headed TNT in 2014 (he led the channel until 2016), says that the reality project was becoming outdated “both morally and physically”: “Dom-2” was produced “in the most difficult conditions”, the premises had a “barracks smell”, I had to work on “old, worn-out equipment.” “The chairs there were breaking under my ass from old age. We lived in a garbage dump, the place was uncomfortable,” adds Solntsev. Komissarov “saving a lot,” says Sobchak, so the end of his era was logical: TNT wanted to make shows at a modern level, she adds.
"Brilliant" husbands
On the night of April 22-23, 2014, several buses arrived at the Dom-2 site in the Istra district. The participants of the television project hastily collected and loaded their things and went to the south of Moscow - to the settlement of Sosenskoye. A new site awaited them there, surrounded by a two-meter metal fence, with modern cottages and a stylishly furnished “frontal area.” “The move was a special operation, we ran away with our trunks secretly from Komissarov,” recalls Solntsev. Everything happened “abruptly,” in fact, the project was “taken away” from the creator, says another Dom-2 veteran, Gleb Zhemchugov (who spent more than four years under cameras).
The new curator of the television production was Alexander Karmanov, Anokhin’s acquaintance and business partner (in particular, they developed a lottery business together and collaborated with fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin). Unlike Komissarov, who “grew up” from television, Karmanov had an indirect relationship with the media sphere.
In the 2000s, the candidate master of sports in judo worked in a joint company of Gazprom and Boris Rotenberg’s structure, which supplied pipes, Vedomosti and Forbes wrote. In 2006, Karmanov founded the Eurasian Pipeline Consortium (ETC) and soon turned the company into one of the largest suppliers of pipe products for Transneft: in 2015, the businessman took sixth place in the Forbes “Kings of Government Order” ranking with 51.3 billion rub. He is also involved in pharmaceutical and real estate development businesses.
However, like Anokhin, Karmanova is attracted by the world of gloss. In the 1990s, he owned the Moscow nightclub “Dreams,” where “theatrical and erotic shows” took place and a “karaoke sauna” operated. At the same time, Karmanov produced the musical career of his common-law wife Natalya Lagoda, and in the 2000s he married the ex-soloist of the group “Brilliant” Olga Orlova. A few years later they divorced, which, however, did not prevent Orlova from becoming another host of “House-2” in May 2017, along with Olga Buzova and Ksenia Borodina.
The production of “House-2” was undertaken by the subsidiary of ETK “Solaris Promo Production” (SPP), created at the end of 2013. Mishin recalls that SPP representatives themselves offered to invest in restarting the TV set: by that time, the company was already collaborating with the channel and with KKP on other projects.
To ensure that the chairs “under the ass” no longer break, the renovation was approached thoroughly. For the new suburban “residence” Dom-2, the company ETK-Invest (a subsidiary of ETK) acquired 2.9 hectares of land in the Novomoskovsk administrative district, according to Rosreestr data. Next door to Polyana is now the elite cottage community Letova Roshcha, where, for example, the deputy chairman of the board of Sberbank and a member of the board of Gazprom live.
The “city apartments” were moved to a one-story building on Samora Machel Street next to the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN). In the 2000s, the Megasfera bowling center operated here, led by Karmanov (data from SPARK-Interfax). Now the premises are owned by one of the businessman’s companies, and castings for a television project take place here.
The arrangement of “Polyana” and “City Apartments” cost about $50 million (including the purchase of equipment), an interlocutor who previously produced the show told RBC magazine. ETK-Invest attracted loans from Promsvyazbank and Alfa Bank; the latter, for example, until 2017 had a swimming pool at Polyana and a “frontal place” as collateral, as follows from the register of the Federal Notary Chamber.
Six months after the change of contractor, “House-2” got another site - “Love Island” in the Seychelles. The choice of location is again not accidental: Karmanov is engaged in the import of seafood from the islands, he owns 51% in the local Oceana Fisheries, wrote the Seychelles News Agency portal. The director of the latter even shared with local media plans to organize a broadcast of “House-2” in Creole. At first, the show's participants were accommodated in reed-covered tents on the island of Terez, but during the period of tropical downpours they were not in the mood for love, so in 2015 everyone was moved to normal houses on the island of Lilet.
After receiving a contract for the show, Karmanov began to immerse himself in show business even more: for example, SPP bought the A-One channel (now TNT Music) from Mishin’s partner and became the owner of a restaurant in a high-rise on Kudrinskaya embankment, which until the end of 2013 belonged to the new head of TNT. In the same 2014, SPP acquired 25.01% from Gazprom Media in the Cypriot Club Production Holdings (the parent structure of KKP) and soon took a place in the credits of the TV show as the official producer of Dom-2.
But not for long: a year later, “TNT Production” appeared in the output of “House-2”. The company received the name, allegedly indicating involvement in the channel, on the eve of the reshuffle in the credits; before that it was called “Media City”. The list of its shareholders is hidden: the ex-managers of the company were associated with the structures of Karmanov and Anokhin, the current head - Alexander Prokudin - is also the executive director of SPP. Prokudin refused to communicate with RBC magazine, and the former director of the SPP, Alexander Maysov, did the same.
Since the launch of “House-2”, the television production has been led by the “good and evil policeman” - the show’s general producer Alexey Mikhailovsky and chief editor Alexander Rastorguev. And although the surroundings of the reality project have changed over the past 13 years, the basic “values” are still the same.
"Chase the Beast"
“What are we going to make a movie about?” - this is how Rastorguev addresses the participants of “House-2”, periodically calling them for a conversation. These conversations, which are not recorded by the ubiquitous cameras of the television project, are a delicate management of storylines. “He [Rastorguev] asks, for example, which of the girls you like, and then calls her and says: “In short, you like each other - let’s go on a date,” recalls one of the “veterans” of “House-2.” Mikhailovsky also conducts similar conversations, but he has the role of a “good policeman,” he says.
“House-2” does not have a script with prescribed roles and actions, several ex-participants in the television production assure. The editor can interfere with what is happening on the site, but no one forces you to fight or forcefully build relationships, Zhemchugov clarifies. According to him, there is a psychological effect on the set: newcomers who come to the project understand in advance what is expected of them, since they carefully watched the episodes, and if in ordinary life they would try to smooth out the conflict, then on the show, on the contrary, they are happy - this is a reason for clarifying relationships. Troitsky figuratively describes the process of creating a reality show: “Chase the beast into a trap, but do not touch it with your hands.”
“Lilya and Seryozha quarreled again because of jealousy,” “Nikita is trying to discourage Juliana from returning to Vitalik,” “Joseph is spending more and more time in the women’s bedroom.” At the beginning of each morning episode of Dom-2, a voice-over tells the viewer three main storylines of the upcoming broadcast. Editors' tips help develop areas that are interesting to viewers, explains the work scheme of the show's staff, Alexandra Gozias (more than two years on the project).
About 90 people work simultaneously on the “cinema” called “Dom-2” at Polyana in one shift, says an interlocutor who has been producing the show for several years, and about 60 more employees in the Seychelles. Images from all cameras are displayed in a control room with a wall of monitors, and a team of editors cuts out thematic blocks from the general flow of conversations and walks of participants around the site.
Reality show episodes are aired with a week delay—the project days must coincide with the viewer’s calendar. To prevent participants from revealing plot twists in advance when communicating with friends, they were initially forbidden to use mobile phones, recalls Olga Nikolaeva (Solntse; spent four years at Polyana), the author of the project’s anthem about “15 Cool People.” “There was one landline telephone, and only one participant per day could call it. My turn came only in the second week after the launch of the project,” she laughs.
Gradually the rules were relaxed. People had to be kept and the regime of being on site softened, because “it is impossible to live in a prison format,” explains Sobchak. Ex-participant of the TV show Andrei Chuev, who first came to Dom-2 in 2005, and the last one in 2015, recalls that he got up at 07:00, left “on business or to the gym,” and returned to noon: “They’re still rocking there for a long time by 11:00.”
However, at the end of 2016 - beginning of 2017, the SPP “tightened the screws,” several former participants told RBC magazine. “Like being in prison,” Chuev described the new system. According to him, the “residents” of “House-2” were prohibited from traveling to the city “on business,” and now have a day off once a week. You can only use your phone for an hour a day, and then after midnight, Gozias adds.
The tightening on the part of the show producer did not end there: key changes directly affected the income of the participants in the television project.
Fight Award
The first participants of “House-2” were engaged in what is called “ask” in hippie slang. Having gone to Moscow for the weekend, they asked for cigarettes and money from random passers-by on Old Arbat: there were none of their own, recalls Stepan Menshchikov (2004-2007). The terms of the project initially did not provide for regular cash payments, since after three months the winner of the show was to receive a built house in Istra. But the project dragged on. “People recognized us, took autographs, and we asked for money,” recalls Menshchikov. After outraged letters from viewers, the show's participants turned into full-fledged "hired employees," he adds.
For the first 101 days, the participant “builds love” for free, then TNT enters into an agreement with him and pays for the previous period at a minimum salary of 16-17 thousand rubles. per month, several ex-participants of the project told RBC magazine. In recent years, the most successful “residents” of “House-2” receive up to 150 thousand rubles, “quiet” people and newcomers receive 30-40 thousand rubles. monthly. The salary does not depend on the length of stay on the project, but on the activity on the site and popularity with the audience; specific calculations are strictly individual and are carried out by the producer, says Solntsev. There is also a system of fines in place - for example, there used to be monetary penalties for smoking on camera or returning to Polyana after the agreed time.
Who watches "Dom-2"
70% viewers of the project aged from 14 to 44 years are women, of which every eighth is a housewife.
3% is the difference between the male audience of daytime and nighttime episodes of “House-2”: men more often watch a television project during daylight hours.
25-34 years old- the “core” of the Dom-2 audience, viewers of this age account for almost 50%. About a quarter of those watching the TV project are young people under 24 years old.
2% viewers of "Dom-2" are engaged in business. The main audience works in the office (about 20%), approximately the same number of viewers of the television project study at school or university.
35% the audience of the television project has a “below average” income, the number of unemployed Dom-2 fans in the total mass is about 3%.
Sources: research by TNS Russia (now Mediascope) for January-November 2015, provided to the magazine by TNT's partner
Participation in stories with product placement for the “residents” of “House-2” is an unpaid obligation: the TV channel does not pay extra money for smearing cream, eating peanuts or praising a specific brand of shampoo, says a former reality participant. You have to make money from side projects of the show. For example, Menshchikov was listed as the editor-in-chief of the Dom-2 magazine and received about $1 thousand monthly; participation in tours brought in another $100-150 per concert. And in 2008, Chuev asked the management to manage the City of Love cafe and in eight months of work he earned $17 thousand in net profit, he rejoices.
Another source of additional income for “love builders” is advertising on Instagram. Its volume and cost depend not only on the number of subscribers to the account, but also on the reputation of the participant himself on the project. The cost of a post for a current “resident” of a reality show varies from 6 to 45 thousand rubles. Most often, on Instagram of Dom-2 participants you can find cosmetics manufacturers, clothing stores, and beauty salons.
However, since the beginning of 2017, SPP has “joined in” with income from Instagram: the show producer demanded that passwords from accounts be provided to its advertising division Smeeq.ru for centralized sales, four ex-participants in the project told RBC magazine. “They sold me two ads in a few months. I saw the prices for customers - about 20 thousand rubles. for a post, and I received 7 thousand rubles,” complains Chuev.
New rules introduced by SPP managers also imply a ban on business activities in parallel with filming. According to one of the “veterans” of the reality show, until now it has been an opportunity for participants not just to sit on “free sausage”, but to develop. “Dom-2 is a greenhouse where an imaginary feeling is created that you are realized, but as soon as the gates close, your life begins from scratch,” says Zhemchugov sadly. Now he works as a PR director for the Moscow tuning salon MyraWay, in the early 2010s he was a salesperson and at the same time a media person for the Staircase to Europe clothing store in Luzhniki.
After the tightening, Gozias and Chuev left the “perimeter” of the television set in the spring of 2017. While still at Dom-2, Gozias began selling clothes of various brands through her Instagram, and after leaving the project, she opened a showroom in Moscow, investing about 1 million rubles in it. Chuev, in parallel with filming, was engaged in suburban construction and advertised the technology of monolithic construction of Velox houses, and now works as the commercial director of the Kantemir Group near Moscow (involved in the implementation of this technology). In the near future, Chuev will become one of the founders of the group, one of the leaders of the Kantemir Group, Mukhtar Sulaybanov, told RBC magazine.
Few people have succeeded in building a business by taking advantage of the surge in popularity. For example, Anton Gusev, being a participant in the project, sold canopies for children's beds, which were produced by his friend. In 2013, after 1.5 years on the project, he and his wife Evgenia left Dom-2 and opened a clothing store in one of the shopping centers in the south of Moscow, investing 1.3 million rubles in it. The business has grown into a franchise network under the Gusevy Boutique brand with almost 30 branches across the country, Gusev told RBC magazine. In 2014, the family company’s revenue amounted to 4 million rubles, the next year it doubled (data from SPARK-Interfax), but the business could not survive the crisis. And then the Gusev family themselves fell apart. The entrepreneur, however, intends to launch a new Gusev Shop franchise network - this time selling men's suits.
However, even the business of all the participants in the reality show taken together cannot be compared with the turnover of money in the “universe” of “Dom-2”.
Reality Corporation
Condensed milk, stewed meat, peanuts, ice cream, beans, cucumbers, squash caviar. Since the spring of 2017, project participants have been advertising products with the symbols of “House-2”: some of the heated discussions are held in the kitchen against the backdrop of a barricade of milk cartons with the famous emblem; the logos of other products are mercilessly sealed with opaque tape.
Two companies received the right to supply branded goods to store shelves in exchange for royalties from SPP. One is the Moscow “Trading House-2”, half owned by Anokhin, the other is “Vesna”, registered in Angarsk. All negotiations on behalf of Vesna are conducted by entrepreneur Sergei Mishakov, who calls himself the “project manager”: he had a distribution business in Siberia, but at the end of 2016 Mishakov was declared personal bankrupt with a debt of 640 million rubles.
Condensed milk, stewed meat, peanuts, ice cream, beans, cucumbers, squash caviar and tea - this is not a complete list of products with the symbols of the show (Photo: Irina Gubaidullina for RBC)
You can find products with the Dom-2 logo, for example, in Fix Price stores. Products with the symbols of the show are sold on par with similar products in the category, says Victoria Smirnova, director of the retailer’s marketing department. RBC magazine's interlocutor at one of the supplying companies is less optimistic: according to him, overall sales are not going well - “apparently, people are embarrassed about their interest in Dom-2.” They tried to launch the production of branded products back in the Komissarov era, but this area has always been a side source of monetization.
Officially, the revenue of SPP for 2015, according to SPARK-Interfax, amounted to 4.8 billion rubles. At the same time, the company produces the “Reboot” show for TNT, produces films and TV series, has a stake in the TNT Music channel, and also owns the rights to show films from a number of foreign film companies on Russian television.
In 2014-2015, the channel paid SPP about $3 million monthly ($36 million per year), recalls the former producer of the show: he does not exclude that later this amount could change - during the crisis, all mutual settlements under the contract were transferred to rubles. When calculating payments in connection with a change of contractor, they began to take into account investments in the creation of new film sets, says Mishin, but does not name the specific cost of the purchase.
The real cost of creating a reality project may be less than $3 million, says a former top manager of one of the TV channels: “The main costs are always the launch of the project; now streaming production is already underway.” The general director of the company "Mir Reality Production" Dmitry Rozhkov does not agree: this is a normal price tag for the production of such a show as "Dom-2", where part of the filming takes place in the Seychelles. The cost of one episode of a similar reality show, “Vacations in Mexico - 2,” aired on STS in 2012-2013, was $50 thousand, says an interlocutor close to the producer of the project. In just a year and three months, about 650 episodes were released (Mediascope data excluding reruns), for which the channel could pay about $33 million.
In any case, TNT and related structures are able to more than compensate for production costs. The total cost of direct advertising aired inside Dom-2 in 2016-2017 could reach 290 million rubles. per month (excluding VAT), experts from the communications agency MediaCom calculated based on data from the TV Index project of Mediascope (the agency assessed domestic commercial network, orbital and local blocks for January 2016 - May 2017). At the same time, MediaCom emphasizes: this figure “is not an assessment of the profitability of the project or channel.”
Analysts from another agency estimated the volume of advertising placements slightly lower - about 260 million rubles. on average per month in 2016. In January-May 2017 there was an increase of 60%, said RBC magazine’s interlocutor at the agency. Since the beginning of the year, the sales of advertising on the air of the scandalous show have been handled by the National Advertising Alliance, established by federal television channels.
So-called sponsorship integrations are a separate source of income. “Dom-2” has become a “Klondike” for product placement, notes Troitsky: “When you put a product in a regular series, it sticks out from all the cracks there. “In House-2, everything can be done more or less organically and authentically.” In 2005, advertising of third-party products brought in $4 million, and in 2008 - $8 million, or over 200 million rubles. (data from the Business magazine and the Vedomosti newspaper). There is no more recent data; Gazprom Media, whose sales house is responsible for “organic and authentic” integrations, refused to answer any questions.
Digital projects related to the “construction” of love on the air bring in less money so far. The monthly turnover of the largest network platforms - the Dom2.ru website, groups on social networks, Viber chat, accounts of current participants on Instagram and the Dom-2.Dating mobile application - does not exceed 12 million rubles, estimates the director of client relations at the i agency .Com Sergey Efimov (his calculations do not take into account the TNT-Club application). Taking into account 0.5 million rubles. from a premium subscription in a dating application, the annual income of digital projects in annual terms does not exceed 145 million rubles.
SPP also takes its “digital” earnings: in addition to selling advertising on Instagram to the current participants and presenters of the project, at the end of 2016, Karmanov’s company bought the magazine “Dom-2” from structures close to the co-founder of the radio “Russian Berlin” Dmitry Feldman, and now offers advertising positions both in the printed version and on the social network of the publication. In 2015, the magazine’s revenue was 170 million rubles. (data from SPARK-Interfax). The maximum income from advertising on Instagram of participants is hardly more than 0.7 million rubles. per month (8.4 million rubles per year), says Efimov. “There is a surplus of bloggers on the market, a unique style is in demand, and all participants in Dom-2 look alike,” explains an expert from the i.Com agency.
TNT-Teleset, SPP, ETC refused to communicate with RBC magazine about this text, and Mikhailovsky and Mishakov did the same. A request to meet with Karmanov at the ETK reception was refused - due to “his absence in Moscow”; attempts to persuade the businessman to communicate through his acquaintances were also unsuccessful. Former director of TNT Roman Petrenko (headed the channel in 2002-2013) did not discuss the financial indicators of those times, writing to a correspondent of RBC magazine that there were “many sensitive points” in the topic of “House-2”.
The TNT channel did not disclose revenue for the second year in a row; in 2015 it could have amounted to 16.5 billion rubles, Vedomosti wrote. The turnover of money circulating in the “universe” of “House-2”, according to calculations by RBC magazine, now exceeds 5.7 billion rubles. in year. “The director of any channel dreams of having a system-forming project that produces a product 365 days a year,” says Mishin. How many more times “Dom-2” will be on the air for 365 days is an open question, but the author of the project’s anthem with the words “we will build feelings, sex, love and home” Sun (Nikolaeva) is sure: “No one will kill the hen that lays “ golden eggs."
With the participation of Nastya Berezina
There is a “trick” on house 2: if the project participants are sick of each other, it means that they definitely need to get together, because this is an irresistible passion, practically love, and nausea is one of the signs of this very love. There is no use in trying to fight this. There is no point in explaining that a person is unpleasant to you. It’s easier to accept it and pretend that you agree...
In the hope of dotting the E. Most likely, the girl hoped that if she said in front of everyone about her lack of sympathy for the guy, then it would finally dawn on him, but it turned out the other way around. The participants and guests of the studio decided that she was practically in love with Ivan, since she decided to come to the show.
It’s difficult to say how this virtual romance between Cioban and himself could have ended if, after the show, editor Nastya had not shown amazing resilience and refused to follow the leadership’s lead. It was no coincidence that the topic of office romances was heatedly discussed on the show; apparently, after the appearance of Vera Kurochka among the guys, the orgi decided to develop the topic further. At least, this is what the new Monday talk show host Andrei Cherkasov voiced.
But, as someone very correctly said on air today, not everyone wants to show off their face on TV. Editor Nastya refused to spoil her reputation by participating in House 2. Are you interested in the topic of office romances on a television set?
Dasha and Seryozha Pynzari and little Artem returned to the clearing! Artem is a very sweet, beautiful baby! We were all very happy to have a happy family!
In the evening, after a day of work, I sat at home in front of the computer and remembered how I did a special series about Dasha and Seryozha. If anyone doesn’t know, these are films about couples, in which there are interviews with the participants and, in parallel, fragments from their life on a television project that they remember.
When the episode had already aired, I asked Seryozha
- Serge, how did you like the series about you?
- Yes, but I was only upset that you inserted a story where I raised my hand against Dasha. I was so disgusted to see it and terribly ashamed that everyone watched it again.
- Seryozha, I’m sorry, you can’t remove the words from the song. We were making a film about your relationship and all the stages of this relationship..Of course, Seryozhka Pynzar is generally a cool guy like few, and probably not every person will be so ashamed of an act committed once in the past. Moreover, the mistakes of ordinary people are not demonstrated several times throughout the country)))) And yet...
I thought about why, in principle, good people in relationships with their loved ones commit all sorts of disgusting things... Most of us, in general, when starting a relationship with a new person, act as if we were writing an essay in draft. They don’t consider it necessary to think about what could hurt the other half (or, say, a friend). But they simply show themselves and try to put themselves in the first (main) place in the relationship. In a relationship, they look at themselves, what they look like, what they have done for them, what they feel (or don’t feel). After all, the second person is still new and going through a kind of hazing in our lives, and therefore does not yet deserve us to think about all his thoughts and feelings! The main thing for us is to teach him (her) how to properly treat our Majesty. In general... This whole story ends with people realizing the value of their second half when it becomes simply vital. Often this happens precisely at the moment when a person has almost lost his loved one and is horrified by the realization that he is losing... And he offers
START EVERYTHING WITH A CLEAN SHEETbut, my friends, there is no such thing as a blank slate. If there is love and a desire to stay together (despite all the problems, quarrels, misunderstandings and resentments), you can simply continue writing on an already dirty sheet. You can even fix everything and create a happy family. But the first leaf in your family's history will remain a little dirty. And then the one who is to blame for this (and more often than not both are to blame) will think with longing that it would be possible not to hurt the dearest person on earth so much. This is if there is a happy ending.
And if a person refuses to forgive and tears all the sheets! And he will burn your photos.. And he will switch the radio to another wave if your song starts playing. If he throws you out of his life just as disdainfully as you disdainfully responded to his declarations of love. If you then bite your elbows for another two or three years, looking at how happy this person is with someone else? Yes, this is a bad ending, which has one plus. In this case, you can realize that even at the very beginning of a relationship with a person, you should behave the way you would behave with someone you never want to offend... Even if you break up, you can be friends. And if one day you truly fall in love and get married, then the first page in the history of your family will not be soiled!In other words, please try to live on clean paper. After all, we write our love story directly from our hearts.
