House 2 former participants script or not. Next door to United Russia
On the day of the 11th anniversary of the project, a correspondent for the magazine “Antenna - Telesem” spent a day on the set of the reality show “Dom-2” on TNT as a participant.
Viewers of a television project are usually divided into two categories: those who dream of getting into the highest-rated reality show, and those who sigh skeptically: “How do they live there!” I was able to check both versions - whether the TV project is such a paradise that you don’t want to leave, or whether the conditions are far from suitable for life.
Get to the clearing "House-2" not so easy. After several cases of attempts on the lives of participants that occurred at the old site, security at the new site was doubled, or rather, two rows of fence. First you get to the parking lot, where the administrative and technical parts are located. Here they attached a microphone to me, turned it on and sent me to the gate where new participants enter and dropouts leave the project. From the second the doors opened, cameras started filming my every step. I admit, this moment embarrassed me the most; it seemed that I would constantly be embarrassed by them, think about how I look, and would not be able to relax and behave naturally. It was like that for the first minutes. I was taken to a common house and introduced to the participants. While I was chatting with Andrei Cherkasov and Vlad Kadoni, I completely forgot about the microphone and the cameras until I heard the administrator’s voice over the loudspeaker: “Lena, adjust the microphone, I can’t hear you.”
Then we went to the construction site. The name is conditional, because the house was built a long time ago, only sometimes the territory is cleaned and the chickens and rabbits that live in the perimeter are fed. I didn’t have to do that either, but I had to take part in the discussion of a current topic. Project participants without being married for even a year. Evgeniy has already found himself a new girl, and more than one. I needed to express my opinion. It would seem that the task is not difficult. But there is a camera in front of you (you can’t see them at all in the house, but on each street there are also cameramen who periodically laugh at the participants, for example, at Wenceslav Vengrzhanovsky). The “old men” of the project, Andrei Chuev and Cherkasov, help to overcome embarrassment; they ask leading questions... For the first time in my practice, it is not me who asks them.
We had dinner at Olga Vasilievna’s house. Alexander Gobozov's mother is considered the best cook on the project. She treated us to vegetable soup. And in her cozy kitchen, while talking about her grandson Robert, her daughter-in-law Aliana and the Seychelles, I again forgot that I was being filmed. Still, life in the house is more like normal, there are no operators, and until a voice sounds with instructions from the loudspeaker, you feel quite comfortable.
We ended the day at the execution place with the project leaderKsenia Borodina . “What surprised you the most?” - she asked me. Project scale and people. Everyone knows that the screen adds a couple of kilograms, it turns out even more: the participants are very slim in real life. And the project area looks much larger on TV. It is, of course, quite big in reality - as much as 3 hectares. But, for example, the frontal place is actually tiny, and everyone sits close to each other, the distance between the houses is small, unless the rooms in the house correspond to the picture, in comparison with the real apartments in which we live, they are very spacious.
“When eight years ago I saw all this beauty - an open-air house, a swimming pool, a gym, a full refrigerator - the question of where to live was no longer a question for me,” Andrei Cherkasov joked.
I wouldn’t refuse such conditions either, but only for a day or two.
We all remember the situation with a flower pot that magically became empty in just 10 seconds. Let me remind you for those who don’t know. On the day Olga Vasilievna left for St. Petersburg, Aliana Ustinenko tried to storm Olga Vasilievna’s room and tried to get through the window. Attentive TV viewers noticed that the flower pot in which the flower grew was empty in the next frame, and the sheets were shifted to the left side. This suggests that this capture of the room was not filmed in 1 take, but the fact that the broadcasts of several days were filmed on 1 day is already interesting, but more on that below, and now a little more about the potty.
The next day, an explanation for the disappearance of the flower from the pot appeared online... Aliana assured that she stuck her hand in and threw the flower out of the pot, and also moved the sheets to the left. The girl didn’t think about one little thing, because in order to do this, the length of Aliana’s arms would not be quite enough, since, purely by eye, the length of the arms for such manipulations should have been about 1 meter longer. There are 2 options: Option 1 - Aliana Ustinenko has a magical power that allows her to stretch her arm to any length; Option 2 - Aliana is p*ssing. I'm leaning towards option #2.
Now let's go deeper. In the picture below, we can see how the pot actually turned out to be empty. After Olga Vasilievna returned from St. Petersburg (she was gone for several days), the enraged grandmother empties the pot! There are 2 points here. 1st moment - OB empties the pot, which, according to Aliana and the broadcast, was already empty. The second point is that if in a situation with the seizure of a room, the pot was full and then became empty, it means that Olga Vasilievna was on the project at that time and was filming the scene of the angry grandmother emptying the pot and the chronology of events was slightly different... Initially, they started filming Aliana’s scene on the window, but when something went wrong and the filming of the scene was stopped after the first take, it was decided to film the scene with the grandmother’s return to the project. After they filmed the scene of Olga Vasilievna’s return and the destruction of the flower, they filmed the scene with Aliana Ustinenko on the window, when the pot had already been emptied by Olga Vasilievna.
It turns out that the events that we saw on House 2 with a break of 2-3 days were filmed on the project on the same day. Maybe the broadcasts are generally filmed, for example, on the 1st day of the Gobozovs’ scene, on another day the scenes of the other participants, and after that, they are already edited and scattered over the broadcast days. The cameras are working all this time to fill the airwaves with various conversations, which dilute the airwaves. Then it becomes clear when a participant at the beginning of the broadcast has two days of stubble, at the end of the evening he is clean-shaven, and at the night he has stubble again.
I DO NOT argue that all this is my speculation, which may well turn out to be a sick fantasy, but everything seems to indicate that broadcasts of several days may well be filmed on the same day.
May 10, 2018 no comments yet
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That's how many years this scandalous reality show "Dom-2" has existed, the debate continues: are all these scandals and intrigues according to the script, or are the participants living on a whim.
It is clear that this secret is kept under seven seals.
But ordinary people work on this project, and no one has canceled the staff turnover, so no, no, but some information sometimes leaks out.
Former participants and former employees of the famous television production, which has lasted for many years, are happy to provide comments to various sources of information on topics of interest to television viewers.
For example, one of the participants, who recently left a reality show about an incomprehensible love, shared how their day goes off-screen.
In the morning, the line editor or duty producer gathers everyone. Gives clear directions on where, who and what is being filmed: the first team will film a quarrel, say, between Vasya and Petya for the same amount of time, and the second team of cameramen will film the passion, for example, between Kolya and Olya.
There is a certain mini-scenario, a certain scheme for conducting a “working” day. The same tasks are given to the participants themselves, so that the cameramen have something to shoot. Of course, no one has to teach the text, no. A situation is given, and then do what you want!
But not everywhere and not in all cases a forecast task is made. To make it as realistic as possible and close to natural, natural situations, “surprises” are prepared for the participants in the form of provocations and harsh statements. After all, this is precisely what intrigues the huge army of television viewers of this scandalous reality show.
Even when selecting the editor of “House-2”, with a trained eye they identify interesting participants in the future and immediately specify their roles. Suppose, a bitch, or a shirtless guy who will be shared by several girls, or a lover of crumpets, or a lover of freaks, or an “honest giver” and so on.
The rest of the mass is the so-called “meat” for departure. Naturally, not all of the applicants justify the trust of the authorities. Well, they fail to cope with the task and that’s it! These are the kind of frames that can be immediately calculated. Few people will believe that a little girl with a nasty voice and a frightened voice is such a predator and brawler!
Yes, the girl was an excellent student and quiet all her life. But she auditioned for the reality show “Dom-2” five times and only on the sixth, apparently agreeing to the role of a bitch, she got the chance to come to the television production.
And what? What result? Well, she provoked several participants several times, well, they told her heartily several times, and where did her supposedly “impudent” character go?
Yes, Daria swallows her tongue, all it takes is for a real bitch – Elena Khromina – to just appear on the horizon! So I haven’t quarreled with her even once. Daria is suppressed and instantly bows to a strong personality. And that's a fact.
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There are plenty of such examples. Another one of the latest... Do you remember when you had just arrived in the Seychelles and began to confusingly explain your drawn diagram in a checkered notebook?
As he said, explaining the circles with the names of the participants: I will quarrel with this one tomorrow, and I will begin to ignore this one, I will look after this one, and the like. Why not a behavioral pattern? The guy, who had just joined the project, was very afraid of missing out on assignments and recommendations from the organizers and stupidly pictured to himself with whom, what and when he should do.
And let's remember, who at first wore slippers almost in her teeth to a real bitch by nature. And what happened to her later? Suddenly she acquired a tough character, from somewhere appeared not just courage, but arrogance and rudeness.
If you think that a clear distribution of roles occurs only in the female part of the television set, then you are deeply mistaken.
The same thing happens to men. From the latest examples -. Well, which one is Don Juan? He is still sincerely perplexed about his role.
How many times have viewers of the reality show heard his sincere, surprised words: “Sasha, what are you saying? (Or do you?) Lena, how can you?” Etc. Poor guy! It’s not he who rushes between the girls, but according to the script, two girls play real ping-pong!
Does he love any of them? Of course not! He almost cried several times and asked to go home to Moscow! But the contract was signed and the penalty is very large. He is not the wealthiest young man on the project. So I’m forced to participate in funny scenes played out by girls.
Consider staged fights, but not all of them are like that. For example, when I grabbed my hair extensions in the kitchen, it was from the heart. And then she shouted obscenities at another member of Yulia’s project – this is not censored speech.
But when Elena Khromina fought, or Again, Elena and Sheva, it was clearly a staged action. The participants don’t really say to each other: “Come on, start somehow!”
How do young people fight on the project? At first they swear at each other for a long time, being very far from each other. Then they make sure to take something off themselves, looking around to see if there are people who will stop them.
Only then, in the best case, they will hug and lie lightly together on the floor in the common kitchen, or even bury their foreheads together and say something quietly, pushing their foreheads together like bulls.
So, to the question whether there is a script for the reality show “Dom-2” the answer is clear, of course there is. But there’s plenty of improvisation there too!
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 in 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 there would be no development of relationships with established couples,” 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”, there was a “barracks-like smell” in the premises, 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 the 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 Yuliana 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 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 account passwords 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
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.
ON THIS TOPIC
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.
This 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.
