Can a TikTok star find fame on TV? Boman Martinez-Reid is set to find out in new show
CTV
TikTok star Boman Martinez-Reid stars in 'Made for TV with Boman Martinez-Reid,' streaming Friday on Crave and premiering on its linear TV channel next week.
TikTok star Boman Martinez-Reid says when Bell Media first offered him his own show there was no concept in mind, but he did have a lot of questions.
“How do you take someone from the internet and put them on TV in a meaningful way that is exciting for my audience and can attract new viewers, without it being cringe?” says the 26-year-old Toronto native, whose parodies of reality TV shows blew up on TikTok during the pandemic.
"We've seen it time and time again with many social media stars: they get a TV show, and then it kind of goes nowhere."
Eventually, Martinez-Reid and showrunner Natalie Metcalfe decided to lean into their conundrum.
“Made For TV With Boman Martinez-Reid," streaming Friday on Crave and premiering on its linear TV channel next week, is a mockumentary style comedy that follows the social media star as he attempts to cross over into television. In each episode, he tests out a different TV genre in hopes of finding one that will catapult him to fame beyond the digital realm.
It’s among several shows that are part of Bell Media's strategy to work with entertainers who amassed their audiences online. But some critics question the viability of the approach and what it will mean for Canada’s ability to build homegrown TV stars.
Carlyn Klebuc, Bell Media's general manager of original programming, says the company's digital development team has been actively searching for talent in online spaces. The company first hit social media pay dirt with "Letterkenny," which was originally a YouTube series by Jared Keeso and Nathan Dales before getting picked up by Crave in 2015 and becoming a Canadian cultural phenomenon over the course of its 12 seasons.
