CMT show about ‘what makes a bull rider’
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - At the end of the hour it’s a show about professional bull riding.
But as Shane Proctor sees it, Posse, the one-hour CMT special that premieres on Saturday, Dec. 12, is also about “what makes a bull rider.”
“This is a sport that’s easy to understand,” said Proctor, who refers to bull riding as the original extreme sport. “We need to be right up there with the NBA, baseball and everything else. It’s just going to take a lot of educating people, and I think (Posse) is a really big deal for our sport.”
For the better part of the 2009 season, seven bull riders – Sean Willingham, Brian Canter, Kasey Hayes, Austin Meier, Ryan Dirteater, Skeeter Kingsolver and Proctor – documented their lives in and out of the arena, on the road and at home.
What came from the hours of footage is an engaging one-hour program that could become the catalyst for an entire series.
According to a CMT press release, Posse “takes a deeper look at these hopefuls as they not only master the bulls, but also juggle relationships, families, finances and egos.”
In bull riding, it’s already been well-documented that there is no room for error. As Posse illustrates, careers are made and dreams are broken within 8 seconds, but it’s in the hours and days in between that the riders deal with the pressures of chasing a championship.
For instance, cameras were with Meier when his close friend and traveling partner Dirteater was injured, and they were there when the Oklahoma native was home in Kinta with wife Kristen.
The soon-to-be 23-year-old said he thought the film crew did “a good job of giving us our space when we need it and not pushing it too far.
“They’re good at working with you, and it’s an appreciation I thank them for. When you need a break you just ask them and say, ‘I had enough. I need a break.’
“The more they’re around us and the more they’re around the sport, they see the mental aspect of it. They ask how much time we need and they ask, ‘Can we do this? Can we do that?’ They definitely don’t just push themselves on us and make us do anything.”
While Kristen was seen in at home footage with Meier, he said producers had to “spread it out and showcase” the series regulars.
One cast member who’s not a rider, but producers Randy Bernard, Jason Hervey, Eric Bischoff and Thom Oliphant feel has a chance at becoming a breakout is Proctor’s wife Jessi.
Jessi, J.B. Mauney’s sister, regularly travels with her husband from one event to the next, and plays an important role providing moral support for Shane and other riders.
“We do have a lot of guidelines, because first and foremost we’re here to win a bull riding and make money,” said Proctor of appearing in a reality show with his wife, “but they’re there and they’re going to document everything we do.
“We’re here to educate the people, and I think it’ll be a great deal.
“If I was 19 years old, it would have been a really hard deal for me, but I think now that I’m 24 and I matured a lot – you can see that in the (world) standings, I’ve just been progressively moving up – I’ve matured enough to just put it out of mind and not worry about it.”
Posse is less a reality show and more a docudrama, showcasing the real lives of a select group of the top professional bull riders in the world.
Their “journey across America” premieres on Saturday, Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT and will be repeated at various times for the next month, so check local listings for follow-up viewings.
View a trailer for the show
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