Steve Barnes (Austin) and Heather Smith (Reese) visited with Suchita Vadlamani on FOX to promote the season 1 finale of HIGH RISE

Network built around Atlanta-based reality shows
Comcast on-demand lineup features 25 shows focused on local landmarks

By KRISTI E. SWARTZ
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Comcast likes Atlanta to the point that it’s started an entire on-demand network focused on the city and the people in it.

Real City TV/Atlanta, which starts next week is the first time the cable provider has built an entire lineup of reality programming — 25 shows — around a major city. Should the network prove successful, Comcast has plans to create other ones in other cities, said Larry Schweber, a Comcast spokesman.

Cousins Properties The new show ‘High Rise’ is set at the Terminus condo and office complex in Buckhead.

“We’ve always had a real strong focus here on the local community, and we had had a very robust local on-demand content that was successful,” Schweber said. “The reality is a lot of people are still really enamored with reality shows.”

The lineup includes “Bodies of Art,” set in the Little Five Points neighborhood; “Hard Courts,” a feature on playing tennis at some of Atlanta’s most exclusive clubs; and “High Rise,” shot at the Terminus condo and office complex in Buckhead.

Steve Barnes, executive producer and one of the actors in “High Rise,” said he developed the idea for the series, broken into short, 5-to-7-minute pieces, while driving by the building each day on his way to work.

The scripted show features a mix of actors as well as residents of the Terminus building, which sits at the corner of Peachtree and Piedmont roads.

“I thought it was a good property to use,” Barnes, former morning show host on 99X and Dave FM, said. “I could have easily come here and made it some fictitious building, but I didn’t.”

HIGH RISE is Atlanta’s newest drama, filmed at Terminus in Buckhead and coming to Comcast Ch. 1 March 31.
HIGH RISE is Power. Money. Seduction. Love. Deception.  And Heartbreak.
This season on HIGH RISE Love changes, Friendships fail, ambition destroys and DRAMA ELEVATES at the corner of Peachtree & Piedmont.

Barnes has been cast in a scene opposite David Duchovny and Demi Moore in the upcoming movie, THE JONESES. The Joneses, which also stars Demi Moore, is in production now and will be released in 2009.

Steve Barnes to produce 20 episodes of a new series called “High Rise” to be shot in Atlanta. High Rise will have the feel of ABC’s Desperate Housewives and HBO’s Entourage featuring a story about characters living in one of Atlanta’s most elite properties. Casting will begin early October in Atlanta and shooting is slated to begin soon.

Barnes has been cast in a Guest Starring role on The CW’s ONE TREE HILL which shoots next week in Wilmington, NC. Stay tuned for an air date…