USOC, Morris will create reality show

The U.S. Olympic Committee has signed a deal with the William Morris Agency to develop a series of media ventures around U.S. Olympians, the first of which will be a reality series profiling individual athletes as they compete in Olympic trials.

The series, called "The Cut," will follow Olympic hopefuls from early competition until the moment at which they either make the Olympic team or are eliminated.

The USOC hopes to produce about a dozen hour-long episodes of the show and have them air on a weekly basis leading up to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens next August.

Plans call for the show to be shopped to various U.S. television networks, although Olympics rights-holder NBC is considered an obvious front-runner.

— Andy Bernstein