This image was lost some time after publication.

Sensing that audiences are bored by reality TV competitions in which the contestants vie to rise to the top of glamorous professions involving mundane, easily identifiable skillsets like cooking, sewing, or picking out furniture, the TV Guide channel is ready to push the genre's envelope by devoting 10 episodes to a televised deathmatch involving aspiring Hollywood assholes trying to establish who's best at the arcane producing arts of screaming into cellphones, haunting the craft services table, and consistently getting in the way of crew members trying to do their lower-paid, but more essential, jobs:

Think you have what it takes to be the next Jerry Bruckheimer, James Brooks, JJ Abrams or Mark Burnett?

Then we want to hear from you!

AMERICA'S NEXT PRODUCER is a reality competition series seeking Hollywood's top producer who will create the next generation of hit TV shows. It will feature contestants from diverse backgrounds and varying levels of TV production experience who will compete each week to survive elimination rounds during a 10 episode competition. In each show, the vying competitors will face innovative challenges that will put their creative skills to the test. The winner of AMERICA'S NEXT PRODUCER will receive the ultimate TV producer prize package, including $100,000 cash, a first-look deal with TV Guide Channel and a production office in Hollywood.

We know what you're thinking right about now: "How can I compete to win a hundred grand and the chance to develop the kind of exciting basic cable programming that will run on top of a slowly scrolling schedule grid on the TV Guide Channel, and which contractually must include the talents of Melissa and Joan Rivers or B-level American Idol castoffs?" Well, you're in luck, Mr. America's Next Jerry Bruckheimer! There's an open call for the show tomorrow afternoon at Les Deux. But be forewarned: The casting process includes the tricky question, "What do you think a producer does?," and by the time the third or fourth hopeful goes before the judges, no one will find the answer, "He's the guy getting blown by a struggling actress he's promised a one-line role while everyone else does the hard work!" cute anymore.