The ever-present Ball family is continuing to find success in sharing its story on Facebook’s Watch platform.
The debut episode alone has drawn more than 26 million views. The show was mentioned during a LaVar Ball spoof on Saturday Night Live. Last month, the Ball in the Family docu-series returned for Season 2 as 13 more episodes were ordered.
The reality show give viewers a glimpse behind the scenes of the family’s life, from the larger-than-life patriarch LaVar to Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo to the youngest son LaMelo. And the next episode to be released is expected to draw interest as it will focus on the family in China dealing with the detainment of LiAngelo Ball following a shoplifting incident during a UCLA basketball trip that caused an international incident. Future episodes are expected to touch upon LaVar’s subsequent war of words with President Donald Trump following LiAngelo’s return to the U.S. and also LiAngelo and LaMelo withdrawing from school to turn pro in Lithuania.
Rob Shaw, the Global Head of Sports Media and League Partnerships at Facebook, recently smiled as he described LaVar as “a very fun figure who says a lot of interesting things” and the show as “a combination of basketball and the Kardashians.”
Similarities to the Kardashian show are to be expected — the same production company, Bunim-Murray Productions, is responsible for producing both shows. Bunim-Murray is considered a pioneer in the reality TV industry with titles such as The Real World, Road Rules and Keeping Up with the Kardashians in its portfolio.
Before Season 2 was in full swing, we had the opportunity to speak with Julie Pizzi, co-president of entertainment and development at Bunim-Murray, on topics ranging from the experience of working with Facebook Watch to the thrills of LaVar’s headline-generating commentary.
How does this show compare with some of your more recognized properties? Is it a pretty similar approach, or did you have to adapt for the new new platform?
Bunim-Murray has always been really committed to storytelling. Every show comes with its own unique talents and unique approach to creating it.
Working with Facebook was a very unique experience as well. Rules that we had to follow in television, we didn’t have to follow here. They just told us to tell the best story possible in the best amount of time…that was really exciting for our team because being able to tell a story in a new formula gave us lots of opportunities.
With so much original content coming from producers like Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, etc. — what do you think the role of these new content producers is in the entertainment space, compared to traditional networks?
I think it’s pretty exciting. I imagine working at those platforms would be really fun. They’re much more general entertainment and their audience is really vast…they have a much broader buying ability. So some shows…which would have been really hard to sell to the broadcast buyers, there are new homes for them. From a seller’s standpoint, it’s opened up a lot of doors for a lot more content.
The Ball family has been in the spotlight for a couple years now, starting with the lead-up to Lonzo’s year at UCLA. How do you think the show has changed their lives? Is it the same kind of routine, with cameras around?
What’s really interesting about this family is that we’re spending a lot of time trying to keep up with them — they’re doing all of this with or without a TV show…With the Ball family, we can barely keep up. We have crews with them almost every day, but they’re doing so much on their own that we’re constantly chasing them. Which is great for us, because first of all, it’s super authentic. We’re barely doing any producing, anything at all. Secondly, this is sort of happening. Lonzo leaving UCLA, getting drafted and started for the Lakers was happening whether we’re a TV show or not. And the building of the brand was happening with or without the TV show.
I believe the Facebook show has given them more exposure to a broader audience with everything they’re doing. But I don’t think it’s changing what they’re doing at all.
LaVar constantly finds himself in the media cycle. How does that affect the show and your production?
Our team documents what they’re doing and we, by all means, do not control LaVar. LaVar does LaVar. And we love that about him because he’s just a great character. But he’s 100 percent responsible for whatever he does and says; we just document it.
It is great that the press just sort of eats him up, I think it’s because he’s so vibrant. The truth is, even in getting to know his parents and his family, LaVar has always been this guy. This is who he is, he just has more eyeballs on him now. But he is this really dynamic, really interesting patriarch of this family, and he’s so much fun. He really is somebody who loves his family, loves basketball and, I think, really enjoys being in the spotlight.
You actually started to answer my next question — How much of this is a character? Is this really LaVar?
It’s definitely him. Obviously, when he’s talking to reporters he’s more “on” and he’s funnier and a little more dynamic. There’s certainly the family man, too, who’s more sensitive. And he doesn’t spend every moment of his day larger than life. But it is very much his personality. He’s a great, great character. He just had his 50th birthday and his whole thing was, he just wanted cookies and milk. He’s a very fun guy.
You mentioned the sensitivity, the family man. Was that one of your goals setting out? Did you want to show that less bombastic, behind the scenes LaVar?
The first time we met LaVar, we sort of saw the family man. We obviously did research on him and noticed all the hype around him. But when we sat down with his family, we realized they’re just like any other family. They just have goals that they’re focused on, and they have really talented kids. But they’re also a very close-knit, loving family. Seeing that side of LaVar — and LaVar letting us see that side of him and (wife) Tina — was really important for the show. But it was also something he showed up with, we didn’t have to ask him for that. It’s who they really are.
How far back does your relationship with the family go? When do you remember them starting to see more of the spotlight and when did this project get off the ground?
We only met them in the spring. My son is 10 years old and knew who Lonzo was, so the younger kids in sports knew who the players were, they knew the boys, they knew the Big Baller Brand. But we didn’t really get to know them until the spring and then the show happened really fast. And that’s something else really interesting that Facebook asked us to do. We call it a “fast-follow,” meaning there’s only a matter of weeks between when we shoot and when it actually airs. So you’re not waiting a whole year or six months like with traditional programming. We literally are shooting and editing as we go, so what’s happening in the press is followed up by the press shortly thereafter.
A big part of the show is following the boys, and they’re all involved in these various levels of competitive basketball. What’s that like for them? Have you seen the show, or the general commentary around their family, affect them on or off the court?
I haven’t really seen the effect of it yet. I think the boys are very much aware that their public persona is greater than it was and that people know who they are. Now that Lonzo is sort of a public figure anyway, this just trains him for people to comment on how he plays and what he’s doing. But I think for Gelo and Melo, they’re probably learning earlier than they would have, being in the public spotlight, which will probably just prepare them for their future. But they don’t seem affected by it. They’re still pretty down to earth…They really are all very young, all three of them. I think it’s really a testament to parents and about how well they’ve grounded their kids. They really are very respectful to their parents, they do listen to them and they make decisions as a family. They’re all handling it incredibly well.
The NBA, amongst the big four leagues, is definitely a very star-driven league. With this being a family of basketball players — do you think this works with other sports or in other leagues?
What we’ve learned is, the curiosity about these player’s lives — there’s certainly an appetite for it. A lot of different athletes have done these types of shows, but usually post-career — not during it. So it’ll be interesting to see if this benefits the leagues because I honestly cannot answer that yet. We’ve had a really great relationship with the NBA thus far.
Part of the conversation around Season 1 was that series premiere garnered over 5 million views initially, but views of subsequent episodes dropped off pretty steeply after that. What factors do you think affected that? What are your goals and strategies as far as gaining and retaining viewership in Season 2?
We would like for the show to do really well and have impressive numbers. It was crazy because within the first week, we already had episodes landing on YouTube and becoming easy to watch there. So I think it’s a matter of figuring out how to keep the episodes from being ripped so all the numbers are showing up on Facebook. But I also think that as Facebook grows and as the Watch app grows, it will be used much more like a Netflix so people will all be using it more. So hopefully our numbers will continue and will all be landing in the same place.
At one point, episode 2 had more viewers on YouTube than it did on Facebook and I don’t know how that happens. But obviously, Facebook is doing everything they can to control that. Ideally we as we continue to premiere and we help to make Facebook a destination for programming. People will start to learn to just watch on Facebook, as they’re starting to. Because a lot of their programs are getting some significant numbers.
By the way, how fun for us, to be able to see what the viewership is right out of the gate? Often we have to wait for ratings and there’s sort of an estimate where, with Facebook, you can really see the numbers as they grow and really get a sense of who’s watching. It’s very exciting.
What is something you would say to someone to encourage them to get caught up and start following along in Season 2?
Once you get to know the family, they’ll surprise you. They’re quite extraordinary as a family. Outside of the moments you get to see Lonzo or you get to see LaVar, they entire family is really special and they’re worth getting to know.
