Actuality Entertainment

Springville, Utah-based Actuality Entertainment produces media programs, such as the innovative and original business reality show The Prodigy. The founders and backers of Actuality Entertainment, including longtime entrepreneur and Firstline Security CEO Wright Thurston, designed The Prodigy as a new approach to marketing that appealed to younger generations, especially those interested in or pursuing careers in sales and business. The concept was simple: Contract talented business school students and working professionals, train them to effectively promote and sell Firstline equipment, and follow them with cameras as they applied their talents in the real world.

Actuality Entertainment’s The Prodigy featured more than just a televised sales competition; the revolutionary reality program pitted its stars against each other in tests to evaluate their business skills, such as creating and presenting a business proposal. Guest judges from several different industries selected the winners of the skills trials. Contestants were ranked based on a combination of their performance in the skills competitions and on their sales numbers, with the winner receiving the title of the Prodigy.  Actuality Entertainment promised a new car, $300,000 cash, and approximately $700,000 in investment capital for the winner.

While Actuality Entertainment’s The Prodigy has yet to air, the show established an important precedence in business-based reality programming and the opportunities available to both companies and individuals in the field. After The Prodigy’s final awards ceremony was filmed in Hawaii, Firstline Security filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and more than 80 hours of production footage from the reality show was destroyed. However, Actuality Entertainment and its executive staff followed through on their promise, crowning Jordan Folsom as the Prodigy and awarding him as such.