Tad Low is a creator and producer of television shows, including Pop-Up Video

Pop-up Video

Pop Up Video is a VH1 television show that "pops up" bubbles — officially called "info nuggets" — containing trivia, witticisms and borderline sexual innuendos throughout music videos. The show was created by Woody Thompson and Tad Low and premiered October 27, 1996. For a time, it was the...

and Pants-Off Dance-Off

Pants-Off Dance-Off

Pants-Off Dance-Off is a dance contest which premiered on April 18, 2006 on Fuse. It features stripteasers as they dance while disrobing, and is now shown on its official website.-Format:...

. He currently helms Spin The Bottle, a multimedia content company based in New York City and is also head of the Spin The Bottle Network, a video-on-demand channel carried by Comcast

Comcast

Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...

 and Cox cable systems. Low’s work has been noted in the press for its ironic sensibility, and his shows simultaneously critique and celebrate popular culture in all of its banal and sublime incarnations.The paradoxical nature of Low's aesthetic was articulated by New York magazine when it dubbed Pants-Off Dance-Off both "brilliant and lowbrow."

Personal history

Low was born and raised in Connecticut and graduated from Yale University. He made his first television appearance with a rubber chicken

Rubber chicken

A rubber chicken is a prop used in comedy. The phrase is also used as a description for food served at speeches, conventions, and other large meetings, and as a metaphor for speechmaking.-Comedy:...

 on “Marlo and the Magic Movie Machine

Marlo and the Magic Movie Machine

Marlo and the Magic Movie Machine was a children's television show originating from WFSB-TV in Hartford. The storyline involved Marlo Higgins who is a mustachioed and frizzy-haired computer programming genius working for the L. Dullo computer company. He was banished to the "sub-sub-basement" by...

” in the sixth grade. He has subsequently hosted and appeared on various television shows for MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

, VH1

VH1

VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...

, CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

, NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

, and Fox

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0522845/

"Pop-Up" was nominated for ten Emmys in 1996, and in 2000 Low won a New York Emmy

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

 as host and producer of "Subway Q&A", a show that he co-created for the Metro Channel.

Low currently lives in New York City.

Shows

Pop-Up Video

Pop-up Video

Pop Up Video is a VH1 television show that "pops up" bubbles — officially called "info nuggets" — containing trivia, witticisms and borderline sexual innuendos throughout music videos. The show was created by Woody Thompson and Tad Low and premiered October 27, 1996. For a time, it was the...

. Pop-Up first aired on VH1 in October 1996. It inserted bubbles containing trivia and snarky behind-the-scenes commentary into existing music videos. The show spawned numerous imitators and earned ten Emmy nominations. Low's inspiration for the show came from hearing a stylist friend's tales of mistreatment at the hands of a famous female pop star. As Low claims in an interview for a Canadian newspaper, "I'd be watching (this singer) being wonderful and fabulous in all these cheesy videos, while at the same time I was hearing one horrible story after another of the acts of human degradation committed by this woman." Low's fascination with this incongruity eventually culminated in the creation of Pop-Up Video.

Video IQ. Video IQ debuted on the Fuse network in November 2004. One of the first interactive game shows, Video IQ gave viewers the chance to win prizes by deciphering and text-messaging the answers to rebus-style puzzles embedded in the images and lyrics of music videos. Video IQ was similar in temperament to the wry and biting Pop-Up Video. In one show, for example, the clue "Semi-retired blond pop tart" yielded the answer Britney Spears

Britney Spears

Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...

.

Subway Q&A. Low hosted and co-created this show on the Metro Channel along with Ronald Fried. Debuting in 2000, this show featured Low, along with a camera crew, coaxing subway commuters into disrupting their daily routines by, for example, holding an impromptu trial in a subway car in which riders were asked to be the jury, persuading subway passengers to try on a stranger's hat, and convincing a woman he had never met before to join him for a catered dinner on the subway platform in the middle of rush hour. Cajoling ordinary New York City subway commuters into exploring their inner performers, Subway Q&A reflected Low's desire, in the words of a New York Times reporter, to "elevate real people to celebrity."Low was awarded a New York Emmy as host and producer of Subway Q&A in 2000.

Pants-Off Dance-Off

Pants-Off Dance-Off

Pants-Off Dance-Off is a dance contest which premiered on April 18, 2006 on Fuse. It features stripteasers as they dance while disrobing, and is now shown on its official website.-Format:...

. Low is the creator and executive producer of PODO, which debuted on the Fuse network on April 18, 2006. The highest-rated show in the Fuse network’s history, PODO combines elements of a dance contest with a striptease. Each episode features five amateur contestants (aka “pancers”) who disrobe while dancing in front of a screen playing their favorite music videos. The show also contains an interactive element, as home viewers have the opportunity to vote for contestants in categories such as “funniest,” “most disturbing” and “best dancer” on the show's website. According to the New York Times television critic David Itzkoff, PODO not only helped garner media attention and public exposure for the Fuse network (no pun intended), but also promoted an ethos similar to the all-encompassing philosophy of Subway Q&A: “In contrast to the unattainable standards of perfections promoted by celebrity television, ‘Pants-Off Dance-Off’ is meant to be an inclusive experience, one that has already welcomed competitors as diverse as a 58-year-old retired schoolteacher and a woman in a unicorn mask.”

Low's most recent television series include Pet-O-Rama (a skills competition for household pets), Best Places Ever I’ve Ever Been (a tour of travel experts' favorite unknown destinations), TXT MSG (a "Pop-Up Video"-style treatment of archival sports footage) and Photo ID (a look into the unusual lives of everyday people, through photos and anecdotes). The shows premiered in 2010 on Animal Planet, The Travel Channel, MSG Network

MSG Network

The MSG Network, now shortened to simply MSG, is a regional cable television and radio network serving the Mid-Atlantic United States. It is focused on New York City sports teams...

 & FiOS

FiOS1

FiOS1 is a group of regional networks available exclusively on Verizon's FiOS TV. These networks provide local news and live sports coverage. Currently three networks exist, but there are plans to expand to additional areas served by FiOS in the future...

, respectively.

External links

• Spin The Bottle