New Fashion Series “Fashion Star” Partners with Retailers

NBC’s “Fashion Star,” produced by Electus and Magical Elves, recently set its retail partners for its upcoming inaugural season. Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and H&M will all team up with the show this coming fall. The show, which is currently taping, features 14 unknown designers who are vying to win an exclusive capsule line in all three stores. The contestants will be judged by a panel of celebrity mentors, who were announced earlier this month by the network — Nicole Richie, Jessica Simpson and John Varvatos.

Nicole Richie has her own jewelry line, House of Harlow 1960, which she launched in late 2008 and later expanded to include shoes and apparel. She also partnered with maternity store Pea in the Pod to do an exclusive maternity line with the retailer. Jessica Simpson started her self-titled collection, featuring shoes and handbags, in 2005. John Varvatos is a leading menswear’s designer who has worked for both Polo Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. Elle Macpherson will host.

Each hour-long episode will feature a fashion show where designers will show their work in front of a live audience. The contestant whose design doesn’t get picked up by a retailer will be eliminated.

"Partnering with the world's best retailers will offer audiences an intimate, real-world look into how the fashion industry works and what makes buyers tick," Ben Silverman, CEO and founder of Electus, said.

Electus’ “Mob Wives” Reunion Racks Up the Ratings

“Mob Wives,” produced by Electus, hosted a reunion special on Sunday night and was met with season-high ratings. VH1 aired the special at 8 p.m. and also had an encore airing at 11 p.m. During the 8 p.m. showing, 1.1 million of the viewers were in the age 18-49 demographic. The show garnered 2.7 million viewers for its special, and had an average of 1.33 million total viewers per episode in its first season. Throughout the season, “Mob Wives’” premieres have made VH1 the no. 1 non-sports cable network in the 8 p.m. timeslot with women age 18-34.

Because of its high viewership, VH1 picked up “Mob Wives” for a second season, which will premiere in the fall. The network slated “Mob Wives” for 12 new episodes. “Mob Wives” goes into the lives of four Staten Island women — Renee Graziano, Drita D’Avanzo, Carla Facciolo and Karen Gravano — whose husbands or fathers have been arrested or imprisoned for mob-related activities. Graziano’s father has been charged with mob-related crimes, and her sister is the creator of the show. D’Avanzo’s husband has been imprisoned for crimes relating to narcotics and robbery. Facciolo’s father was the former acting boss of the Lucchese crime family. Gravano’s father was the underboss of the Bambio crime family and also served as a federal informant.

Electus’ “Mob Wives” will return the same four women for its second season.

Electus’ Ben Silverman on Panel at Cannes Lions International Film Festival of Creativity

Ben Silverman, founder and CEO of Electus, served on a panel alongside Robert Redford, founder and president of Sundance Institute and hosted by Ross Levinsohn, executive vice president of Yahoo! Americas at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. At the event, Yahoo! announced its sponsorship of the short program at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, which will take place January 19-29 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

At the event, Yahoo! will premiere a host of new short films and allow audience members to vote for a favorite. The award will be presented to the filmmaker at the Short Film Awards party, which will take place sometime during the festival. More details will be released from Yahoo! closer to the event’s date.

During the panel discussion, Electus’ Ben Silverman talked about how important storytelling can be in the entertainment industry, and how this helps create first-class content for viewers.