Intelligencer

Gettin’ Business-y

Eating and flirting on America’s next top financial-news channel.

By Simon Dumenco (Email)
Published Oct 21, 2007

From left to right: Alexis Glick, Dagan McDowell, Connel McShane, and Cody Willard
Courtesy of Fox Business Network

Last week, News Corp. made television history with the launch of a new 24-hour reality show in which a group of sexy young Wall Street types lives, laughs (a lot), eats (Money for Breakfast, starting at 6 a.m.), drinks (Happy Hour, at 5 p.m.), and loves together. They do so communally in a big house made to resemble a television-news set—home to something called the “Fox Business Network”—venturing out, trailed by cameras, to visit places like the NYSE trading floor. We’ve yet to glimpse their sleeping quarters, but rumor has it Fox will soon introduce an intimate, Internet-only “Fox Business After-Hours” Webcam view of the cast’s side-by-side bunk beds.

So far, the show seems like a mash-up of Kid Nation, Big Brother, and—given the way the FBN housemates constantly sublimate their obvious desire for each other by constantly talking rather rapturously about food—any number of Food Network series. Who are these telegenic kids, and will any of them break out big like previous reality stars such as Omarosa from The Apprentice, Lauren from The Hills, Mario Batali from Iron Chef—or maybe even Anderson Cooper from The Mole? Below, some cast members to watch. (All quotes are verbatim.)

ALEXIS GLICK
In one word: Giggly!
Think: Meredith Vieira manqué: all the hair, without the gravitas.
Favorite food: “I like pizza!”
Prospects: The big flirt. “Some day you’re going to run for political office,” she told guest Jonathan Bush, the CEO ofAthenaHealth, “because you’re a good speaker and you’ve got a great pedigree!”

CODY WILLARD
In one word: Jerky!
Think: Dan (MTV Sports) Cortese, but more obnoxious.
Favorite food: “I love some Main Street beef. I like the Wall Street beef, but I like Main Street beef, too!”
Prospects: Unfortunately, Brokeback subplot is unlikely with Cowboy Cody, who sported tight jeans and his dad’s 1957 bull-riding-championship belt.

DAGAN McDOWELL
In one word: Sassy!
Think: Delta Burke-esque southern straight-shooter, minus the extra chins.
Favorite food: Grits and collard greens, we’re guessing.
Prospects: “If you’re getting more sex,” she asked a guest sexpert while Connell sat close by, “do you think that’ll make you a better employee because you’re more relaxed at work and easier to deal with?”

CONNEL McSHANE
In one word: Cocky!
Think: Josh (Las Vegas) Duhamel lite.
Favorite food: Hardees breakfast: “Two omelettes filled with sausage, bacon, diced ham, shredded cheese, and it’s all covered in sausage gravy. Yummy!”
Prospects: Watch for the sexual tension with castmate Dagen—especially obvious in a joint interview with a workplace sexpert during a segment titled “Not Getting Enough”—to escalate.