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“Got City Game! Cleveland” has launched, and the game is on.

With a format similar to “The Amazing Race” and audience voting akin to “Dancing with the Stars,” the 15-episode web-based reality program hopes to showcase Cleveland and attract energetic, talented young people primed to discover the city’s assets.

Broadcast online via YouTube, “Got City Game! Cleveland” features three two-person teams competing in entertaining challenges filmed in hip venues about town. The teams are vying for a free year’s lease on a two-bedroom Tremont loft as well as gift certificates and passes for restaurants, shows, sporting events and clubs.

Those voting online for their favorite duo also stand to benefit. Voters will be entered in a drawing to win one of four $500 college scholarships, redeemable at college bookstores across the country. The scholarships, donated by the National Association of College Stores (NACS) Foundation and Stone Modeling and Talent Agency, are transferable, so Mom, Dad, Sis and Grandma can vote. Winners can give the scholarship to any college student.

In the first episode, three teams – one each sponsored by Hiram College, Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), and LiveCLEVELAND, a marketing group – race around Tremont lofts, hunting for “city cards” with designated points. A short round of bonus questions, featuring current information about living and working in Cleveland, airs after each game.

Filmmaker Jason Zone Fisher, son of Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher and Peggy Zone Fisher, serves as host of the show and as an associate producer. The Cleveland native, who made the documentary “Swing State” about his father’s 2006 election campaign and recently moved to Los Angeles, is donating his time to the project.

With a new webisode debuting every Tuesday night at 8:30, the two creators/producers of the show, Barbara Siss Oney and T.L. Champion, think they’ve come up with a winning formula.

The hope is that viewers will e-mail their friends and family about the show, “viraling it out,” says Oney, who previously worked with Positively Cleveland (the convention and visitors bureau). Right now there are viewers in Italy and Japan, indicating there is global interest in the show, she adds.

“How do you find a positive way to get the word out (about Cleveland) to the 18- to 35-year-old crowd?” says Oney, a former vice president at Universal Studios. “We wanted to make an impact and develop something with technology and a media format that this audience is most engaged with.”

The two women, both marketing professionals, came up with the whole idea one day over coffee and wrote the script. Members of an advisory board have provided expertise in such areas as fundraising, technology, marketing, social networking and “navigating the political system,” Oney says. “Nobody has ever done a project like this. We know we need a lot of specialized knowledge and expertise.”

Karen Baker, director of the Jewish Community Federation’s Strengthening and Growing Jewish Cleveland (SGJC), a project

aimed at attracting and retaining young Jews to Cleveland, serves

on the advisory board. She’s enthusiastic about “Got City Game!”

“They’re using the right media – YouTube, text messaging, Facebook – cool technology and cool things about Cleveland to connect with young people,” Baker says. “The project is showcasing parts and pieces of Cleveland that young people probably didn’t know about.”

College students at a recent SGJC tailgate party at Ohio State University’s Hillel told Baker they thought the project was cool. “And their school isn’t even participating!” she says.

The first and second “Got City Game!” episodes that debuted Nov. 17 and Nov. 24 and next week’s show were filmed in Tremont. Subsequent episodes will take place in four other neighborhoods: Detroit-Shoreway, St. Clair-Superior, University Circle, and downtown. Each show provides glimpses of Cleveland’s restaurants, arts community, parks and livable spaces.

Unlike “American Idol” and other reality shows popping up all over cable and TV networks, “Got City Game! Cleveland” is a nonprofit organization with a small, $90,000 budget primarily funded by foundation grants and corporate and nonprofit sponsorships. Advertising space on the gotcitygame.tv website varies depending on the size of the sponsorship. Youngstown Business Incubator serves as the parent organization and fiscal agent, Oney says.

Also unusual is the partnership with Tri-C, whose students – some of whom are majoring in digital media or audio production – film and provide sound for the show. The community college created three classes in digital media and video production, donated the equipment, and provided a professional staff to direct the crew. Tri-C even contributed paid internships for their more advanced students who do the filming.

The goal is to make “Got City Game!” an annual project for Tri-C. This year local professionals do the show’s editing, but next year, Oney and the college expect students will take over that task.

In subsequent years, Oney and Champion hope that Youngstown, Akron and Canton will be part of the reality shows, making this a regional project. “It would be so great if all of Akron was watching the Cleveland show, Cleveland was watching Akron, all learning about these neighborhoods,” says Oney. “So the region could be knitted together through this programming.”

She sees “Got City Game! Cleveland” as a “huge potential success for our city. Not just showing off the city, but being cool. You can’t say to people, ‘we’re cool and vibrant.’ They’ve got to see it.”

To see the next episode and vote, go to gotcitygame.tv.

(Source: http://snipr.com/thqub)