''The Casino'' is an American

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...

series broadcast on the

Fox network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...

in 2004 which followed two dot-com

millionaire A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. Depending on the currency, a certain level of prestige is associated with being a millionaire. In countries that use the short scal ...

s, Thomas Breitling and Tim Poster, as they manage the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino, located in downtown

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

instead of the more popular

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city ...

. The show was created by

Mark Burnett Mark Burnett (born 17 July 1960) is a television producer who is the former Chairman of MGM Worldwide Television Group. He is best known for creating and producing the reality shows ''The Apprentice'', '' Survivor'', ''The Voice'', and ''Sh ...

, the creator of '' Survivor''. It was canceled shortly before the last three episodes of the series could be broadcast due to dismal ratings. However, sister station

Fox Reality Channel Fox Reality Channel was an American pay television channel. It was launched on May 24, 2005, and was owned by the Fox Entertainment Group. It featured many shows that were originally on the Fox network (or produced by Fox). The channel also fea ...

picked up ''The Casino'' and broadcast the unaired episodes and then ran the series in re-runs until its cancellation from that network.

Production

Scenes of Tim Poster and Thomas Breitling were filmed around Las Vegas in January 2004. Filming at the Golden Nugget was initially scheduled to begin that same month, but was delayed and began instead on February 2, 2004. Casinos such as the Aladdin Resort & Casino and Caesars Palace were initially considered rather than the Golden Nugget. An area of the Golden Nugget's casino was closed off to allow for filming of high-stakes gambling at a roulette wheel, a dice table, and four blackjack tables. ''The Casino'' was the first reality series to be shot with high-definition video cameras. Eighteen camera crews shot approximately 270 hours of footage for each hour-long episode. Executive producer James Bruce speculated that the show "could go on forever" because of its variety. Other filming locations included the

and

downtown Las Vegas Downtown Las Vegas (commonly abbreviated as DTLV) is the central business district and historic center of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is the original townsite, and the Downtown gaming area was the primary gambling district of Las Vegas prior to the S ...

. Filming at the Golden Nugget concluded on March 17, 2004, with additional background footage to be shot at a later time. The theme song, "Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad", was written by Bono and

The Edge David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), better known as the Edge or simply Edge,McCormick (2006), pp. 21, 23–24 is an English-born Irish musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist, keyboardist, and backing voca ...

, and performed by

Matt Dusk Matthew-Aaron Dusk (born November 19, 1978) is a Canadian jazz vocalist. He has four certified gold albums: ''Two Shots'', ''Good News (Matt Dusk album), Good News'', ''Old School Yule!'' and ''JetSetJazz'', and two certified platinum albums; '' ...

Broadcast

''The Casino'' began airing on June 14, 2004. In July 2004, it was reported that ''The Casino'' was a ratings disappointment, and that Poster, Breitling, and employees did not like the show's portrayal of the Golden Nugget, including its "staged feel".

References

External links

* 2004 American television series debuts 2004 American television series endings 2000s American reality television series English-language television shows Fox Broadcasting Company original programming Television shows about gambling Television shows set in Las Vegas Television shows shot in the Las Vegas Valley Television series created by Mark Burnett {{US-reality-tv-stub