From the Jungle

Background:

The Bengals organization has been in the process of a revamp since 2020. A total overhaul in philosophy which coincided with drafting quarterback Joe Burrow. Coincidentally, this was the same time that Seth Tanner joined the team as the Director of Content. In 2023, after three years of effort to build a strong content team, we felt we had the resources to properly tell the special story developing in Cincinnati, and an all-access docuseries titled "From the Jungle" was the best format for it.

OBSTACLES:

From the Jungle began its weekly airings in the fall of 2023 on our local affiliate. Typically, all-access docuseries such as Hard Knocks have a crew of 20-30 professionals working around the clock to meet their weekly deadlines. From the Jungle is not of that scale, but it needed to air weekly to provide the spot inventory to make the show profitable. Not to mention, From the Jungle was reliant on access with the players and coaches who can be resistant to filming at times. If we have no access, we have a boring show, and the voluntary efforts/access from the players and coaches were typically contingent on game success.

METHOD:

We knew the amount of content we could collect in a given week could not fill a weekly show, and the amount of labor required to capture enough content would make the project cost-prohibitive. Therefore, we split From the Jungle into two versions. There was From the Jungle which would tell the story of the football season as it happened, and it would alternate with From the Jungle Specials which would focus heavily on off-the-field stories. The FTJ Specials would primarily be shot and edited during the offseason. These two shows combined would fill our weekly schedule throughout the season.

By switching to this split show format, the content team was capable of producing episodes during the six-month offseason. This also reduced the number of employees necessary to support the show to just three full-time employees.

During the season, we utilized practice wires (mic'd ups), community events, fan stories, player hobbies, Bengals events, and game recaps to fill a typical show. Each type of shoot has its challenges, so the FTJ producers had to be extremely flexible and contain a wide production skillset.

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Outcome:

Despite the performance on the field, From the Jungle quickly became the most-watched content series on the Bengals channels. We attribute this to the fact that every episode had a compelling character story to tell. Even if the team would lose, each episode would be narrated by the primary character and fans would tune in just to hear what that player had to say.

In addition to the viewership success, the show was profitable in its first season and most importantly, it proved to strengthen the relationship between the team, fans, and city. It was the perfect instrument to properly convey org messaging to the public, even when the performance on the field was lackluster.