ByLines

By Amanda Barrell

High Noon Entertainment executive producer Jennifer Darrow sets up a shot for “Professional Grade,“ HGTV’s new home remodeling reality show.

When Jennifer Pollice Darrow (’94) graduated from the SJMC, no one could anticipate how much the industry – and local job opportunities for broadcast majors – would change in the next 15 years.

“I was absolutely in the right place at the right time,” said Darrow, executive producer at High Noon Entertainment in Centennial, during a break in the filming of a kitchen demolition for a new home-renovation reality series. High Noon has been an important provider of U.S. cable programming since 1987, and Darrow has helped create a number of its popular programs, most notably the Food Network’s “Unwrapped” in 2001.

“I started that series. Watching the show succeed, well, that is your baby taking off,” she said. “It was exciting that first season, but now it’s sort of in the zeitgeist phase now. There was an episode of ‘The Simpsons’ that parodied ‘Unwrapped.’ It is really sort of weird. And cool.”

In school, Darrow was involved in many clubs and organizations. She was president of both CU’s chapter of the Radio Television Digital News Association and Journalism Board. She was also a member of CU’s Women in Communications chapter.

After graduating, Darrow did a few internships at KUSA-TV in Denver. “I didn’t really like news, but I liked television,” she said. From there, she went to work as a graphics department assistant and a production assistant for Starz Encore in Denver before moving to High Noon Entertainment 11 years ago. Besides “Unwrapped,” High Noon has produced such hit television shows as TLC’s “Cake Boss” and VH1’s “Tough Love.”

“High Noon is different than anywhere I’ve ever worked before,” Darrow said. “The biggest challenge is that no one will ever settle for mediocrity. With news, it hits the air, and you’re done. For us, we produce stuff that won’t air for a year. We have lots of time to work with it, and we have to constantly revise and rewrite.”

High Noon Entertainment is unique among Denver television programming providers because of the number of series in production at any given time. Sometimes cable networks come to High Noon and “hire” the company to produce a series it wants; at other times, High Noon producers pitch suggestions for series to the networks, Darrow said.

Then, High Noon shoots, edits and produces the series as network clients review the story ideas and contribute suggestions until a pilot is completed and gets the green light to premier.

Darrow said that for those just starting out in a production company such as High Noon, transcribing tapes and assisting producers are the most likely duties. “But you really do learn a lot,” she said. “Coming into this field, you learn how a business like this runs.”

New graduates looking to break into cable television shouldn’t get discouraged, Darrow said. Cable networks are always on the lookout for the next big thing, so creativity and thinking outside the box are valued skills, she said, adding that there are so many topics that have yet to be explored by television.

Darrow’s advice for someone looking to start in the entertainment industry is to be well-versed in good storytelling.

“You can have the coolest editing and the flashiest video, but if you can’t tell a good story, it’s worthless” she said.

And you have to be knowledgeable.

“Right now, networks base their series around experts rather than just good-looking talking heads doing standups. So, as a producer, you need to always keep your eyes open for those experts. When you work on those series, you need to learn a great deal about that subject matter as well. Everyone wants an expert, and everyone’s looking for the next big thing,” she said.

Besides being executive producer and the original supervising producer for “Unwrapped,” Darrow has been executive producer for Food Network’s “How’d That Get on My Plate,” HGTV’s “Carter Can” and “Red Hot & Green,” TLC’s “Texas Cheer Moms,” Style Network’s “Stripped” and DIY Network’s “The Inside Job.” She was also an award-winning writer and producer of children’s program segments for WAM! America’s Kidz Network.

Currently, she is executive producer for two new series that are to premiere in the coming months: HGTV’s “Professional Grade” and DIY’s “Rescue Renovation.”

She has been involved with the creation of both and said the popularity of such reality remodeling shows is a sign of the times.

“Professional Grade” features one family per episode acting as their own general contractors on a major room renovation in their home.

“They go through all the drama of the renovation – trying to save as much money as they can along the way – and in the end a panel of contractors evaluate the space and estimate how much they think the homeowners spent on the project. If they spent less than the estimate, the homeowners win the difference,” she said.
“Rescue Renovation” features Denver’s Kayleen McCabe, winner of DIY’s “Stud Finder” series in which contractors competed for the chance to host his or her own remodeling show.

“With the economy taking a turn, more people are renovating their house,” Darrow said. “But people don’t have a lot of money for renovation, either.“

Darrow is married to Asa Darrow, a CU communications alum who is vice president of design strategy for media giant Gannett Co. They have two children – Brooks, 6, and Grace, 4 – and the family lives in the area, she said.

“This is not an easy job to have as a young mom,” Darrow said. Filming can last upwards of 15 hours, and she rarely leaves the set during a shoot.

“The thing that is really hard about it is that the schedule changes constantly,” she said.

“My parents live in town, which really helps. The production climate in Denver is not as cutthroat as L.A., and High Noon is super family-friendly. Between Asa and I, we just try to stay ahead of the schedule. It’s always new, always exciting. There’s always a different show with a different topic. But you just know that there are going to be those difficult days.”

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