BET Premieres Reality Series BLOWIN' UP!: FATTY KOO April 21st at 9:30PM

BET Premieres Reality Series BLOWIN' UP!: FATTY KOO April 21st at 9:30PM

Unscripted Drama Follows Formation of New Sony Urban/Das/Columbia Records Recording Artist Fatty Koo

LOS ANGELES, April 11 /PRNewswire/ -- In the music industry, the term "blowin' up" signals a transition from struggling artist to bona fide player in the game. This spring, BET viewers will vicariously experience the journey of five diverse and multi-talented individuals determined to make their mark with the premiere of the network's newest reality series, BLOWIN' UP!: FATTY KOO. For thirteen episodes in this half-hour unscripted drama, BET's cameras follow the lives of five kids from Columbus, Ohio who form the musical collective Fatty Koo and capture their struggle to break into the record biz. BLOWIN' UP!: FATTY KOO premieres on BET on Thursday, April 21st at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050411/DCM062 )

Fatty Koo is five real people with the real pressures of school, family, love, religion, money and sex -- who fight and argue about everything except their music. Fatty Koo is a group not created in the halls of a record label, but organically and authentically. No Svengali calling the shots. No mega- studio. No penthouse. No bling-bling. They are a talented, multicultural ensemble of young artists who experience the highs and lows of making an album and establishing relationships. The members of Fatty Koo hooked up aboard the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, and working together as one created a unique fusion of R&B, hip-hop, Latin, jazz and pop that led them to score a record deal with Sony Urban/DAS/Columbia Records.

In BLOWIN' UP!: FATTY KOO, viewers meet Eddie B., Gabrielle, Marya, Ron and Valure where they live -- writing, rehearsing and recording back home in Columbus and New York City; dealing with differences in culture, values and upbringing; making gut-wrenching decisions about the direction of the group while waving away the trappings of show business; and trying to concentrate on their music while navigating the rocky waters of a tough industry. It's a formula for great television and BET jumped at the opportunity to partner with Columbia Records to bring the Fatty Koo experience into the living rooms of the network's viewing audience.

"These are real young people with talents and dreams," said Stephen Hill, Executive Producer and BET Executive Vice President, Entertainment and Music Programming. "As this describes many in our audience, we saw this highly entertaining show as a perfect fit for BET. Our viewers will be cheering ... and sometimes jeering the moves of these five kids. But the point is that the audience will be engaged. This story is that compelling."

The show's executive producers also include David Sonnenberg, Academy Award-winning producer for "When We Were Kings," S.A. Baron of Orson Entertainment and Gary Fisher, Senior Vice President of Video Promotion and Television Programming for Columbia Records.

"This is a show about extremely talented people who have made great music," said Fisher. "We wanted to take a format of television that people were comfortable with, in reality programming, and turn up the volume. These kids are authentic and fun to watch with a great story to tell."

To ensure ratings success, a multi-tiered marketing strategy has been developed to support the premiere of BLOWIN' UP!: FATTY KOO, which includes radio, television, Internet and outdoor advertising. Radio spots will run in 21 urban markets across the country, promotional spots will run on the Digital Street Network in Manhattan, which features 80 full-motion screens, and mall advertising will be executed in 10 markets. On the Internet, tactics include banner ad placements and editorial on BET.com, EURWeb.com, AOL BlackVoices, and Black America Web.com, as well as viral email marketing, and Viacom synergy initiatives include 30-second spots running on UPN and Paramount Parks QTV.

The Fatty Koo debut album, House Of Fatty Koo, is slated for release on Tuesday, July 12.

ABOUT BET

BET, a subsidiary of Viacom, Inc. (NYSE:VIA)(NYSE:and)(NYSE:VIA.B), is the nation's leading television network providing quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs programming for the African-American audience. The BET Network reaches more than 80 million households according to Nielsen media research, and can be seen in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. BET is a dominant consumer brand in the urban marketplace with a diverse group of branded businesses: BET.com, the Number 1 Internet portal for African Americans; BET Digital Networks -- BET Jazz, BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Event Productions, specializing in a full range of event production services, including event management, venue selection, talent recruitment, sound, lighting and stage production; and BET Books, the nation's leading publisher of African-American themed romance novels under the Arabesque imprint which also publishes compelling fiction under the Sepia imprint and inspirational fiction and nonfiction under the New Spirit imprint.

http://www.fattykoo.com/http://www.columbiarecords.com/http://www.bet.com/

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050411/DCM062 AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/ AP PhotoExpress Network: PRN9 PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com Source: BET (Black Entertainment Television)

CONTACT: Tosha Whitten-Griggs, +1-818-655-6712, tosha.whitten-griggs@bet.net, or Zabrina Horton, +1-818-655-6737, zabrina.horton@bet.net, both of BET; or Edwin Banacia of Sony Urban Music, +1-212-833-5072, edwin.banacia@sonybmg.com

Web site: http://www.bet.com/ http://www.fattykoo.com/ http://www.columbiarecords.com/

NOTE TO EDITORS: Screeners and artwork are available upon request; contact Zabrina Horton, BET Corporate Communications at (818) 655-6737 or zabrina.horton@bet.net. For music requests, contact Edwin Banacia, Sony Urban Music at (212) 833-5072 or edwin.banacia@sonybmg.com.

------- Profile: Ent