Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

"Simple Life" bypasses Prescott

There will be no "Simple Life" for Prescott.

According to a release from the Prescott-Nevada County Partnership, the reality television show "The Simple Life" will not be filming in Prescott.

A visit was made to Prescott in February as part of the scouting effort for the fall series, the city received a letter from bonnie Bogard, vice president of creative affairs for Bunim/Murray Productions, stating Prescott would not be the location for the show.

The letter thanked Prescott for hosting field producer Tim Harland during the scouting. It stated Harland returned with many incredible stories about Prescott and its citizens.

"While we wish that we could provide a forum for all the fascinating towns that interest us," she wrote, "the format of our series forces us to choose only one town and one family. Unfortunately, Prescott has not been chosen to host A Simple Life'."

Prescott did survive two rounds of cuts and made it to the final list. However, this wasn't enough to secure the town as the site for the show.

"The process of working with a major production company in this type of effort gave us valuable experience for the next time we have an opportunity like this," said Jon Chadwell, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office.

"The good response of the community and our ability to survive until the last round of cuts means we have a lot of potential that people from outside our community are able to see."

The EDO and Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce will continue working with the Arkansas Department of Economic Development's Film Department to pursue film and television projects in the future.

"This will not be our main focus in development," Chadwell said, "but it can be an important piece of growing Prescott and Nevada County."