Warner Bros., the television-and-movies subsidiary of Time Warner, is stepping up efforts to cash in on the big-money, low-budget industry of Reality -- reality television, that is. The company intends to launch a TV production unit, called Warner Horizon Television, to produce even lower budget reality television programs.

And how does Warner Horizon Television plan to lower the cost of the already pathetically cheap reality television shows?

Well, according to Peter Roth, President of Warner Bros. Television, the studio will limit taping days, shooting locations and "talent" pay. This new production model will reduce costs to about $500,000 less per episode than what a "traditional" (read: watchable) TV show costs per episode.

If you're interested, Warner Horizon, I have a couple of ideas for some very low-budget reality shows:

Forget about taxi drivers, muggers, Christo installations, and/or Matt Lauer. There's a new reason to avoid New York: Broadway's newest vampire musical.

"Lestat" -- which has been uniformly savaged by the Washington Post, the New York Times and even the mighty Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey -- was supposed to be Warner Brothers' challenge to Disney's many successes in the Broadway musicals ("The Lion King," "Tarzan," "Aida" and others). 

Coming in on the heels of two other failed vampire musicals -- "Dance of the Vampires" (2002) and "Dracula, the Musical" (2004) -- "Lestat" is based on Anne Rice's vampire novels, and it boasts otherworldly powers that would make the undead blush: a reported bankroll of up to $12 million and songwriting by Elton John.

Unfortunately, neither deep pockets nor the powerhouse behind "Crocodile Rock" could help. Ben Brantley, in the New York Times, called it a "musical sleeping pill" ... and his review was charitable by comparison. 

"I vant to suck your blood" is a line for old-school vampires. "I vant to suck the life out of this production" is apparently how the new generation of vampires rolls.