Las Vegas City Council meetings can sometimes be a little dramatic, which is at least one of the reasons the City of Las Vegas is launching its own reality show.
It’s called “ Inside Vegas.”
In its first season, the show will follow three storylines that come before City Council: a massage parlor that’s a front for prostitution; a nonprofit that’s been behaving badly; and the infamous issue of party houses.
The show is now streaming on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and the city’s GoVegas app.
David Riggleman, the city's communications director, says the show is also to give people a better understanding of what the city does and put a human face to government processes.
“We wanted to show city employees, city councilmembers in a truer light,” he told KNPR's State of Nevada.
Riggleman said people often don't understand how local government works or see government as nameless, faceless bureaucrats. He hopes the show changes that.
“What we really want to show is that, in fact, we have wonderful professional people at the council level, the city staff level, who are trying to do the right thing every day,” he said.
Riggleman said the show wasn't really a reality show in the sense of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" or "Dance Moms" but instead was a reality-style show with footage and interviews intercut.
The show condensed three issues that took several months to resolve into a shorter format that is easier to watch and understand.
“The idea here is to show you a beginning, a middle and an end and you can see in all three of these situations, these storylines, how the city managed to resolve the issue with the public,” he said.
Besides showing the human side of local government, Riggleman hopes the show clears up the differences between the City of Las Vegas and Clark County, which many people don't understand.
Producers are already discussing the storylines to follow in season two. Riggleman said the future is wide open on topics. Everything from animal control to code enforcement could be featured.
‘You’re going to see that the city has human beings working there really trying to do a great job every day, hopefully, that’s what will translate,” he said.
David Riggleman, communications director, City of Las Vegas