Biagio: Today, Variety broke the news that our new show CAGED will premiere on January 9th at 10pm/9 central on MTV.
We love this show. We feel it’s the very best television we’ve ever made.
Joke, my wife and business partner, shared this journal entry with me, and I was so moved I asked her if I could share it with you. After thinking about it for a while, she gave me the go ahead.
Far more than “just another TV show” for the two of us, CAGED represents everything we ever hoped to accomplish in unscripted television.
I hope her words will touch you as they did me.
Joke’s Journal Entry
May I never forget this feeling. May I never lose this moment.
As a storyteller, one of the biggest challenges I encounter on each journey is the one of letting go, of letting that story find a life of its own out in the world.
I’ve not had the privilege of raising a child, but I guess what I feel at those moments is in its own tiny way similar to when parents send their children off to college and find themselves hoping they’ve done their job well enough.
But today everything is still pure with this story. Right now is the moment I live for, the moment when the pieces come together and the sum is greater than its parts.
For two years now my husband and I have nurtured this story called Caged.
It’s been a team effort getting it sold, shot and assembled, yet in some ways it’s all mine, or rather I’m its. From the moment I met the incredible people who live this story every day, they claimed a piece of my heart. It’s theirs. It’s like a little ember, always glowing, and when I pay it some attention it grows and warms my entire heart and soul.
I know I’m blessed, lucky, fortunate–whatever you want to call it–I know this is special.
We’ve had passion for all the stories we’ve told over the years, but this one is different, this one locked me in from the word go, and it is as if it is driving me more than I’m driving it.
So I want to make sure I remember right now. This moment of pride, this moment of completeness, this moment of purity.
Before the critics judge, which they will carefully or quickly, before the audiences decide our fate, which they will with their thumbs on the remote, and before the people at the heart of this story become public figures, which some will do with grace while others stumble.
Before this story takes flight and finds a life of its own, at this moment, it’s still mine.
At this moment, I can protect it, treasure it and love it as it’s supposed to be.
No matter what happens, whether it becomes a hit or ends up being another great story you never saw, may I never forget this feeling, may I never lose this moment.
Joke Fincioen
11/29/11
Caged premieres Monday, January 9th at 10pm/9 central on MTV. Follow Joke and Biagio’s Caged twitter feed at @JNB_MTV_Caged