Press & News

The New York-based health club David Barton Gym will take the spotlight on Friday, March 14, as the featured employer on Inside Job, a new reality television series on the TNT network. The show sets four people together in the same living space for five consecutive days, then pits them against each other as they compete for a six-figure job at a large company. One of the four is already an employee of the company; he or she secretly reports back to a high-level executive about the three actual candidates. The end of the show reveals the candidate chosen for the job.
Howard Brodsky, David Barton Gym’s CEO, told Club Industry magazine, “I felt this was an unparalleled opportunity to give viewers an inside look at what makes David Barton Gym the most unique in the country.”
“A gym is a natural choice for the setting or subject of a reality television show,” says Emily Wilensky, Marketing Manager of EZFacility, a gym management software developer in Woodbury, New York. “There’s constant motion, a natural atmosphere of intensity, and, because people at gyms generally are working hard toward personal goals, good potential for drama. From the gym’s point of view, it’s a great way to increase awareness of and interest in your brand.”
Several years ago, the Los Angeles-based Sky Sport and Spa was featured in the Bravo show Work Out. More recently, Retro Fitness had a spot on Undercover Boss. Generally, fitness and the issues surrounding it play a big role in reality TV, with shows like The Biggest Loser, Toned Up, and Fight Girls consistently ranking among some of the most popular reality TV series.
For the Inside Job episode featuring David Barton Gym, participants had to meet two challenges to prove themselves worthy of the job the gym was looking to fill, social media director. In the first challenge, they had to design a new fitness class at the gym’s West Lost Angeles branch and market and lead the class for nonmembers. In the second, they had to work with a graffiti artist to develop a mural on the Venice Beach boardwalk that communicated the David Barton brand and then turn the mural into a social media event.