Last year, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) organization launched a new competition and format, the PBR Team Series. It turns out that also came with a lot of behind-the-scenes filming, and that’s now turned into an eight-episode docuseries headed to Prime Video. The Amazon streaming service announced a greenlight for “The Ride” Thursday, with that docuseries (from Kinetic Content) set to premiere later this year. Here’s a tweet from series executive producer Micah Brown (known for the 30 for 30 installment Chuck and Tito, WWE Evil, Prison Fighters: Five Rounds to Freedom, NFL Undiscovered, and more) about that:
Excited to announce the new series I’m the Executive Producer / Showrunner on for @PrimeVideo https://t.co/fcfOQv2Dee
Let’s Ride!
— Micah Brown (@MicahBrownFilm) January 26, 2023
And here’s more from a Prime Video release:
“We’re excited to take Prime Video customers deeper into the lives of the athletes and cowboys competing in professional bull riding,” said Matt Newman, head of Prime Video Original sports content. “The Ride will showcase the intense action, heated competition, raw emotions, and personal battles that are fueling the sport’s brightest stars. We can’t wait to bring PBR fans and casual viewers closer to the western lifestyle driving this great American sport. We couldn’t ask for better partners than Kinetic and PBR.”
“The Ride is a deep, engaging and beyond-the-arena window into the world of PBR athletes who risk life and limb to entertain the world’s most passionate sports fans,” said Sean Gleason, CEO and Commissioner, PBR. “Regardless of their background, walk of life or familiarity with the sport, anyone who is exposed to the infectious, determined, and youthful exuberance of a PBR bull rider inevitably walks away as a fan, which is why we partnered with Prime Video and Kinetic Content to capture their compelling stories. From their homes, through the locker room, and ultimately into the bucking chute on top of a 2,000 pound bull, The Ride captures these modern-day gladiators like never before while answering the question: Why do they do it? These are riveting stories of family, brotherhood, passion and dreams against the backdrop of the world’s most dangerous organized sport now redefined in the PBR Team Series. The compelling episodes that unfold will entertain everyone whether they are a fan of PBR bull riding or about to become one.”
The series will follow “an ensemble cast of riders and coaches” throughout that 2022 season. And it adds to the amount of behind-the-scenes documentary or docuseries content out there. While this has been a thing for a long time in boxing, the NFL, the NHL, NCAA sports, Formula 1, and more, we’re now seeing more and more of these on esports, NASCAR, tennis, basketball, lacrosse, golf (a bunch), surfing (a whole bunch), soccer (a whole bunch), the CFL, and beyond. Now, we can add bull riding to that list. We’ll see how this series turns out for Prime Video.
[Amazon Studios; image from PBR.com]
