Southwest is Coming to a TV Near You
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little business buzz right now. Another reality show is set to take off soon, and we mean that literally, because this one is about the airline industry, that wacky business. Carrie Lee has more on the story. So tell us about this.</s>CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: You know you've got to love this story, Carol. Southwest Airlines is going to be the focus of a new A&E; reality show called "Airline." Now, believe it or not, there is a British version which is in its seventh year following a low-cost British carrier there. The Brits apparently love this so they're trying it in the United States. It's going to debut early next year. They already started filming in Los Angeles. They're moving to Chicago this week. What are they going to talk about? Well, the show is going to focus on Southwest passengers making special trips like family reunions, profiles of interesting Southwest employees and spontaneous stories like how bad weather affects air travel. I sort of had two immediate questions. No. 1, are they going to have to bleep out certain words when they show people stranded in an airport? And No. 2, how real is this going to be? Southwest is really putting itself on the line. Are they going to show things like employee grumbling, as well as the positive things about working there? So debuting next year, Carol, we'll see if people watch it here.</s>COSTELLO: I bet Southwest will agree to do that, because, you know, their flight attendants are very entertaining already.</s>LEE: That's it. They have singing flight attendants in some cases. Interesting though is that "USA Today" says there has been some recent staff protests about working conditions so are they going to cover the positive as well as the negative? But Southwest has been consistently profitable for 30 years, unlike a lot of other carriers, so it does have that going for it from a business perspective.</s>COSTELLO: Well they seem down to earth, too. Quick look at the futures.</s>LEE: Yes, things look pretty good. We saw just a little bit of a sell off yesterday. No big profit reports out this morning other than Aetna. We'll be waiting to hear from the insurance giant. Could set the tone for other companies in this sector. Tomorrow we get the big unemployment report for July, so a lot of people may be waiting on the sidelines to see what that number brings. Carol, back to you.</s>COSTELLO: Carrie Lee, many thanks. Live from New York from the Nasdaq site. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM AT www.fdch.com