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Entertainment gunslingers gather at High Noon

Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 9, 2006 at midnight

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If you flip on HGTV or Food Network, odds are that High Noon Entertainment created the show you're watching.

The Centennial-based company is one of the largest "nonfiction" television-production outfits, with 25 series and specials in the works for next year. High Noon's shows range from stalwarts such as Food Network's Unwrapped to Texas Cheer Moms on TLC, which premiered last month.

It's a long way from when four former 9News journalists formed the company in 1997 and the dozen employees could comfortably meet in CEO Jim Berger's office. Today, High Noon's payroll tops 250 workers, and the company is preparing for even more growth.

This year, High Noon opened a five-person Los Angeles development office and signed on with high-powered Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency. Both moves will help High Noon get in front of top-tier cable networks such as Bravo and VH1, as well as the national broadcasting networks.

CAA also is developing High Noon's strategy beyond the cable networks, such as programs for mobile phones or online video. But whether, and when, there will be a market for such content remains open to debate, Berger said.

"The biggest top-of-mind issue is the timing of new platforms," Berger said. "When should we spend money to be in the game that has yet to pay out?"

It's similar to the question High Noon faced a few years ago on whether to make the leap into high-definition equipment.

In 2005, the company decided that the tipping point was near and purchased $3 million in high-definition cameras and editing equipment.

This year, High Noon filmed nearly 75 percent of its 500 programming hours in high definition.

"Now HDTVs are selling left and right," said Duke Hartman, High Noon's chief operations officer. "Consumers are going to demand high-definition programming."

One thing that hasn't changed is High Noon's approach to its shows, which tend to be character-driven and entertainingly educational. An example: following homeowners as they discover their house's genealogy on If Walls Could Talk or demystifying how Wonder Bread gets its texture on Unwrapped with Marc Summers.

Most of the shows are conceived in High Noon's offices, a sprawling, 30,000-square-foot space of cubicles, filing cabinets and editing rooms at Comcast Media Center.

Filming, however, takes place across the country, with upward of 15 crews in the field at any given time.

The company often conducts national searches before deciding on a location, but several times the story was in its own backyard.

Hinkley High School chemistry teacher Gionni Thompson landed the job as host of DIY Network's Stud Finder, a Denver couple filled 13 episodes of this season's My First Place and, perhaps most famously, East Alameda Animal Hospital has been featured on Emergency Vets.

High Noon Entertainment

• Founded: 1997

• What it does: Produces shows such as the Food Network's Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels and Unwrapped with Marc Summers, Animal Planet's Emergency Vets, HGTV's What You Get for the Money and TLC's Texas Cheer Moms.

• Employees: 250 in Denver

• Location: Centennial

• Biggest challenge: Deciding when, and whether, to expand into mobile platforms.

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