Every Tuesday at 9 pm AXN airs the reality show, Next Action Star. At stake are roles for a man and a woman in an action movie. The show is the brainchild of The Matrix producer Joel Silver.

On the first episode, 30 people were selected from 7,500 hopefuls across the US and were flown to Hollywood for an audition.

The show which kicked off with a classic image --the Hollywood sign --introduces us to some of the participants and the viewer is able to strike an emotional chord with them. They express anxiety at the thought of being eliminated immediately putting things in perspective when you think of how some of the million-dollar action stars get overtly concerned about not getting hurt.

The tension mounts towards the end of the episode as 20 out of the original 30 progress to the next round. What makes it easy for the viewer to identify with is the fact that the participants are average Joes coming from different walks of life. A firefighter is confident that if he does not make the final cut then he will not be able to go back to his job. Apparently, despite the glamour associated with Hollywood the fire chief was unhappy at the firefighter's decision to go. Another participant was a doorman.

The audition scene was called Run & Gun. This involved explosions and dodging bullets. It was interesting watching participants burning the midnight oil trying to interpret the scene with minor variations. The scene ended with one of them saying the line "If it bleeds it leads."

It was evident that while some of the participants had personality, their acting ability went from A to A which was understandable, as it was the "ooh aaah eeeh" routine. The participants also went through martial arts training where a few of them, not surprisingly, held back for fear of getting hurt.

One of the casting directors on the show judging the participants was Victoria Burrows, a casting agent whose credits include Castaway and Lord of the Rings. It was somewhat surprising that Joel Silver himself was not judging, perhaps he will come in later. The show can only get better and it will be interesting to see how the participants handle issues like intimacy in future. The stunts should also get progressively more complicated.