Beekman Boys launch new show on eVine

The Beekman Boys are planning to launch a new television show on Sundays that will give people a look at their life on their farm in Sharon Springs.

Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell will be the stars of “The Perfect Beekend,” which will premiere this Sunday on eVine, a home shopping channel.

“People who watch our show, buy our products and follow us on Facebook wonder what it is like to spend time on the farm,” Ridge said on Thursday. “So we decided to film it. That became ‘The Perfect Beekend.’”

The show will feature friends of the Beekman Boys who have worked with them on Beekman 1802’s cookbooks and magazines. They will stay the weekend with Ridge and Kilmer-Purcell to see what life is really like on the farm in Schoharie County.

The couple previously had their own reality show called “The Fabulous Beekman Boys” in 2010 and 2011 on the Cooking Channel. The show is about Ridge and Kilmer-Purcell leaving their urban lifestyles to run the Beekman Farm. They also won CBS’ “The Amazing Race” in 2012.

“It’s part of our business,” Ridge said. “But we don’t fit into the realm of reality TV anymore. We’re not sensational enough. So we wanted to give an old-school nice show a try.”

Ridge and Kilmer-Purcell already filmed the first episode of “The Perfect Beekend” in Sharon Springs with eVine, which is located in Minneapolis.

They’re in Minneapolis now to film the live commercial inserts planned for the 30-minute show on Sunday.

“The way the episode will work is it will be divided into segments and the commercial breaks, usually whoever the sponsor is, will be live commercials with our stuff up that sells on eVine,” Ridge said. “It’s really an interesting approach.”

“The Perfect Beekend” will be on eVine at 8 a.m. on Sunday. In the Capital Region, eVine is channel 3 for Time Warner Cable customers; channels 1603 and 157 for Verizon FIOS customers; channels 73 and 316 for DIRECTV customers; and channels 134 and 228 for Dish Network customers.

People can also watch the show live online at http://www.evine.com/onair/watchuslive?cm_re=GN-_-ONAIR-_-WATCHUSLIVE.

Ridge said Sunday’s show would be a test to see if it will continue every Sunday.

“It’s the first it’s ever been done,” he said. “If it’s successful we will figure out how we will move forward. If we do future episodes it will be on the farm as well.”

Sunday’s first episode will feature Ridge and Kilmer-Purcell along with Sandy Gluck, who used to work with Ridge at the Martha Stewart company; Paul Grimes, a food stylist who styled the food for several of the Beekmans’ cookbooks, and Paulette Tavormina, a photographer who did the photography for several of the Beekmans’ cookbooks.

“The show is for people to get a glimpse of what it’s like to spend a weekend on the farm and spending the weekend on the farm with friends,” Ridge said.

The Beekman Boys recently expanded their company with a new headquarters at the Electric City Innovation Center, located in the Center City building on State Street in downtown Schenectady, under the state’s business tax incentive program START-UP NY.

Beekman 1802 plans to invest $25,000 into 2,000 square feet of space and is looking to hire 25 employees within five years. The company has the option to expand there in the future.

Ridge said a majority of the hires will happen after the New Year.

The Electric City Innovation Center is now home to a few of Beekman 1802’s employees, including the chief executive officer, comptroller and a couple of graphic designers.

Ridge said the company also recently hired a managing editor for the magazine who will work out of the new space along with future hires for the food program.

“We love the space,” he said. “Schenectady is great.”

Ridge and Kilmer-Purcell founded Beekman 1802 in 2008. The company has a Mercantile store at 187 Main St. in Sharon Springs, which sells farm products and home decor, along with a cookbook, magazine and videos.

Reach Gazette reporter Haley Viccaro at 395-3114, [email protected] or @HRViccaro on Twitter.