Tad Low

Tad Low (born Josiah Orne Low IV on September 26, 1966) is an American businessman, media entrepreneur and nonprofit founder. He is the creator and producer of television shows, including Pop-Up Video and Pants-Off Dance-Off, and is the founder of SmarterPhone, a nonprofit organization established in 2023 that advocates delaying smartphone use among children and adolescents. He currently helms Spin The Bottle, a multimedia content company based in New York City. Low's work has been noted in the press for its ironic sensibility, and his shows simultaneously critique and celebrate popular culture in all of its banal and sublime incarnations. The paradoxical nature of Low's aesthetic was articulated by New York magazine when it dubbed Pants-Off Dance-Off both "brilliant and lowbrow".

Personal history A son of Penelope Ireland Low and Josiah Orne Low III, he was born and raised in Connecticut,

One of his antecedents, Seth Low, served as both the Mayor of New York and as president of Columbia University. Low is a graduate of Yale, where he was a member of The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus. He made his first television appearance with a rubber chicken on Marlo and the Magic Movie Machine in the sixth grade. In 1994, Low co-hosted the syndicated television show Last Call, produced by Brandon Tartikoff. Low has subsequently hosted and appeared on various television shows for MTV, VH1, CBS, NBC, and Fox. He has also contributed articles to Men's Health and The New York Times.

Since 1996, Pop-Up Video has been nominated for 13 Emmys, and in 2000 Low won a New York Emmy as host and producer of Subway Q&A, a show he co-created for Cablevision's Metro Channel.

Low lives in New York City with his wife, Alisa Lea Ruvinsky, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and their children. The couple exchanged vows at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau on June 6, 2013.

SmarterPhone In 2023, Low founded SmarterPhone, a nonprofit organization that advocates delaying smartphone use among children and adolescents through high school. The organization works with schools and parent communities, primarily in the New York City area, to promote coordinated approaches to technology boundaries and digital well-being. SmarterPhone has organized educational events featuring authors, psychologists, and other experts addressing adolescent development and social media use.

Shows Pop-Up Video first aired on VH1 in October 1996. It inserted bubbles containing trivia and snarky behind-the-scenes commentary into existing music videos. The show spawned numerous imitators and earned ten Emmy nominations. Low's inspiration for the show came from hearing a stylist friend's tales of mistreatment at the hands of a famous female pop star. As Low claims in an interview for a Canadian newspaper, "I'd be watching (this singer) being wonderful and fabulous in all these cheesy videos, while at the same time I was hearing one horrible story after another of the acts of human degradation committed by this woman." Low's fascination with this incongruity eventually culminated in the creation of "Pop-Up Video".

Video IQ debuted on the Fuse network in November 2004. One of the first interactive game shows, Video IQ gave viewers the chance to win prizes by deciphering and text-messaging the answers to rebus-style puzzles embedded in the images and lyrics of music videos. Video IQ was similar in temperament to the wry and biting Pop-Up Video. In one show, for example, the clue "Semi-retired blond pop tart" yielded the answer Britney Spears.

Subway Q&A. Low hosted and co-created this show on the Metro Channel along with Ronald Fried. Debuting in 2000, this show featured Low, along with a camera crew, coaxing subway commuters into disrupting their daily routines by, for example, holding an impromptu trial in a subway car in which riders were asked to be the jury, persuading subway passengers to try on a stranger's hat, and convincing a woman he had never met before to join him for a catered dinner on the subway platform in the middle of rush hour. Cajoling ordinary New York City subway commuters into exploring their inner performers, Subway Q&A reflected Low's desire, in the words of a New York Times reporter, to "elevate real people to celebrity".

Pants-Off Dance-Off. Low is the creator and executive producer of PODO, which debuted on the Fuse network on April 18, 2006. The highest-rated show in the Fuse network's history, PODO combines elements of a dance contest with a striptease. Each episode features five amateur contestants (aka "pancers") who disrobe while dancing in front of a screen playing their favorite music videos. The show also contains an interactive element, as home viewers have the opportunity to vote for contestants in categories such as "funniest", "most disturbing" and "best dancer" on the show's website. According to The New York Times television critic David Itzkoff, PODO not only helped garner media attention and public exposure for the Fuse network (no pun intended), but also promoted an ethos similar to the all-encompassing philosophy of Subway Q&A: "In contrast to the unattainable standards of perfections promoted by celebrity television, 'Pants-Off Dance-Off' is meant to be an inclusive experience, one that has already welcomed competitors as diverse as a 58-year-old retired schoolteacher and a woman in a unicorn mask."

Low's most recent television series include Pet-O-Rama (a skills competition for household pets), Best Places Ever I've Ever Been (a tour of travel experts' favorite unknown destinations), TXT MSG (a "Pop-Up Video"-style treatment of archival sports footage) and Photo ID (a look into the unusual lives of everyday people, through photos and anecdotes). The shows premiered in 2010 on Animal Planet, The Travel Channel, MSG Network and Verizon's FiOS.

Filmography

Television Year Title Role(s) Network 1977 Marlo and the Magic Movie Machine Featured Comedian CBS/Syndicated 1991-1993 MTV News Correspondent & Producer MTV 1991-1993 The Week In Rock Correspondent & Producer MTV 1991-1993 House of Style Correspondent & Producer MTV 1994-1995 Last Call Host Syndicated 1995-1996 Good Morning America Correspondent ABC 1995-1996 Front Page Correspondent Fox 1996-2001 Pop-Up Video Creator & Executive Producer VH1 1996-1997 A Current Affair Correspondent Syndicated 1997-1998 USA Live Correspondent USA Network 1997-1998 Great Stuff Anchor CNBC 1997-1998 Channel 2 News Commentator WCBS-TV 1998 Phly Creator & Executive Producer WAMI 1998 1998 UPN Alt Games Creator, Host & Executive Producer UPN 1998-2001 Subway Q&A Host & Producer Metro Channel 1999 Pop-Up Quiz Creator & Executive Producer VH1 1999-2001 Pop-Up Video UK Creator & Executive Producer Channel 4 2000 Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: VH1's Pop-Up Celebrity Edition Executive Producer ABC 2004 40 Greatest Pranks Commentator VH1 2004-2005 Video IQ Creator & Executive Producer Fuse 2006-2007 Pants-Off Dance-Off Creator & Executive Producer Fuse, Viva, MuchMusic 2007 40 Greatest Internet Superstars Commentator VH1 2009-2012 Photo ID Creator & Executive Producer FiOS1 2010 Pet-O-Rama Creator & Executive Producer Animal Planet 2010 Best Places I've Ever Been Executive Producer Travel Channel