From “Shark Tank” to “The Great British Bake Off,” reality TV has captured Annika Joshi ’28. An avid supporter of the genre, Joshi has moved on to a new level of fandom: creating her own reality TV show.
“Ad Libs,” a business reality show made by Joshi and co-creators Iman Monnoo ’28 and Luiza Ribeiro ’28, follows emerging Stanford designers as they work in five teams of three to curate a brand for a small company.
Each of the four episodes focuses on a different element of branding, with winners selected by a panel of three judges: Allison Kluger, a lecturer at the Graduate School of Business; Sabrina Lin, an Oracle designer and McCoy Family Center for Ethics and Technology practitioner fellow and Rishika Gundi M.S. ’26, a master’s student in design.
Though Joshi was an avid reality TV fan before creating “Ad Libs,” the three co-creators admitted there is more to reality TV than what gets seen in the final cut. “I think the easiest part was getting the judges,” said Ribeiro. Navigating finding a videographer and cinematographer, as well as finding — and keeping — contestants, proved difficult.
“We had a lot of experiences with flake culture,” Monnoo said.
Each of the three creators also had a different journey to joining “Ad Libs.” For Monnoo, an English and art history double major, the project was an obvious step toward her interest in entertainment and film. Ribeiro, on the other hand, had experience in branding and has created much of the show’s branding materials while also helping with other tasks, such as scriptwriting.
“Ad Libs” stood out immediately as a student project with “clear format, strong execution plan, and creative ambition,” Kluger wrote to The Daily.
More than having a clear idea, though, the three creators work well as a team, which is why she believes “Ad Libs” will succeed, Kluger wrote.
Though the show stems from a love of reality TV and entertainment, its creators emphasized their goal of supporting local businesses. Even if the show gets picked up by a network — an idea that the creators floated as an end goal for the project — Ribeiro made clear she would still want to continue working with small companies and emerging designers.
As in any reality TV show, though, celebrity judges are a staple, and Joshi, Monnoo and Ribeiro know exactly who they would pick as a celebrity judge given the chance: Tyra Banks, the host of “America’s Next Top Model.” “She just has a good personality,” said Monnoo.
Though “Ad Libs” is, at its heart, reality TV, Kluger insisted it the show is more than what it seems.
“The format mirrors real-world brand work, where teams often have to ideate, iterate, and deliver under pressure. It’s not just fun to watch — it’s an authentic learning experience,” wrote Kluger.