By Kelley Bell

When Hollywood snuck into Columbus and set up their cameras at Goodale Park, Karen Sigal and her family had no idea they were about to be featured on a new reality show.

The Sigals run a family-owned modeling agency in Gahanna, and like most small businesses in this economy, they were struggling to keep afloat. Then, like a magician with a magic wand, a man named Paul Fisher appeared and made their dreams come true.

Fisher is a veteran of the international modeling world, known for representing some of the top names in the industry, including Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour and Carre Otis. His new venture “The Network” includes a plan to bring local modeling agencies together, help them discover and develop new talent, and use his network to allow small agencies to pool resources and access big international accounts. He is doing it all on television as the star of a new reality show on The CW network called {Re}Modeled.

Sigal knew nothing of The Network or {Re}Modeled when Fisher called her up and asked to meet. At first she thought it was some sort of scam. “He called three times before I finally agreed to talk to him. In this business, it’s hard to find people you can really trust. Paul is very genuine though. He has a good heart. That came through right away.”

Karen’s son and business partner David added, “My mom is very skeptical with who she puts her trust in, especially when it comes to the agency. It’s her baby and she is very protective of it.”

“Before all this happened, I felt pulled down and dragged down and alone,” Karen said. “I wanted the agency to go further, but didn’t know how. I felt like I was drowning. We would work so hard just to pay the bills, but the economy started to fail, and we began to feel the crunch. We were in survival mode. Then Paul appeared, and now we have The Network and the resources we need to succeed.”

Fisher said that Sigals showed a drive that moved him.

“The Sigal agency has been in business for 16 years and that shows me commitment and persistence,” he said. “I love the idea of a ‘family’ run business and this particular family is very close and has each other’s back. They will protect and treat their young models like ‘family.’ This is very important to me.”

In order to keep the makeover of their modeling agency a surprise, Fisher and his team did not tell the Sigals of their plan to feature the family in the reality show. Instead, they said they wanted to come to Columbus and interview the Sigals as potential candidates for The Network. Karen and her family were blown away by the whirlwind of surprises to come.

“They were very clever keeping all this a secret,” Karen said. “They kept us busy with interviews and paperwork and we had no idea all this production was going on right under our feet. Everything was kept very hush-hush.”

The production company set up camp in Columbus for one week, buzzing about town like a band of ninjas on a secret mission. Without letting the Sigals know what was happening, the team completely remodeled their agency from top to bottom and surprised them on the last day of the shoot with a big reveal. In the middle of the night, the agency was completely updated with new computers, furniture, paint and accessories. Their business was transformed from a local catalog and fit-model agency to include an international high fashion division, with a new logo and branding materials. Fisher named the new division Sigal Models and Talent. His team created a new logo featuring two letter Ss in the shape of a heart. Fisher said when he met the Sigals, he could tell that was the symbol of what their family was all about. Fisher then scouted The Ohio State University, scanning the oval for new talent. In one day, he plucked a dozen beautiful faces out of the crowd. He put together portfolios for each model and brought the agency a new star with a contract featuring him as the face of Abercrombie and Fitch.

“Going through that whole experience of the big reveal at Goodale was so amazing. We didn’t know what was going on,” David said. “My heart was racing. It was a total emotional rollercoaster. Then we came around the corner and saw the cameras rolling and all these models lined up with their new portfolios, and Paul telling us everything he had done. At that moment we realized our dreams had come true. It was amazing.”

{Re}Modeled will premier on The CW network (WWHO) on Tuesday January 17th at 9 p.m. The episode featuring the Sigal family will air on the third week of the series.