About Us

The History of Challenger Films and The Real Winning Edge

Challenging TV media for our youth’s
sake nationally and internationally

Challenger Films was created to bring to national television the kind of programming that would influence young people's values and behavior in a positive way. The motivation stemmed from the founder, Diane Preston-Reilly's doctoral work on how television and film affect social and moral values. She discovered in this research that television is a cultural shaper. Youth look to these media icons for answers to how they deal with life issues and television programmers' "icons" are too often delivering the wrong answers.

One conclusion is the best single prediction of violent youth is the number of violent programs they view. Thus, the mission of Challenger films founded in 1980 as an Atlanta-based, independent television production company, is to produce wholesome programming for our nation's youth by profiling positive real-life role models.

The Real Winning Edge (TRWE) series was created to fulfill this need. The format for the television series features three young achievers introduced by a celebrity in their field of talent. All are selected because they have different displayable talents – they represent all ethnic groups from all across America, and have different adversities they’ve overcome through the right choices.

TRWE - went through years of testing in local markets before being accepted in 2008 by FOX-owned stations and was put into national syndication at the same time, to reach 160 markets across the U.S. It has just finished its 7th year in a row in many of these markets. We now believe that TRWE is reaching it's largest market ever through its YouTube channel, as YouTube is carried worldwide. Additionally, it will be airing on the American Armed Forces Network soon, which reaches bases in 177 different countries worldwide – including our embassies and ships at sea!

Our team

Laurie Dozier, Administrative Assistant 

Mary Daneman, Chief Editor oversees contributing freelance editors. Mary has been in the business for 20 years working in Atlanta and the surrounding area.

Nancy Berry, Writer

Mike Stoudt, Voiceover

David Wurm, Media Promoter/WebMaster

Camera Crews are always hired locally for both candidates and celebrity shoots.