Many thought the halt of scripted programming would lead to a reality boom, but even as fall schedules rely heavily on unscripted, workers still grapple with diminished job opportunities, long hours and a lack of union support: "We get starved out all the time."
Many thought the halt of scripted programming would lead to a reality boom, but even as fall schedules rely heavily on unscripted, workers still grapple with diminished job opportunities, long hours and a lack of union support: "We get starved out all the time."
I met one of the producers on jersey shore Miami outside of a widespread panic show one time. He seemed nice enough. He was sucking down balloons and offered to share so that was nice of him. He didn't seem to love his job though, and jersey shore seems to be something of an outlier in that the subjects were hungry for, and relished the attention.
Seriously, they're literally the problem, networks turned to reality TV because it was cheap and to get around the last writers strike and the one before that.
I sometimes wonder if the need to turn the "news" division into another "entertainment" group led to this. Most "reality television" boils down to a camera on the scene, with some faceless person asking "So, how do you feel about that?".
This makes me wonder if shows like Deadliest Catch or Property Brothers actually "jazz up" the show with some light scripting the way shows like The Real World famously did. 🤔
I have family that works in visual effects and have worked on a lot of reality shows. To say shoes are scripted is putting it ridiculously mildly. Entire episode runs are planned out, meticulously. Almost nothing is left to chance/genuine.