{"id":36618,"date":"2024-06-07T10:06:59","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T14:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=36618"},"modified":"2024-06-07T10:06:59","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T14:06:59","slug":"reality-tv-workers-share-why-production-is-on-life-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/06\/reality-tv-workers-share-why-production-is-on-life-support.html","title":{"rendered":"Reality TV Workers Share Why Production is on Life Support"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"reality<\/a>
Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Veteran unscripted producer Wendy Miller was attending a gathering for women over 40 who were unemployed on unscripted TV when she had the idea. Though the gathering could\u2019ve easily turned tearful, one woman brought fu to the proceedings by sharing a story about working on a past show that made the entire room laugh. Miller envisioned a storytelling event similar to \u201cThe Moth,\u201d where reality TV workers could share funny career stories with a paying audience, thus raising money for peers in need.<\/p>\n

Miller pitched to the group, \u201cAll of us are unemployed and have no money, but there are people who are way worse. What if we use this as an opportunity to raise money for someone who\u2019s really in dire straits?\u201d \u00a0The ensuing \u201cHollywood Horror Happy Hour,\u201d which took place May\u202f21, was just one sign of the times in the nonfiction TV business. Jobs are scarce, budgets are crunched, workers are considering jumping ship, and executives seem terrified to take creative risks on untested concepts. This has come as a surprise to some insiders in the space.<\/p>\n

There was an initial expectation that the 2023 actors and writers strikes would accelerate activity in reality TV, which boomed during the 2007-08 writers strike, but many say the opposite occurred \u2014 even though nonfiction, being relatively cheap to produce and largely nonunion, is a natural stopgap for entertainment companies during work shutdowns. For the waiting workforce, development and production haven\u2019t picked up much since then. \u201cI\u2019ve worked in this industry for 20 years, and all of a sudden, the faucet just turned off,\u201d says producer Patrick Caligiuri (\u201cNaked and Afraid,\u201d \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d), who has posted multiple times to his TikTok since March about the struggles of entertainment workers. His first post, emblazoned \u201cReality TV is dead,\u201d took off on LinkedIn, racking up over 2,000 likes and nearly 300 comments.<\/p>\n

One veteran reality TV producer added, \u201cIt\u2019s not just people who just moved to L.A. to get into the business that can\u2019t find jobs. It\u2019s somebody who\u2019s been working for 25 years and has a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that I would kill for who\u2019s saying they haven\u2019t worked in a year.\u201d Many veteran unscripted producers and sellers, who asked to remain anonymous in a bid to protect future sales, say the downturn is mirroring what\u2019s happening in the scripted TV space as budgets there, too, are being squeezed across the board, and especially on broadcast. Unscripted shows, which historically have been cheaper to make and faster to produce, are feeling the same fiscal pinch as their scripted counterparts as media companies right-size their slates and spending. \u201cIt\u2019s the same problem as scripted, and it\u2019s really depressing,\u201d says one veteran reality executive.<\/p>\n

The overall contraction and M&A have also meant fewer buyers for unscripted fare. Max, for example, no longer has its unscripted department after incorporating Discovery\u2019s vast portfolio of programming into the streamer. \u201cAt the legacy companies, you have massive fiscal pressure going on \u2014 just look at the stock prices. Those are the traditional buyers. It\u2019s the same reasons you\u2019ve seen in scripted, just leading to unscripted as well,\u201d says one longtime seller.<\/p>\n

Budgets for the shows that are being greenlit, meanwhile, are getting slashed, which is trickling down to affect the salaries that are being offered, according to sources. Some particularly noteworthy examples have made the rounds in online reality communities: One longtime reality producer, who says seasoned story producers used to be able to make $2,800 a week, shares a job posting and offering $350 to $450 a day, which amounts to $1,750 to $2,250 a week; a story producer sends a screenshot of a job that offered $1,800 to $2,200 a week for the same role. \u201cUnfortunately, there\u2019s a lot more supply than demand right now\u201d when it comes to available workers, adds the veteran reality TV producer. As a result, \u201cEverybody\u2019s Scrooge McDucking it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veteran unscripted producer Wendy Miller was attending a gathering for women over 40 who were unemployed on unscripted TV when she had the idea. Though the gathering could\u2019ve easily turned tearful, one woman brought fu to the proceedings by sharing a story about working on a past show that made the entire room laugh. Miller…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":36627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[6444,1043],"class_list":["post-36618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-television","tag-production-slowdown","tag-reality-tv"],"yoast_head":"\nReality TV Workers Share Why Production is on Life Support<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There was an initial expectation that the 2023 actors and writers strikes would accelerate activity in reality TV, but many say the opposite occurred.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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