I’ve always had a sneaking feeling that not everything is up when it comes to reality TV. About a month or so into earning my BA in Entertainment Creative Writing, my feelings were confirmed.
I learned the evil truth about unscripted television—it’s not really unscripted. Or maybe that’s a little too specific to be completely accurate. It is safer and more “realistic” to say that unscripted television is not unscripted television.
The entire series was planned out from almost every shot to every possible occurrence. It is designed to maximize drama to captivate the audience.
Scenes and dialogue may not exist in written form, but the scene and end result are pre-planned.
Think about it. How many people sit on their couch and stare with complete fascination at you or anyone else going about their daily lives?
We’re talking about 30 minutes to an hour of reality show where every conversation and every incident is funny. Does anyone on this planet live like this?
Hollywood’s best actresses and actors may be famous, but they still have to pull their underwear out of their butt cracks in the morning, brush their teeth, and act like social animals.
In fact, even the richest and most famous people’s lives may be just as routine as yours or mine. The only difference is they show up on set and pretend for a day.
No, making the entire season entertaining requires careful planning, careful design, and direction. The formula is a success—or at least it has been a success since the birth of “unscripted” television in the 1970s.
Obviously, nothing lasts forever. Producer Patrick Caliiuri thinks the situation is worse than worst, claiming the multiple Emmy winner is working for Doordash and making ends meet with independent contractor gigs.
The cruel reality of the above-mentioned economy is busy pushing small and medium-sized production companies to the guillotine. Most of them are in the business of producing reality TV series for the masses.
Many of the problems facing unscripted television can be immediately attributed to forces outside its sphere of influence, such as industry-wide cost-cutting measures, the ongoing effects of the pandemic and writers’ strike, and the entertainment industry getting too far ahead of its time in mass production. fail.
Jobs are scarce, and the platform that made its name in the reality TV industry is no longer ordering new shows.
“I’ve been in this industry for 20 years and all of a sudden the tap turned off.”
—Patrick Caligiri
However, this isn’t just about reality TV, as all of the issues listed above are issues for the entire industry, which certainly includes scripted television. The problem is that unscripted television represents only a small portion of the overall pie, so the damage done looks proportionately more devastating.
When such austerity works, it has the trickle-down effect of Reaganomics, only in reverse. With budget cuts, hiring is down, salaries are plummeting, and there are fewer job applicants.
You’re either part of a long-running, very popular franchise, or you’re eating on the floor with other kids.
If it’s painful for veterans, it’s certainly devastating for the gigolos trying to break into the industry by creating new concepts for unscripted television.
“I write all day long. I’m writing a screenplay, I’m writing a half-hour pilot, I’m writing a feature film, I’m making a reality show, but at the same time, I can’t help but think that, for the most part, everything Finished me.
—Wendy Miller, Improv Producer
To the average television viewer, all was quiet on the Western Front. What happens is not the most important thing, especially when you turn on the TV and see Catfish, The Bachelorette, Jersey Shore, Naked and Afraid, The Challenge, etc.
But does “shrinkage” mean “death”? Is reality TV dying, or is it equal to the economic or stock market cycle? Hopefully this is cyclical, but it’s hard to say which one at the moment.
Unfortunately, this problem has the potential to continue or even get worse. I bring up the whole “reality TV isn’t real” theme because it applies here.
“Perhaps this slowdown is karma for making TV shows that are so far removed from reality. We’ve all been instructed by network executives to ramp up the drama — to trick this, to have her say it in the moment, to make this argument seem more Epic.
— Timothy Hedden, reality television editor
There’s no such thing as drama on the scale of a reality show. If this were true, relationships, family, and general social interaction would quickly disappear.
No one needs to endure this kind of stress with everyone they meet in life. However, not wanting life and enjoying life on TV are two different things.
The problem is how widespread it is. It became too much. When you go to the movies, you expect entertainment. If there’s a scene in it that breaks the immersion, the movie fails.
Reality TV shows are breaking out of the immersive experience to attract more advertising dollars, go viral on social media, and attract more viewers with each new show.
But people are not stupid. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. The amount of drama the industry forces editors to insert into reality shows quickly reaches ridiculous levels.
Even if viewers don’t believe what they’re watching is real, there’s still a fine line across which immersion is broken. Ultimately, the combination of these two things is dragging down the industry.
The first is the overall downward trend in budgets, layoffs and fat loss. The second is to impose an irrational level of drama on these shows.
It’s one thing to cut production time in half, cut episodes in half, cut editing time in half. Forcing false content into “reality” is a disastrous combination.
The result was declining ratings and a slump in the industry. As expected, large companies that control a large number of small networks are sharpening their knives, and drastic spending cuts are on the agenda.
Sadly, reality TV is much more friendly and accepting of the gig economy, with thousands of writers trying to make it in the industry.
While Hollywood will survive on its massive bedrock, thousands of writers don’t have that luxury.
The good news is that there are challengers to Hollywood’s throne, in the form of independent studios popping up across the U.S. and overseas opportunities that emerging companies are more receptive to.
Hollywood may believe it is the lone king of the hill, but other waves are rising.
With them, perhaps there will be more opportunities for freelance workers trying to get into reality TV.
What do you think? Are the good old days of reality TV over? Is this a good thing, or do you want this to continue? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
