August 27, 2009

I will admit that I will tune into unscripted TV fair on a semi-regular basis-'American Idol', 'Real Housewives ' franchise, 'Deadliest Catch', 'Ghost Adventures', 'Ghost Hunters' and 'Top Chef'.

We all know the economics of why in the last several years there has been a huge increase in the amount of reality TV: It is a lot less expensive to produce than a scripted series. Broadly speaking, if the cost to produce a non-scripted cable series is $150,000 per episode x 13 in a series=$1.95million. Spot time against the show is sold on a national and local availability and in a 60 minute show, there may be up to 5 commercial pod breaks with room for 2-3 minutes worth of messaging. Lets have a little fun with the math-If a national spot in 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' sells for a conservative $10,000 (and I think I am underestimating) x 8 national avails=$80,000 in revenue from national advertisers in hour x 13 episodes=$1.04 million. And that doesn't include the local airtime or the product placement or barter to offset the cost of production expenses. And keep in mind, a non-scripted show on cable can be run over and over again, gathering more ratings and revenue.

The fact is we enjoy watching others struggle, work hard, overcome challenges, argue and make up because we think to ourselves that could be me or I wish I had the balls to do that or I give them credit because I could never get on a boat or on a stage and do that. Kudos to you.

What I cannot tolerate watching is programming that is vapid, demeaning and quite frankly a waste of air time and most recently found to be linked to violent crime. Shows like 'NYC Prep' 'I Love Money', 'Real World', 'Miami Social', 'My Antonio' ,'MY BFF' and the list goes on and on and on. And now we have the sad story of Ryan Jenkins, a contestant on "VH1's Meghan Wants a Millionaire', and his murdered girlfriend, as well as the Brazilian TV producer that hired professionals to murder and then sent a crew over to film it.

When is it enough. I'm a business owner and a capitalist and I'm all about making money but I think this really speaks volumes about our society and culture when this programming makes it on the schedule.

I remember pitching several shows to the Manager of Development at VH1 several years ago. While we were discussing shows,ratings and revenue, her comment to us was:(and I'm paraphrasing) ' we're going to ride the reality train until it comes to a stop' Maybe it has. Or should.