COMING TO TERMS WITH REALITY TV

[Texsox]

Yahoo News Link to Variety Story

 

DAVE McNARY

 

(Variety) Critics of reality TV skeins say they are dehumanizing and cruel to their contestants.

 

 

 

But their real victims --- at least in the eyes of the Writers Guild --- may be the Hollywood workforce that churns them out, a group of writers and editors working for reduced pay and without the usual benefits.

 

Given the brutal economics of the hyper-competitive TV biz, there's little chance that these working conditions will change, and repeated overtures from labor have yet to take hold.

 

When the Directors Guild of America came to terms Sept. 23 for a new three-year pact, they won a significant gain of $40 million on health-care, but threw up their hands on reality TV.

 

The Writers Guild hasn't scheduled a resumption of its talks on its new pact, but a key question is: Will they be willing to go to the mat over reality?

 

It's a dilemma, because if the WGA goes on strike, webheads can shovel a lot of reality fare on TV to satisfy the viewers, then sell DVDs of the most popular series. In other words, the writers would be undermined by the very thing they're fighting.

 

In June, the scribes turned down the producers' "final" offer (containing $12 million more for healthcare but no gains on DVD or reality) and told its members to keep working under the expired contract in hopes that the DGA could make a better deal.

 

No such luck, according to some WGA members.

 

In a clear signal as to how reality is hurting the Guilds, the DGA agreed to free re-use of dramatic series for two months and to a one-year deferral of below-the-line wage hikes in new one-hour series.

 

"We need to help traditional shows succeed because they've been losing out to reality shows," admits Gil Cates, chief of the DGA's negotiating committee.

 

As with all things in Hollywood, the reality battle centers around ego and economics. Producers of reality fare don't want to destroy the audience illusion by acknowledging in the credits that their shows are scripted, opting instead to insist that there's no Wizard of Oz-type man behind the curtain.

 

Though reality fare involves people hammering out 100-page episode outlines, producers won't label those who perform those tasks as writers, opting to use terms like "story producers," "story editors" and "segment producers."

 

More at link