As you prepare to try to sell your first show, let me next equip you with a straightforward look at who the players are on the sales floor.  Again, for reality TV veterans, you may want to move on to the next chapter, but stay and refresh yourself on our industry’s detailed money trail.

 

 

The Advertisers

Like all other areas of TV, the people who pay for the shows are at the top of the heap.  And that is not the networks; it is primarily the advertisers. 

Every year, advertisers gather at a glutton-fest of network previews called the "upfronts" in New York.  There, the various networks unveil massive dog-and-gilded-pony shows with their biggest stars, live performances and, most importantly, new programming schedules, to convince advertisers to give them mega-ad dollars for the coming

season.  That’s right, advertisers often buy into series before they are even shot or broadcast.  Or, at least, they did. 

The nets took a beating at the 2006 upfronts, with advertisers withholding substantial dollars from network ad sales departments.  Some blame it on the ad industry wanting to spend more on "new media" (broadband and mobile content, etc.) or for targeted brand integration inside of shows.  All the nets know is they did not get their expected springtime ad dollars for their new shows later in the year.  Which meant the nets had to come out of pocket more to pay for programming to fill their schedules. 

So where did all of that ad money go that the nets didn’t get?  Here is where it did not go: to a place you have access to so you can sell a show.  We will get back to ad dollars later in the book.  Just know that when the nets get less outside money, they take an even closer look at cheaper programming.  Hello, reality TV!

 

The Networks

The networks are right below the advertisers on the money ladder since they buy shows and, more importantly, distribute them to the public by airing them.  In fact, until the recent new media explosion, cable and broadcast nets completely controlled your ability to bring a show to an audience.  And for the most part, they still do, if you are not yet an indie TV producer with your own infrastructure for casting, shooting, posting and delivering product directly to an online or mobile audience you can effectively harness. 

Not to worry, new media will be addressed in a follow-up Show Starter™ series.  But it is yet another business model to develop new media formats, monetize them and market them to an audience, and it certainly is a bigger pile of seed money!  So for this book, we will surge ahead with the most common way still to finance a project, which is to sell your show to a network, get that show produced, and have the network air it.

 

The Production Companies

Right underneath the networks in the hierarchy are the production companies who actually make TV shows.  And here is the one area where reality TV rules and the rest of the industry can only watch in wonder.  In reality TV, independent production companies still produce the vast majority of the shows we see.  Until the new media boom, in fact, non-fiction TV was the last frontier in the entertainment industry that mighty corporate conglomerate America did not completely control.

In scripted television like sitcoms, as soon as the networks could legally own their own programming, they wiped out virtually all of the independent production companies by producing their own content (and eliminating outsider profits from already lethally expensive shows).  But non-fiction television, and reality TV, is far less expensive to make.  And the explosion of new cable networks and tiers has created a massive demand for programming that the nets cannot possibly meet–or feel they do not need to if they can find someone else to do it on the cheap.  Which they can.

Many networks actually do have in-house production companies that produce reality programming for their own channel, other networks and syndication.  But those shows make up a small percentage of the hundreds of shows out there, most of which are being cranked out by indie production houses.  So in reality TV, the production companies are king.  They are the ones who actually execute an idea into a hit show.  They are the ones pitching new content to the networks, partnering with newcomers to produce their content, or getting calls from net execs to produce new shows the networks have dreamed up.  Reality TV happens at the production company level. 

Production companies are run by one or more "executive producers" who own the company.  Those same executive producers may or may not be the people who oversee the actual shows.  The producer who actually oversees a given reality TV show is called a "show runner."  Depending on how the production company structures production, a show runner might be an executive producer, a co-executive producer or a supervising producer.  That is why the industry uses the umbrella term "show runner" to identify the person or people responsible for overseeing all elements of production and liaising with the network on a reality TV show. 

Unless a show is being run by the actual owners of the company, which is common only at smaller houses, the show runner and most of the staff on a show are actually freelance hires.  That means staff members, from production assistants to show runners, often work on several shows at multiple production companies in the course of a year.  The downside of this freelance universe is that employment is not guaranteed (though jobs are fairly plentiful), and only a few companies offer benefits.  The upside is that working at multiple companies expands your contacts dramatically, which can be a huge plus when you start pitching your own show.

Now that we know who the players are and how they play their game, it is easier to understand the cash flow cycle in reality TV.   Advertisers give money to the networks.  Networks dispense some of that money to production companies to produce shows.  Production companies use most of that money, keeping a small percentage as a fee, to produce shows that the networks then air, along with the advertisers’ commercials.  (Additional ad dollars sometimes flow in to networks or shows thanks to brand integration, which I will discuss in more detail later on.)  

Advertisers make their money from purchases by consumers who watch the show.  Since the networks own the shows they air, they continue to make money from advertisers and consumers by redistributing shows via affiliate channels and syndication, new media outlets, DVD sales and more.  And while few production companies have any ownership in their shows, they might get to "participate" in any of those additional network profits if their contracts allow for this (which is a coup in reality TV!).

 

You

What I want you to grasp from this chapter is who has the money to buy your show (advertisers and networks), who can distribute your show to a television audience (networks), who can actually produce your television show so it can air (production companies), and how they all make money from the deal.  Do you see where you fit into this smooth operation as an independent, freewheeling, idea-creator?  That’s right.  Nowhere.

If you just have an idea, you need to convince either a network to buy it or a production company to bring it to a network to buy it, which I will explain in great detail later in this book.  For now, believe this: network development teams and production companies are drowning in a sea of independent, freewheeling ideas, both their own and the dozens they are pitched every single week by people like you.  So in their eyes, you and your idea bring nothing to the table. 

But if you bring a fully executed show format (the steak) with an irresistible element attached (the sizzle), with a legal contract binding you to the sale in some organic way (the knife), well, now, they are going to be much more excited to see you.  And they will ask you to sit down and stay a while, if only because they cannot legally get rid of you.  So let’s talk about transforming your show idea into a far more substantive reality TV format that you can sell and be a part of (okay, and maybe even realize a little money from).

 

 "REALITY CHECK"

 

Throughout this book, you will find a series of pledges that summarize what you have learned so far–and what you must commit to do in order to craft and pitch a sellable show.  Here is the first one.

 

P	Pledge #1:  I will read and apply the entire Show Starter™ system, without skipping any chapters, steps or exercises, before I attempt to sell my first show.