Casting for Reality TV: Who Makes it on Air? And What Does It Take?
It’s so fascinating to review casting notices and auditions for Reality TV. I always wonder how many of these shows ever see the light of day, even if they have been greenlit by a network. Well, I sort of do know – less then 50%.
In my experience it takes a lot to get a show on the air and the process of the casting is the main ingredient. But in the end no matter how great the casting is for a show, there are other factors that must be considered. First, the network who bought the show. Typically, a network stipulates that a pilot be filmed first. If the pilot is received well, then they will air it and pull the trigger to start filming the other episodes. However, some shows never make it past the pilot episode and that usually means that the pilot episode did not air, which means that no one will see it.
To get a show on the air, it requires a solid format or concept that has a great hook or something sensational. The networks all are looking for something that has never been seen before. No matter how great the concept or format is, it’s all about the casting. Most shows that are greenlit from the buyer (network) will still require casting to be done first before moving forward with the series and sometimes even the pilot.
What does it take to cast one show? A lot of time and a fair budget to do so. In the beginning, I would get paid to cast a pilot and then paid again to cast the series.
I recently worked on a really great show for a major network and big production company. I was casting families from all over the U.S. The show concept was exciting and had a very playful, a bit controversial with a positive message to it. I had to cast many families before the network agreed to move forward with the pilot. In these situations it ends up that I can have the whole season cast before filming the pilot or first episode.
My Reality of Reality TV recap is: The network has all the casting completed for the cost of casting one episode. This started becoming standard operating procedure in reality tv casting. Casting Directors including myself, started to push back when this became the norm. However, the reality tv industry was booming and now there were more and more “casting producers” in the game. This created lower fees for casting and less quality, but that didn’t matter to anyone. Production companies and networks wanted the casting done quicker and cheaper.
Check in next week for another blog – The Reality of Reality TV
March 29, 2021