It has been about a decade and a half since so-called Reality TV was in the throes of a relatively golden age. It seemed that, back then, television producers could trot out even the most ridiculous idiocy and American viewers would scramble in droves to tune in. Not so much anymore it seems. While a quick run around the proverbial dial will come up with more and more reality minutiae, the format seems to be in a transitional phase in which only a relatively few may survive.
Perhaps it's audience burn out or just a plethora of mediocrity and the mundane, but the heyday is over and the return to scripted fare has begun a new emergence due mostly to the streamers like Hulu, NetFlix and Amazon opting for the creation of original content. Despite the remarkable success and production value of such recent reality and unscripted hits like A & E's
Leah Remini: Scientology & The Aftermath; ESPN's
OJ: Made In America or Showtime's
The Circus, the unscripted production has, indeed, fallen on hard times.
Senior Vice President of Alternative Series' at ABC, Rob Mills, commented that, "
We all need a big game-changing hit, and it’s been a long time since we had one of those. What you don’t want is a show that’s got to do a 6 rating in order to be financially solvent.”
Some of the challenges are that are now evident, since the reality/unscripted model has become such a mature format, are that production costs have risen greatly, plunging ratings are everywhere across the board and minuscule profit margins have become the expectation. The concern about the future viability of unscripted productions seems to be everywhere one might bother to look.
Brent Montgomery, CEO of ITV America has said that,
“Right now, we’re at the crossroads of the business model breaking. It’s a really difficult time to be a small company, and even though I run a big company, I’m quite interested to see what happens to these small guys, because they quite often create the next hit show that feeds the entire ecosystem.” Budgets are so tight, says Montgomery, that a producer’s fee isn’t even 10% anymore. “Often it gets down to 6% or 7%,” he says. “A company needs to be doing eight or 10 series to stay afloat now, and that’s not going to create a vibrant market.”
In addition to the up front challenges, producers are also lamenting that the smaller players are taking a much longer time to do a deal and they insist of foreign rights. In addition, less is being bought and budgets are much smaller than they used to be. Though the reality/unscripted industry seems to be going through a serious downturn, the documentary field has been seeing a true revival with many strong efforts of late regardless of the subject matter.
The room for some entrepreneurial growth, however, does seem to be there. With the streaming companies beginning to spend money and produce their own content, it is possible that unscripted productions may, indeed, see growth on the horizon.
Montgomery likes the odds right now as he says,
“We get to pitch Amazon and Netflix, who are not so concerned right now with profit margins and ratings."
Henry Schleiff, the Group President at Investigation Discovery, Destination America and The American Heroes Channel is equally optimistic for the long term saying that,
“The world of unscripted is still somewhat under-exploited. We’re in the golden age of documentaries. You can point to any one of the short lists, or the documentary Academy Award. They’re meaningful, entertaining, and informative. That’s a world coming into its own. In this world, what you need to be most concerned about is the challenge of telling a story well. The art, the genius, the talent in telling — that’s still difficult to find.”
While unscripted television and other media productions will soldier on, it still needs to figure out a way to grow despite different and changing audience needs as well as declining ratings and budgets and a huge leap in competition. Many would like to see the return of the high flying early 2000's when ideas and creativity was everywhere and producers, too, came from everywhere and brought their particular points of view, and related experiences, with them.
Sharon Levy, Executive Vice President for Original Series' at SpikeTV, said that she thinks there should be new battle lines drawn and said that,
“I think it’s really easy to place blame. I love accountability. I hold myself accountable; I hold my staff accountable. Pull your bootstraps on and free your mind. Unscripted is important to the ecosystem of television. So forget about what failed, what worked. And strive to make something great.”
PHOTO CREDITS: A&E / ESPN
