Selling A Reality TV Show Idea - Troy DeVolld

sorry have you ever sold a reality TV show just as a pitch there are reality shows usually what I'll do is I'll partner with a production company because I don't have one and we'll go out and we'll present that show together most of the time shows are not bought in the room although it has been known to happen there is a pretty sure that I worked for who was on the phone with a major cable network pitching a show that he had been working on for weeks paused in the middle of the conversation and said

well how about a show where this happens and that happens and they liked it so much this idea that they committed to the idea on the phone this doesn't happen a lot most of what's happening especially with people who are mid-career and are not yet captains in the business Mark Burnett is going to have a very different meeting that I'm going to have I'm gonna meet with someone who's a firewall between the person who's making the decisions and me whereas Burnett is going to meet with you know probably talk to Les Moonves and say I

have another show for you when you go in with those shows typically what will happen is you'll have a little bit of back-and-forth it doesn't get bought in the room necessarily because they're sort of testing the sea worthiness of the idea to make sure that you have something that's completely saleable people come in with an idea that's not finished or a concept for a show that they that doesn't stand up to questioning or you know sometimes the executive might be trying to sort of crush it into the form of something that they need to buy

at that time the example that I always give is if I'm pitching you a show where women are trying to find love and the executive says well you know we just got a sponsor that's a motorcycle company can they be trying to find love and be on a motorcycle trip across the country at the time this is happening it's an exaggerated example but you're right the thing that's supposed to happen is you're not supposed to always sell your show you're supposed to sell a show a version of your show so that back and forth is

one of the reasons why I don't think that there's always as a sale in the room right I know you talked about in another interview the million dollar napkin where people get this idea and maybe they're having cocktails and hey wouldn't this be great right so let's say that person is somewhere maybe they're selling real estate somewhere they're selling insurance and they say I want to pitch a reality show what what are some cliff notes like just a quick and dirty checklist I know you don't like lists but no no okay I think I can

give you a checklist okay if you're going to pitch a show the million dollar napkin idea is that everybody thinks that everything's so easy to sell like hey it's about two guys that work in a junkyard well you've got to understand your talent so if you are someone who is coming into this cold if you're pitching a show about an occupation for example make sure that you have people selected that are viable cast for this show who have agreed on paper to let you pitch a show about them for a period of time so that

when you walk in the room even if they don't like the people you have they see that you are able to put that talent together it's very hard for someone who is brand new to sell a format if you were selling a reality competition show or anything where the format is the star as opposed to the talent being the star you're gonna have a very hard time doing that because there are people who are completely dedicated to creating those types of shows and you yourself do not bring value to that show as a creator you

have to figure out how to package things out a little bit and to figure out how to add value to yourself so really think about it also when you go in be sure you have an idea especially if you're doing a doc your soap docu-series have an idea of who you want to cast and also have an idea of where that show could go over a period of two or three seasons just so they know again it's that that it's something that's that's built to last and there's somewhere to take you as opposed to showing

you a bunch of interesting people who aren't necessarily doing lunch and that would be the short checklist the longer checklist I think is making sure that the idea that you have is not only saleable and in line with a particular networks needs or wants don't create a show because you think it would be fun create a show that has a buyer in mind think if you want to create a show that's just completely different and I know because I've learned this from doing it myself their shows I'm very passionate about that just don't have a

home because no network is carrying the kind of thing that I wanted to do don't go into the wrong place or you've completely torpedoed your relationship with them forever is you come in the door with something that is so foreign to their network you've wasted their time it looks like you don't know what you're doing it looks like you haven't bothered to look into what they do and they don't want to see you again Wow so be incredibly prepared it sounds like be incredibly prepared take the time to research the networks that would like to

see the kind of programming that you're bringing in make sure that you're not creating a show that is cost prohibitive to the point where the example that I often give is I call it celebrity choir it's if you had a if you had to do a show or every episode a celebrity has to get twenty other celebrities together and form a choir and you're gonna do eight eight episodes over a season that's a hundred and sixty-eight celebrities that you would have to have involved in that show over the season now it's celebrity choir a good

idea if I just have one celebrity who has to get a group of normal people together and figure out how to lead them as a choir sure because then you have eight people that you need to cast over the season instead of a hundred and sixty eight and suddenly that show is a sellable doable thing which leads me back to something else I heard you say that just because maybe your two neighbors down the street are totally fascinating and you want to sell this idea about their lives whatever it is doesn't mean it's gonna fly

that they really do want people that have some kind of a following well I don't know that that's necessarily true if you are presenting a show and you just have some people who are interesting or have an unusual lifestyle we have really gotten into in the last couple of years shows that are very big on people who is who have unusual occupations or people who have unusual family dynamics hoarders and things exactly those are actually great so you can sell a show about the folks down the street the only thing that you've got do is

make sure that there is a cut that there is a way to make sure that there is story that could happen to those people every week there are people who are interesting and then there are people that you want to follow there's a difference I've had some great conversations with people that are fun to talk to for an hour but I want to I don't want them in my living room you know 15 times a season you know not getting much accomplished so going back to making sure that there is talent attached whether it's a

big name or somebody down the street what is that exactly is that a contract and what does that look like usually what you'll do is you'll have some sort of an arrangement with your talent that basically says that you have the exclusive right to pitch a show with them attached to it for a specific period of time for me typically it's about a hundred and twenty days at the outside some people will do it longer some people will do it shorter I think it gives you enough time that you can take it out once because

once it's been around the idea is kind of exhausted once a series has been pitched word gets around everybody knows that it's been out so you don't really you've really got you know one shot to take it somewhere so 120 days is usually long enough to do it and basically all you're doing is preventing production companies and other people from doing an endzone run around you and just going directly to your talent and saying you know it's great that Fred introduced us but I think we can do the show without Fred so why don't you

come with me and we'll do the show and it has been known to happen you