What makes a good reality show?

let's get into the meat of what this panel is about which is getting an idea or a concept or some spark of something and getting that from concept all the way through to series and I thought we would take it step by step so if if we could start with what makes a great reality show I'd love to hear each of you kind of just say you know what what you think a great reality show is if that's definable oh you : final ratings what big ratings make a great show that's pretty well at and

anything you look up that's rated huge through the roof you can point at it and say oh it's a great show but if it didn't rate would you be saying oh that's a great show it's it's it's sort of the taste of the general public and the magic Nielsen system that no one understands that sort of sets reality shows and whether you look at duck dynasty which is very sort of strangely produced and different and but it rates through the roof so everybody's you know into that or even when on John and Kate Plus eight

where it's like yeah it's a huge hit but you know is it a great show it's like it must be people like it and at this point you know the the the industry sort of dictates that if your show rates it stays on the air from my perspective I say that's great because the public knows how to predict what they're gonna do right any I think ratings are hugely important I agree that hundred percent I also think really great storytelling needs to go with that as much as possible I mean characters are always going to

be important we got to have characters whether they're in follow Docs or competitions or even game shows and we got to have those characters in storytelling in my mind reign supreme and that Chris you and I were talking the other day about about how your career covers features and television and scripted and reality and I said mine kind of does that as well and I kind of I try to be a moving target so I come out of fear and paranoia but you were saying really it matters you know you say better than I that

the wear story goes is the best place for it you can probably say something better than I did that was pretty good I don't you know I feel a little bit like the outsider because I don't do this the reality for a living and I'm grateful to be included in this our show the chair I would say then must be an awful show because not a soul but but we were we were proud of it and and you know i did one similar with some similar xin project being like before and i think that the

i think in all businesses movie business all the ones you're talking about the hardest thing is sometimes and I would say the point you're bringing out just answer is we as the producers of the people building it have to be a tiny bit ahead it's not just following something that works somebody came up with that idea first somebody put the cameras in the real world somebody did you know that kind of stuff and I think that part of it is having some bit a ability to read you know what the audience or what people are

experiencing and I think your point about good is people want to see something good the world is tough right now so that's a good read of what that is what what I was talking about was just that I agree with Craig that all of its storytelling at the end of the day it's characters with and the truth the matter is the average audience doesn't really understand what it's well produced or poorly produced er right looks good or does it if they fall in love with the characters they're intrigued by the setting so most of our

jobs I guess I would say and then for just to answer the question in the way you asked me which is across all of those mediums for me it's just do I like these people do I want to see this do I relate to this story is this a story and then the second question I think for producers is what is the best medium to tell it right so scripting a story about guys making their first movie we thought that would kind of suck shooting a real guy out getting to make his first movie was

interesting that became Project greenlight and you know in the same thing we could have done a probably a successful reality show about four guys in high school trying to lose their virginity before they graduate from high school but we thought that might be a really hard reality show to cook yet so we scripted it and made a movie called American Pie so I think that some of it is sitting back and saying what is the best way to tell this story and I think it's the hardest thing as a producer because honestly some should stay

booked some should stay plays some doesn't need to be turned into all this other stuff but I think that's the hardest thing is some thing is like five you know five six years ago all of us up here would say and write would say like yeah I have a show that I'm really proud of that was amazing that I think was a great show but it didn't rate but now we have 20 of those shows because that's the reality we live in is that we put out great shows that don't rate so I mean I'm

I'm at the point now where it's like that sort of frustration has led me to think like you know what I'm not in the business of making great shows by my perspective I'm in the business to sell shows get them to rate make money build a company those that's what the this business is and sort of I would love everything that I thought was great or that is great I mean I have I have shows that did not rake that I truly think that this is an amazing show I can't believe that I'm so proud

of it the network's happy everybody's happy and then it doesn't hit a number and it doesn't grow and you they put it on week after week and they try it on different nights and it just never catches and you're like oh it was the only one or we only had a couple of those be great but it's it is it is now part of the business to volume business to it I think Chris Nell in the head I think we have to reinvent them you know if you go back to when unscripted came about it

was when coming out of the writers strike and and if you look at you know what people are watching right now it's it's premium high-end scripted television and and they had a great answer to to to our reality business really growing quickly and I think it's up to us now to think ahead I mean if if we had pitched a few years ago giving these guys these cameras and then saying sayonara to them the network wanted bought it so I think we have to kind of hit this bottom for for what cables going through in

order to to really take some risk again all right great you