How to Develop a Reality-Show Concept

Video Transcript

"Alrighty folks, in this clip we're going to walk ourselves through step by step how to develop and pitch our very own reality show. As I see it, there are two ways to go about doing this. One, the old tried and true formula of getting six to eight to ten strangers, throwing them in a house making sure there is a lot of liquor and watching them just absolutely slaughter themselves emotionally and psychologically and just watching generally the whole place melt down, break down. That's really unfortunately what most successful reality shows are about these days. Of course, there are different ways of exploring that particular concept. You can highlight one particular amusing individual's life and watch all the dysfunctional people that surround them basically eat themselves and tear themselves apart. That's one way. The other way would be the thing that I first said which is take six to ten strangers, throw them in a confined space, provide a lot of booze and basically set them up to self destruct. And then the third obvious option would be to figure out some ridiculous sort of embarrassing, physically gross or unbelievably stupid way to get people to embarrass themselves through physical challenges or games. Those are your three basic general molds for reality shows. But I'm going to offer you a forth option as well. My suggestion, think outside the box. Come up with something that is, A. completely original in that its never been done before in any way shape or form, forget the mold of the six strangers in a house, a lot of booze, the dysfunctional and crazy individual with his entourage that makes for good drama or the ridiculous game show. Maybe take a taste of all those things and can take them to a completely different place. Its time to break the mold, step outside of what's been done and come up with something truly original. So first thing you're going to want to do, find something never been done before, A. Then you're going to want to pitch it in such a way that really drives that point home. When you're writing a pitch, the most important thing about that pitch is the hook. The general craziness, coolness, marketability factor of the idea itself and try to make it also as original as possible. Sad to say in the world that we live in now, there are a lot of cowards who will typically go for the tried and true model so in that regard, if you're really just trying to get your name out there and get your show picked up, you might be better off just going with one of the formulaic options of throwing six people in a boat with a lot of liquor and watch them drown themselves. My suggestion though if you really want to make a name for yourself and become one of the greats in your field, come up with a truly original idea. Take the time, be creative with it, come up with a concept that is not only incredibly watchable and entertaining, but has never been done before because the market is saturated with crappy reality shows and its time to break the mold. So what you're going to do right now is sit down, come up with an idea that involves real people, interesting people, in their element, out of their element, make it a unique idea though. Something that has never been done before. That is what separates the crappy run of the mill reality shows from the great, potentially high, high rated reality shows."