What's the most bizarre reality show so far?

Question

What members here think is the most bizarre reality show that has aired to date. It must have aired on a broadcast or cable TV network ... even if only for one day. No YouTube.com shows. It can have aired anywhere in the world.
My vote goes for "The Big Donor Show". Here's a link to an article that even has bizarre in its headline.
http://losangeles.broowaha.com/article.php?id=1658

And while these reality shows are supposedly unscripted, from what I've read and a careful examination of the credits (and than cross- checking them with their other credits), it seems clear that each of these shows have a lot of writers working for them ... though they're not officially called writers. Apparently, the viewer cannot handle this reality of reality shows. This then raises a few questions.
1) What's the stand of WGA in regards to these shows?
2) Is this near the bottom of writing gigs for a screenwriter? If so,how near the bottom and what's immediately above and below it? I assume writing for the porn industry is below it ... or is it?
3) Who pitches these shows? Just some network suit with a crazy ideaand a direct line to the top dog? A network's marketing department? Or is it writers?
4) Last but not least, is there any logic to what is made into areality show? Is it just throwing things against a wall and seeing what sticks? Or is it chasing after a certain demographic? Or is it just the result of idle chat at a Hollywood cocktail party that got a lot of people there to laugh when told the idea?
Scott

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]What members here think is the most bizarre reality show that has aired to date.[/nq]
Busey's. It really doesn't get any weirder.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]What members here think is the most bizarre reality show that has aired to date. It must have aired on a broadcast or cable TV network ... even if only for one day. No YouTube.com shows. It can have aired anywhere in the world.[/nq]
Not sure if it aired - there was litigation from the contestants - but there was a version of the bachelorette-type dating/contest shows, where the gal who was the prize turned out to be a post-op (?) transexual.
[nq:1]And while these reality shows are supposedly unscripted, from what I've read and a careful examination of the credits (and ... that each of these shows have a lot of writers working for them ... though they're not officially called writers.[/nq]
Our own Oranse, aka BettrDuck, is one of 'em!
[nq:1]Apparently, the viewer cannot handle this reality of reality shows. This then raises a few questions. 1) What's the stand of WGA in regards to these shows?[/nq]
Tryin to organize them... sort'a.
[nq:1]2) Is this near the bottom of writing gigs for a screenwriter? If so, how near the bottom and what's immediately above and below it? I assume writing for the **** industry is below it ... or is it?[/nq]
Officially, it isn't on the list, as it's non-union and it isn't officially 'writing.' It's 'producing.'
[nq:1]3) Who pitches these shows? Just some network suit with a crazy idea and a direct line to the top dog? A network's marketing department? Or is it writers?[/nq]
A VERY short list of producers, who have een doing these shows from the beginning.
[nq:1]4) Last but not least, is there any logic to what is made into a reality show? Is it just ... idle chat at a Hollywood cocktail party that got a lot of people there to laugh when told the idea?[/nq]
A lot of market research and a certain amount of seat-of-the-pants intuition, from (as mentioned) a very short list of people who have been very good at doing this.
Reality shows (as currently defined) are dirt-cheap to produce, and most of them are pretty similar - it's a group of people engaged in an elimination challenge sort of thing, with either money or a sexual partner as the prize. The details change, as does the location, but they're pretty much all about the characters and how they interact, which is what a lot of the 'writing' is about. The producers (and please, Duck, chime in here) manipulate the situations to put certain players into certain situations, designed to make sparks fly.

Life Continues, Despite
Evidence to the Contrary
Steven

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]2) Is this near the bottom of writing gigs for a screenwriter? If so, how near the bottom and what's immediately above and below it? I assume writing for the **** industry is below it ... or is it?[/nq]
None of them are screenwriters. If writing **** involves cardstock and or brads, its above reality show story producing.
[nq:1]3) Who pitches these shows? Just some network suit with a crazy idea and a direct line to the top dog? A network's marketing department? Or is it writers?[/nq]
Its not writers. Its people that either have agents and are in the grid already, or people that know people that buy shows. And they pitch or make pilots.
I worked on a new series that is premiering next week. The executive producer was listening to NPR and heard an expert talking about his field. They met, and shot a pilot, and the network ordered a season. The producer works for a production company that makes alot of shows. The production company is repped by a major agency that has a dept that sells documentary TV series. There are no screenwriters involved. There is probably a story book and episode calender. The company and the executive producer then use an inhouse Line Producer to hire freelance production managers, coordinators, field producers, story producers, post supervisors, associate producers, loggers, field coordinators and production assistants. None of these people are screenwriters. The line producer also hires freelance crew, director (eh, not often) Camera, Audio, Lighting, Grip, Art, Makeup, Food, Drivers.
Then, depending on the show, the Network may also have an executive on the set and in the meetings. Everybody is tethered to somebody above them by a computer phone, and nobody does anything without trickle down approval. The shows are written via text message paragraphs and emails, and for the most part the stories are painted with a broad brush. The field producers then go out with the camera crews and make the scenes happen. Post watches the tapes reads the field notes and give their own notes back to the field producers and episodes are made. None of this stuff is written in the scenes, that 1 page = 1 min. Its more like 30 min = 1 page.
Oranse

Usenet · Answer

Thanks for the insight, Oranse and Steven.
Scott

Usenet · Answer

The only reality show I watch (in reruns, I don't tune in, and maybe it's cancelled, who knows) is Celebrity Rehab. No contests, no teams, no eating maggots - just total nuts acting nutly.
I was actually - as a teen - involved in a summer-camp thing, where you had to pair up and run a yucky obstacle course. Girl, boy, ready set GO. And there were the usual jump/ climb/ wade through the stream stuff - and then... drumroll: drink the raw egg. This was before salmonella was equated with the bubonic plague, but I knew. Well, I wasn't going to, and he (a big athletic type I'd never met before) wasn't going to, and finally he did. Gulped it down. Better him than me, is my motto. We didn't win, place or show, and I never saw him again, but I tell you, watching Addams Family Values and seeing Wednesday's accusing glare at Gomez after her stay at camp - "They made us sing" - oh yeah, I know the feeling.
Same camping thing: A girl went rappelling down a cliff and her hair got caught in the rope and it ripped a lot of her scalp off her skull. Good times!
This reminds me of a Dave Barry column back in the day - the 80s? - well before reality shows - where he said something like, "Given the choice of Masterpiece Theater and Eat Bugs For Money, you know what you'd pick."
This is why I like the city life. To me a vacation includes room service and fresh towels and sheets daily.

What's the most bizarre reality show so far?

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