Troy originally published this on The Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors. But we think it belongs here as well:
by Troy DeVolld
Just this June, as an extension of the Television Writers Summit event in Tel Aviv, I participated on a panel at Tel Hai College in northern Israel. With me were a writer from Everybody Loves Raymond, a former Spelling/CBS/Paramount exec and another writer whose career to date has been an even divide between traditionally scripted television and reality. If you’d have told me in advance that we’d spend more than half of our panel time fielding questions about reality production, I’d have thought you were completely bats… but that’s exactly what happened.
I’ve only worked in reality for thirteen years, but in just that time, I’ve worked on two dozen reality series, a number of them running multiple seasons. In the free-for-all world of reality television, shows can pump out two or three full runs a year, which certainly keeps me busy.