Fox, ABC, CBS and the producers of reality shows like "The Bachelor" and "Trading Spouses" have settled a bunch of lawsuits over employees who were overworked and underpaid.
The law firm that won the class settlement estimates that some 400 reality writers are eligible for part of the $4 million payout. Of course, they weren't called "writers" on these shows, always some sneaky term like "producer" or "story department employee" to get around having them represented by the Writers' Guild.
Four million dollars. And that's before the lawyer's fees. Now, I ask you, if these shows had just agreed to be covered by the union and dispensed with this "story department employees" nonsense, would it have cost them this much?
The lawyers are reaching out to the media because the case has dragged on in court for years and because many of the writers affected have never had contact with the litigants. So: If you worked on one of these shows, you may be eligible for some long-overdue overtime pay.
It's nice to know that some of TV's sleaziest reality shows, like "Are You Hot?" and "Married by America," also were subject to some of TV's sleaziest labor practices. But the reality is that some good shows were run by bad people who are now making their shareholders pay dearly to settle these cases.
Anyway, the merits of the show aren't really at issue here. Rather, it's the practice of two of Hollywood's most notorious reality sweatshops, Next ("The Bachelor") and Rocket Science ("Joe Millionaire"), which forced employees to put in 60- to 80-hour workweeks and then systematically paid them for 40 hours.
"The people who create reality TV are the hardest working, most talented people you will meet in Hollywood," said Lowell Goodman. "I have the utmost respect for them and unfortunately, they are exploited by their employers."
Goodman oughtta know. He was one of the plaintiffs against Fox Broadcasting and Rocket Science over his time on the reality series "Trading Spouses." As you may recall, Fox's diminuitive reality chief Mike Darnell had ordered "Trading Spouses" to countercheck ABC, which had just landed the rights to the Brit hit "Wife Swap," with a similar premise. Somehow Fox got its copycat show on the air before ABC did. But it carried a price ... except that Rocket Science never paid the price. Until now.
"A show was due on a Saturday and on Friday night Mike Darnell came in," recalled Goodman. "He asked us to recut the episode. Fox distinctly had a hand in creating the creative content of the show. Since we had to recut it by deadline at the last minute I worked until at least 5 in the morning."
By his own account, he worked 80 hours that week. But as usual, when it came time to hand in his hours, he wrote "WORKED" atop his time card, just like he had been told to. And then was paid for 40 hours.
That practice is a very common one, said Emma Leheny, who prosecuted the case for Rothner Segall Greenstone & Leheny. So is handing in just a blank time card.
"I'd like to say as a plaintiff's attorney that I cured cancer, that this case brought these violations to an end," said Leheny. "But we know they still go on."
Previously on TV Barn, I did a podcast with Chuck Tately, an exploited reality writer, way back in 2005 while this lawsuit was still churning in the courts. I've got video of writers on "Intervention" -- a rare reality series covered by the Writers Guild -- weaving together an episode in post. And in 2007 I went to New York to cover the writers' strike from an East Coast perspective and shot a video with the Letterman writers.
bunch of freaking whiners. just because some idiotic kid sits behind an editor while he puts together a show doesnt make them a writer. get rid of the "story" dept., lose the hack editors, give the good editors half the money you just saved in the budget and you'll get an intersting fun to watch show that doesn't insult your intelligence.
the reason all these chumps get taken advantage of is they have no real skills so they cant get jobs anywhere else. those companies named in the article are known as processing plants for hacks by the rest of the "reality" world.
Posted by: AVIDwriter | January 21, 2009 at 04:32 PM
The Story Producer is the Architect; the editor lays the bricks where he's told to.
The Story Producer's talent is in creating the blueprint; the editor's skill is in executing the building plan.
Of course, there's always the bricklayer who thinks he knows more than the architect - in this case, that's AVIDwriter from the above comment. On the shows I run, those bad-attitude editors get fired pretty quickly.
Posted by: architect | January 22, 2009 at 06:42 PM
Hey, "editor", get on your high horse when you work in a genre that doesn't require "frankenbiting" in order to be at all coherent.
Posted by: RecoveredReality | January 22, 2009 at 07:58 PM