Before Survivor and Big Brother burst onto the small screen in 2000, reality TV was essentially novelty programming; today it commands a 60 per cent viewership and you can watch the trials and tribulations of cupcake makers and gator hunters and everything in between.
Whether you consider it entertaining or a sign of the coming apocalypse, The Bachelor Canada and The Real Housewives of Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»demonstrate that the trend has caught fire north of the border as well.
At the VIFF Film and Television forum, Rob Bromley, president of Force Four Entertainment, explained how his company came to produce The Bachelor Canada.
Rogers had broadcast The Bachelor for 16 seasons, and acquired the format rights to [produce a Canadian version] and they decided to work with us due to past relationships. We were more or less guns for hire.
With an agreement in place they went in search of a dreamboat. It was a lot of hard work to find the candidate as we needed a Bachelor [Brad] who truly believed in the process and the opportunity to find love. With their lovable hunk in hand, finding love interests was simpler. We went on Facebook and did casting calls across the country; we whittled the candidates down from 3,500 to 25.
The process proved straightforward compared to the obstacles faced by the Housewives producers.
We learned that Shaw was considering doing a Canadian version of Housewives and many people were trying to put together a cast, explained Erin Haskett, an executive producer at Lark Productions.
NBC, which owned the Housewives format, set us up with Bravo and we learned how they did casting. So when we spoke with Shaw we already had the relationship with NBC.
They then began the painstaking proposal process We started [research] in November and went to Shaw in February [with] some neighbourhoods and communities that we wanted to explore.
Once Shaw came on board the real work began.
Haskett noted that unlike Bachelor Canada, we did very targeted casting infiltrated communities and figured out who the socialites were, and cold-called them, got in touch with them through Facebook, and got more names and more names.
Further complicating the process was the fact that Shaw didnt want it to get out that we were doing the franchise in Canada we would say were looking for fabulous, glamourous women who are housewives and arent afraid to have an opinion, but we didnt tell [the cast] until the final, final phase of casting.
Even with successful pedigrees, the Canadian counterparts come with no guarantees.
They need to look seamless next to the American versions and theyre expensive from a production standpoint and you have the format fee [paid to creator of the original show] as well, Haskett explained. And it gets more expensive with each season.
Bromley adds Its all about return on investment. Thats why (the US) Bachelor was broadcast 16 times before they chose to do a Canadian version.
And what of the future of reality TV?
Formatted shows lessen the risk for the broadcaster but there wont be a time where all you see is formats, Bromley noted, but it hasnt peaked yet either.
Haskett agreed. Were in a time now where people are looking for different opportunities to connect to entertainment. One of the things high on our list is judgement; people like to judge our characters, but they also want to escape into their worlds.
Of course what you really want to know is whether theyll take a look at your sure-fire format for [insert idea here]. Absolutely! Bromley said with a broad grin. Most production companies have people who work with people outside the company that have ideas and if you go with a company like this it makes it much easier.
Haskett whose work with Housewives has just been nominated for the March 3 Canadian Screen Awards offered some insightful advice to pitch makers. The further along you can develop your concept..then were going to look at it. Bring it to us late in the game, and if youre bringing talent youll hopefully have some of those strings tied up as well.
