September? Already?

Holy Earth, Wind and Fire… it’s already September?  I can’t believe I haven’t posted since July.  How’s everything with you? On August 17, YouTube Red launched FIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: EXPERIMENT 88, an original series I served on as Supervising Producer earlier in the year. Just last week, I started work on a new show

Pro Tip: Superteases, Teases, Next Ons, and Prev Ons

Since a good friend asked me for my thoughts on these today, I thought I’d share them with everyone. Before you read on, just know that this is how I generally approach this stuff in a vacuum if I’m not given any sort of directive. Mileage and notes pass experience may vary. SUPERTEASES and SUPERTRAILERS

FREE Lecture and Q&A Event: JULY 23 @ THE WRITERS STORE

As part of the celebration surrounding the summer release of the second edition of  REALITY TV: AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO TELEVISION’S HOTTEST MARKET, I’ll be doing a free lecture and Q&A event at The Writers Store in Burbank on July 23 from 2-5pm. Copies of the book will be available for purchase / signature, and

‘UnReal’ Season 2 Tackles Gender, Race and Class, Creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro Says — Variety

Just in case you’ve been living under a rock and missed the first season of UnReal, get yourself caught up and then brace yourself for season two. Like any actual reality program, I love what feels real about it and what’s unreal about it drives me nuts.  I can’t marathon it because it makes me

IfOnly: Dinner with Me at Musso and Frank

Hi, all. If anyone’s interested in landing some one-on-one consult time in person (I usually work by phone or Skype) while also doing a little good, here’s a listing at IfOnly.com that’ll net you a signed copy of my book, a 2-hour dinner consult and a one hour followup call, with a portion of proceeds

A Word on You, Me and Our Careers

  Even at 45, well into my career, I have my moments. Between gigs, I still get pensive and crabby and wonder if every show will be my last, just like I did at 40, 35 and 30.  I wonder, with all the ebbs and flows in the amount of reality television in production, if I will

Staying In the Picture

Survival isn’t something I’ve addressed often in this blog before, but with many of reality television’s best (in my opinion, anyway) behind-the-scenes players going through slumps more often than usual these days, I think it’s a good time to bring it up. In 2010, there were just over 760 reality shows in production, according to

Thanks, everybody.

Today, this little site celebrated its 15,000th unique visitor.  Not an amazing number in the digital age, but impressive to me in that so many people are curious about reality television. Thank you for your interest, everyone.   Don’t forget to use the “comments” tab to let me know what you want to know more

“We’d need you to work as a local.”

I don’t complain about much. I’m good with long hours, I don’t mind working a little harder to get a show in good shape and turned in on time.  I can even handle parking blocks or even miles from a location and cramming into a shuttle with 7-23 other people to get to set. Being asked

Reality Pro Tip: Pay Your Dues, But Get a Receipt

  Let me tell you about an eight-year lesson I learned in reality television: Don’t chase checks. The first three years of my career, I worked for Cris Abrego and Rick Telles nonstop. I started as a logger/transcriber, spent time as a story producer, logged a few weeks with the locations gang looking for spots