Friday, June 9, 2023

Writers Guild of America Strike May Force Studios to Dig Deep into Reality Show Stockpile.....

Hollywood, CA - The 2023 Writers Guild of America strike is forcing American television studios to consider dust off reality show ideas that likely wouldn't have seen the light of a camera under normal circumstances. 

Zac Efron, shown here next to a scary bear, is set to host the upcoming Fox reality show Look, a Bear! where blindfolded contestants must decide if there is a deadly grizzly bear behind them or if it's just a recording

"When the strike began on May 1st, we knew this was going to supercharge the production of unscripted content," Fox Broadcasting Corporation Chairman and CEO Lachlan Murdoch explained. "And it will almost certainly give us the opportunity to air inventive programming that subverts the expectations of the American audience. It's going to get real nuts around here in a few months."

Entertainment historians are predicting a boom in reality show popularity, similar to what happened during the 2007-2008 writer strike that helped to catapult shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians into the limelight. Some critics of the reality genre, like Lloyd Brunch of TVBiz.com, question the ethics of programs that often manipulate participants in unhealthy ways. "Look, I enjoy genuine unscripted moments of authentic human engagement as much as anybody. Maybe more. Maybe a lot more. Maybe because I don't have anyone in my life to talk to that really gets me. What was the question again?"

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