Applying for reality TV

Has anyone ever applied and/or been on a show?

I have a strange desire to apply for one, make the video and do all that stuff. I've never really thought about it before.

I have no illusions of making it, of course, BUT for the sake of conversation how creative and sophisticated do you think people get with their 3 minute videos? I always assumed pretty damn creative, but I saw a batch once, maybe of some people from Survivor, and I was thoroughly unimpressed. It was a lot of standing in front of the camera talking, or talking while in the tub or something.

 

Funny thing about 'reality TV' is it casts people into characters. It's a pretty simple formula. One, it helps in all cases if you're good looking. If not, you have to do the following things to an extreme:

Man: Be an overwhelming nice, lovable guy who helps orphans and puppies or, be overly greedy and proud of the fact you love fucking people over.

Woman: Sex, sex, sex. Talk about it all the time. You love it, you can't get enough of it, yada yada yada or, if you're homely, be willing to play the evil gossip monger who's always talking about what a whorish bitch your big-boobed slut of a castmate is.

 

1. Get implants
2. Get naked
3. Show that you are willing to fight someone for no apparent reason.
4. Get anorexia or cancer.

 

First step: lobotomy

 

Lots of doctors will throw the boob job in as a two-fer ...

 

I used to want to be on Real World or Road Rules when I used to watch it in high school, then I realized those people's lives are ruined after the show. Sure, it looks cool to get wasted at a bar then get in a fight back at the house, but it won't look that great when you apply for a job. Oh, and except for a few of them, I'm pretty sure they only make money doing "Real World-Road Rules Challenges" other spinoff shows or college tours. I think that show is career suicide. Sure, people might talk to you because you were on a show, but in the back of their mind they are probably not taking you seriously because you are "that person from _____"

Other reality shows probably aren't as bad. It all depends on how the producers want to portray you.

As for your tape, do something creative and crazy. Maybe display a special talent or trick. Obviously make yourself sound as cool and unique as possible. Tell any sob stories or unique things about that make you something reality TV hasn't seen and how you can make the show better.

 

Good points. I saw a "True Hollywood Story" or some similar show about reality TV a few years ago and they talked a lot about the casting. It sounded as if the first ones made a lot of mistakes in picking just the most insane, crazy people they could, and that eventually it all turned formulaic, looking for certain "characters" like you said, not just interesting people.

 

Same here. Dreamed about being on Real World when I was a teen. Then I realized fame is nothing without the money: If you can't afford the big mansion with the big fence to keep the people out, it ain't worth it.

 

You see some of the "reality stars" pop up again and again Brody Jenner? Johnny Fairplay? The slogs that come back for the Real World Challenges? Heck, the Kardashian "girls" are in their late 20s. It reminds me of the people who'd still be hanging out at high school parties after graduating.

 

What's really sad/neat is how they all hang out with each other now. Saw it on some show, where all the reality TV folks from all different shows meet in the same bars and compare promotional gigs or bitch about their problems - and then go back to their one-room apartments with whoever they can find who wants a piece of dried out celebrity.

What a fucked up existence.

 

Again adding that I in no way honestly expect to be on a show: I wouldn't do it for "fame." I'd do it for the experience.

The show I'm talking about is Amazing Race. Seems like a once in a lifetime experience that isn't quite the meat market Real World and some of the others are. (Obviously it is to a degree, just not as much ...)

 

How soon before the "reality" shows are effected by the writers' strike?
Or is it the directors/producers and not the writers, that craft the footage to tell the story they want?