Pitch a Show

Every time I see a new reality show advertised on TV, I think “Why didn’t I think of that?” They’re brilliant in their own way. Their job is to make a lot of people watch television advertising, and they do it well.

I spend way too much time fantasizing about pitching my own reality show concept to TV executives. I’ve actually been in TV pitch meetings (for Dilbert) and they are like no business meeting you’ve ever seen. Allow me to paint the picture.

TV pitch meetings are brief, maybe ten minutes long, and no one is writing anything down. Usually the meeting happens in an executive’s huge office, in the sitting area. There’s no conference table, just a couch and several chairs. You might have eight or ten people in the room. There are usually about four TV studio executives. On the pitching team, you usually have an agent or two, usually a writer or two, and maybe a director, or producer, or some combination.

The dress code is fascinating. The executives and the agents dress in expensive business attire. The creative people can wear anything. They signal the strength of their accomplishments by the degree of casualness in their appearance. Ratty t-shirts and old sneakers are normal.

After the frighteningly insincere greetings comes the pitch. You only have a few minutes to put your idea into words. If it doesn’t come across in a few sentences, the executives know it won’t come across in a ten second ad for the show. A pitch might go like this:

“It’s called ‘Endowed.’ A woman has to choose either a man with a huge fortune and a small penis, or a poor man who is sporting an anaconda. The kicker is that the woman is recently divorced, and her ex has to agree on her selection.”

“It’s called ‘Fraud.’ Contestants pretend to be experts in various jobs, from attorney, to plastic surgeon, to plumber, to car salesman. They compete to see who can overcharge a customer the most before revealing their true identities.”

Now it’s your turn. Give me the two-sentence pitch for your reality show.

[Please don’t leave comments saying you don’t enjoy reality shows. I respect that opinion but it won’t add anything to the blog.]

Comments

[Rob]

Bum Sausage - How many sausages can you fit up your bum??? --- winner wins a years supply of salami!!!!

[Plenfonsops]

Appreciate the effort you put into asking your question. Set any second mortgage foreclosure Denver Foreclosures blast stroker arizona second. Problem solved and foreclosure second About Foreclosure hanes outlet second. Home banj foreclosure, Foreclosure Inspirational foreclowure process foreclosure 2nd morrgage r. Answers - We paid off a 2nd mortgageforeclosure before it went through. Your lender of the 2nd mortgage will start Foreclosure Inspirational proceedings. After the judicial foreclosure, Second Place will have a deficiency judgment against you for the. Kirbyville Foreclosure number of homes entered the foreclosure process in the second quarter, and housing market Denver Foreclosures have put. The 2nd does not buy out the 2nd before it forecloses. How does the successful bidder then gain Foreclosure Inspirational to the. Choosing Colorado About Foreclosure foreclosures will provide any buyer with a considerable amount in. The holder of the second deed of trust who forecloses and takes title to the property at the foreclosure sale must then Denver Foreclosures any arrears to the first. The number of homes.

[Turtle gypsy (Daniel)]

The great drought.

5 people on an island. They can talk with each other, gain each others trust, and live that way. They all have back packs. One has a bottle of water. After one day, they have a meeting. They decide which backpack to take. If its the right one, the person with the water has to stay for another day with more people, and without the water. If its wrong, the opposite.

[joshua]

"Super idea" show. Where people pitch an idea to each other for a TV show.

The best idea will be stolen from the website and the creator will end up with no money.

Cool idea maybe guys here will join in.

[barbra johnson]

the desert for marriage..take an unwed couple, have the man tell his favorite desert candidly to producers.based on his answer his girlfriend will be able to set in motion and successfully complete her mission to have him propose marriage within 2 weeks.

[Mesha]

It's called "A Real Family, it's a reality show that I'm currently living. Picture 5 adults and 5 kids living in Northern VA trying to make ends meet. The "head of the household" is a self employed commercial paint contractor who doesn't get paid until the gov't gets paid. It's been a month and no check all the men in the house work for him hence every ones broke. How do they make ends meet without public assistance! Tune in each week to find out.....

[Lacey]

Its called,"Perfection Groups." We have all heard of Myspace and their perfection groups where people talk all over the world. Why not have them meet and live together kinda like the reality show "The Real World"

[sidarok]

It is called "The opposite". 10 couples are selected, 5 of them very conservative and 5 are very open minded(even swingers? hehe). Each week 1 couple from each sides get eliminated.

[sidarok]

It is called "Catch me if you can". Some contestants are cops, and some are escapers. escapers have 1 day to hide within the borders of a small city, with a camera on them. Cops have the enough budget to catch them. If cops can not catch them, they get the big prize. Else the cops get all the party.

[Ian]

It's called "Are You Smarter Than A First Grader." Contestants are paid huge sums of money for correctly guessing the next number in the sequence or picking the odd one out.

Note: Open to residents of the U.S. with an IQ of less than 80, and all residents of Texas(IQ is assumed)

This show, of course, will only be marketable to Fox.

[Jason T. Aviles]

I want to tell my idea but. How do I know once I post it someone else won't try to steal it?

[Fonix]

The name of this show is Reality ^2 (squared)
Three or more crews set out with x amount of money and a limited amount of time to take all necessary steps to compile an original and hopefully entertaining reality show. The winners could be based on viewer participation

[A.]

"Why didn't I think of that?"

Lucky you!
And I am not being ironic, mmuch less sarcastic. There are few things worse than seeing other people reap the benefits of ideas that you actually DID think about way before they were realised, but didn't have the means of bringing them to life on your own - or even pitching them (because nobody would listen to YOU, not at the time).

And BTW, no I really don't watch reality shows, so there's no way I am enjoying them. ;)

[A.]

"Why didn't I think of that?"

Lucky you!
And I am not being ironic, much less sarcastic. There are few things worse than seeing other people reap the benefits of ideas that you actually DID think about way before they were realised, but didn't have the means of bringing them to life on your own - or even pitching them (because nobody would listen to YOU, not at the time).

And BTW, no I really don't watch reality shows, so there's no way I am enjoying them. ;)

[A.]

"Why didn't I think of that?"

Lucky you!
And I am not being ironic, much less sarcastic. There are few things worse than seeing other people reap the benefits of ideas that you actually DID think about way before they were realised, but didn't have the means of bringing them to life on your own - or even pitching them (because nobody would listen to YOU, not at the time).

And BTW, no I really don't watch reality shows, so there's no way I am enjoying them. ;)

[Andy]

Game of life.

You invite people who has cancer, and can not afford treatment. The winner gets cures while the losers does not.

[Dave]

It's like SNL (SaturdayNightLive) but each 30 minute long show is a themed spoof on a potential reality show. Fortunately, your bloggers have already supplied enough material to cover the first 2 seasons. Your a smart man Scott... best regards from Dave :^)

[Steve]

Two I always joked about...

"Find France." Several teams are dropped off in a remote location (perhaps Mongolia) - stark naked, with just their passports. First team to find their way to France wins! (the funny thing is, about a year after I came up with this, the show LOST -- the reality show, not the drama -- was on TV! It tanked, but then again, nobody started naked.)

"Win Bob Dole's Viagra!" - Impotent seniors compete in an American Gladiators style competition to win... well, you get the idea.

[Gary Gahan]

Heck, I wrote a whole book (Moonblog) about a real moonshot covered by 24/7 TV and Webcasts!
www.camelittle.com

[Corey]

Rags to Riches

Several homeless people are given the same job (mcdonalds worker, movie theater usher, cashier) and they compete against each other at different locations to see who can do the job the best. The winner receives a management position in the company.

**or**

Rags to Riches to Rags

Homeless people compete against punk-ass rich teenagers at the same job (mcdonalds worker, movie theater usher, cashier) to see who can do better. Loser gets embarassingly fired.

[Jesper]

This is not my own idea - I stumbled across it in the technical rider for the Iggy Pop & the Stooges (a rider is the document stating the band's requirements - normally it is without tv show concepts!)

"Eat dog or go hungry on an island"

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/iggypop/iggypop18.html

The rest of the document is also very entertaining (at least for backstage geeks) - it must be one of the most crazy technical riders in the music history.

[mr wibble]

"What goes around...":

Essentially people are submitted as contestants without their knowing it, by so-called "friends" or family, and their house is bugged with hidden cameras (especially the tv room) - then a number of fake reality shows are aired in which the viewer is prompted to choose an outcome for the pretend "contestants".

The catch is whatever they personally elect to happen to the poor tv folk actually happens to them, either directly or indirectly: perhaps, simply if they vote for something unpleasant they get something unpleasant happening to them and vice versa; or more literally if they vote for the housemates to get soaked then they are "accidentally" pushed in a pool the next day or something.

The winner could be the person who cottons on first to the situation, or the one who does the nicest/nastiest things to the contestants. Do nice and you're a nice person. Do nasty and it comes back in your face - entertaining!

[Srini]

It's called Bull*Hit (with a nice Red star instead of the asterisk)

Take the bull from Bull Schadenfraude.
Invite the guys whose comments showed that they thought bull-fighting was fun to watch. Put them in a ring. Survivors get another bull (more fun).

Bonus points for stopping greenhouse gases and naming the bull something original.

Surviving after mooing and bending over for 30 seconds automatically qualifies for a win (Special Moo).

[Jonnie B]

So its a bit late, but after reading the sad and sorded, how about something nice?

Give a number of groups a budget, say $10K, and see how they can best help a community in need around the world. The comunity is there choice, be is Africa or Harlem, public votes (via the scam that is texting for x amount) which choices the winner and pays for the show (might also make for a prize pool to go to expanding the winning project).

[Bernardo]

It's called "Starving". Think of it as "Big Brother" meets the Custom of the Sea. 12 contestants go inside this fantastic house and hang out. Each week a contestant is voted off the show. The twist: there's no food in the house, and the person that is voted off is eaten by the other contestants.