Don’t check for them unless you’ve got a check for them.
With the actors who make up SAG-AFTRA and the writers of WGA currently on strike for the foreseeable future, it’s looking likely that there will be a dearth of entertainment come fall — at least when it comes to scripted entertainment. Those of us looking forward to the freshness of the fall TV season will likely only have one place to turn: reality television. That’s because reality TV cast members and producers aren’t in any of the unions, and for them, it’s business as usual. But a growing number of people involved in reality TV say that needs to change, and they’re hoping to use the momentum from the current strikes to capitalize on the public support for worker’s rights.
Reality TV is sometimes seen as a shortcut to fame, with many current and former stars parlaying their time on television into successful businesses, podcasts, or even spin-off shows. But Jeremy Hartwell, a contestant on Love is Blind season 2 and the founder of the Unscripted Cast Advocacy Network, or UCAN Foundation, cautions that it’s not all glitz, glamor, and sponsored Instagram deals. “For every one reality TV star that’s prolific on social media, there’s dozens who you never know about, because they’re not famous.” Hartwell was on a Netflix reality show that millions of people watched, but says he got “about 20 seconds of air time.” He received a stipend of about $1,000 per week for filming, but says that when you factor in how much of the time he actually spent filming, “it comes out to about $6 an hour.”
The risk of reality TV
Some people who’ve put their real lives in front of the camera point out that doing so comes with certain risks actors don’t necessarily face. Reality TV thrives on conflict and people behaving badly, but unlike actors reading off a script, there can be real-life implications for reality stars for what they do on-camera. “You say something you shouldn’t have said or do something you shouldn’t have done, or get in a fight with someone, and then your life gets ruined and you get canceled,” Bethenny Frankel, alum of The Real Housewives of New York City, tells Katie Couric Media. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’s Whitney Rose claimed this past season that her husband, Justin, was fired from his corporate job over an intimate scene they filmed for Bravo.
Hartwell adds that, even if cast members think they’re saying all the right things and being true to themselves, soundbites from their one-on-one interviews (also called confessionals) can be cut up and refashioned out of order, or what’s known as Frankenbiting. “They are literally putting words into your mouth,” he says. He’s spoken to over 50 reality cast members and says the vast majority of them “are worse off financially, emotionally, mentally, and physically after being on reality TV.”
An anonymous reality TV producer told Rolling Stone, “The sacrifices these real people make include taking time off or altogether quitting their jobs, forsaking health insurance,” and, in competition shows like The Bachelor, “not communicating with their families for weeks on end, all so the network and viewers can have a great show.” He added, “In contrast, networks demonstrate a remarkable stinginess when it comes to remunerating them adequately.”
Reality stars don’t earn residuals
Frankel, who was on The Real Housewives of New York City for eight years (and starred in three spin-offs), said in a recent Instagram video that she made $7,250 for her first season of reality TV. Even though she left RHONY in 2019, you can still turn on your TV today or go on Peacock to hear her utter iconic lines like “Go to sleep!” and “It’s about Tom.” On top of that, Bravo’s online store sells mugs and wine glasses bearing her taglines and well-known quotes. But Frankel doesn’t see a dime from merchandise or re-runs, and she’s not the only one — reality stars don’t earn residuals, nor do they earn profits off products sold by the networks, even if they’re the inspiration for said merchandise.
“I myself have generated millions and millions of dollars in advertising and online impressions being on reality TV and have never made a single residual,” she said in a recent Instagram video. While she acknowledges she’s doing just fine now, she wants to help up-and-coming talent who aren’t in as strong of a financial position. That video has over 23,000 likes, and a number of stars are speaking out in support in the comments.
“We should be getting residuals for all the times they have used our footage,” commented The Real Housewives of Orange County’s Vicki Gunvalson. “I got paid $0 season 1,” she added.
“Wish I had your brain when I signed my life away haha,” wrote The Bachelorette’s Kaitlyn Bristowe.
“When you are signed to those contracts, when you have signed away your likeness, you are fighting an uphill battle, while being famous,” RHOA’s Porsha Williams told Entertainment Tonight.
Frankel is far from the first reality star to try to bring attention to these issues — Real Housewives of Atlanta favorite NeNe Leakes has been speaking out about problems with compensation and working conditions in general for years. In fact, she commented on Frankel’s video, “Agreed! I been saying this but they will hear you better than me.”
“For a very long time, I have said there’s very unfair treatment in various areas of the reality workspace,” Leakes recently said on social media. “I don’t get a penny for all of those memes that you see out there,” she said, adding that her likeness can be used “over and over and over and over again” and she would not see a dime, no matter how many times a network or streaming service re-airs RHOA. (Leakes didn’t respond to KCM’s request for comment.)
Leakes was a full-time cast member on RHOA for 10 seasons. She filed a discrimination lawsuit against Bravo, NBC Universal, and other network executives in 2022, accusing them of fostering a racist and hostile work environment. She later dismissed the suit.
The start of a reality TV union?
Inspired by the demands of SAG-AFTRA, Frankel took to social media to urge reality stars to unionize and released a suggested list of demands. Among them: $5,000 per episode for unscripted shows that make it to air, and a minimum 10 percent raise each season. She also thinks talent should receive 10 percent of their last negotiated talent fee any time a network re-airs a season they were on or if it gets added to a streaming service.
“The exploitation era is over,” Frankel tells us. “We are the forgotten land of misfit toys in unscripted TV and that’s over now because everyone is going to be turning to us to fill the gap during the strike.” (It’s also worth noting that during the last big Hollywood strike in 2007-2008, networks leaned on unscripted shows.)
She’s calling on reality TV stars who are currently filming to refuse to work “until their free content is [taken] down” — something she acknowledges in her videos is going to take a lot of work, which is only just beginning.
Nelini Stamp, director of strategy and partnerships at the Working Families Party and avid reality TV fan tells Katie Couric Media that striking without the protection and guidance of a union can be tricky, but it can still be effective. “There are different protections against employer retaliation depending on whether you’re in a union or not.” She points to the fast food industry as an example. Despite the fact that there’s no fast food workers union, “we’ve seen fast food worker strikes across the industry since 2012, and because of what they’ve done, we’ve seen countless raises to the minimum wage across the country,” she says.
Stamp, who runs the Instagram account Real Housewives of Politics, adds that what actors and writers are asking for is “people to not cross the picket line.” She says that means encouraging our reality faves to refuse work from struck studios or attend red carpet premieres.
Hartwell says that unionizing is “a very powerful lever to pull” — once enough groundwork is laid.
And for all the people wondering why this even matters, Stamp is quick to point out that this is not just a reality TV issue. “People should get paid for their labor,” she says. “If you’re showing your life on television, you should get paid for it.”
Frankel adds that it’s not a zero-sum game. “All boats rise with the tide,” she says, adding that just as the SAG-AFTRA strike helped provide her with a model for what she’s calling “the reality reckoning,” which she hopes can help create a guide for workers in other industries. “Nurses shouldn’t be exploited, teachers shouldn’t be exploited, plumbers shouldn’t be exploited, sanitation workers shouldn’t be exploited,” she says. “Once something’s not OK in one place, it’s not OK in another place.”
