Shows Get Real Competitive
By Tim Clark -- Multichannel News, 10/21/2007 6:00:00 PM MT
Cable networks continue to ramp up production on reality and competition fare to build their brands and lure younger audiences. While some programmers, like Black Entertainment Television, are making their first, cautious moves into the space, others such as Sci Fi Channel, HGTV and VH1 continue building on early successes.
For BET, competition-based reality programming is a “natural progression,” according to Robyn Lattaker-Johnson, senior vice president of development for reality programming. But the format and misconceptions about production costs posed certain challenges.
“For several years, it was very difficult for cable networks — particularly a network like mine — to do a competition reality show because if an elimination [of a contestant] is revealed, it doesn't necessarily repeat as well,” said Lattaker-Johnson. “We need to air each individual episode a certain number of times to meet our numbers. There are certain times with competition-based reality shows where that doesn't work as well because people already know who was eliminated or who the winner is. Sometimes the spoilers get released into the universe and therefore [it's] not very fun to watch.”
Lattaker-Johnson also pointed out that what passes for a “low” production cost is not necessarily the same for cable programmers as it is for broadcast.
“For broadcasters to produce a show for $650,000, that is cheap,” she said. “But it's not quite the same scenario for cable. Everyone talks about how reality is cheap, and yes, we can do things inexpensively; but even to do a program for $300,000, that might be the limit for some cable networks.”
Still, BET has decided the time is right for its own foray into the competitive reality space. On Oct. 2, the network debuted Sunday Best, an American Idol-type show that revolves around a nationwide search for America's next great gospel singer.
Hosted by recording artist Kirk Franklin, Sunday Best will scour the country's parishes looking for the best undiscovered singers. Grammy Award-winning gospel stars Bebe Winans and duo Mary Mary will judge the contestants each week, and the top five finalists will be coached by artists from the gospel and secular music worlds.
“It's a natural fit for us as we're the network that has the grandfather of all gospel programs, with The Bobby Jones Show, and The Celebration of Gospel, which is the No. 1 performing gospel special in the history of television,” said Lattaker-Johnson. “We're a demo that's into gospel. This is one show where there was never any doubt of its potential.”
Like BET, Sci Fi is finding ways to weave reality and competitions into its own lineup and remain true to its brand.
“Reality programming keeps reinventing itself,” said Mark Stern, Sci Fi executive vice president of development. “It's gone from novelty to established storytelling and has grown into more than just a gimmick. I think audiences are responding to that.”
For Sci Fi, initial hesitation about developing reality shows proved unfounded. “We started with the belief of whether we should even have reality on the air, to not only does our audience accept it but they are coming in droves for it,” Stern said. “Now it's just a matter of refinement for us and how we continue to develop new shows.”
Stern added that Sci Fi's most popular reality series, Ghost Hunters, which follows real-life paranormal researchers, is nearing the ratings performance of most of the network's scripted programming. Sci Fi recently wrapped episodes of Ghost Hunters that were set in Europe — “some of the creepiest episodes yet,” according to Stern — and put a competitive spin on the series with its “Hunt for the Hunters” contest in which three finalists will participate in a live televised screen test on Halloween.
Sci Fi just announced it will debut a new series, Ghost Hunters International, in January. “We're also bringing back Destination Truth, which has served as a companion piece to Ghost Hunters,” Stern said.
While Sci Fi wants to build on the show's success, Stern cautioned: “We have a number of new shows on tap as we want to be careful to not just become the Ghost Hunters channel.” He added that a slate of new shows, which should be getting the development green light within the next month, aims to broaden people's perception of reality.
“Competition is a really interesting form for us, whether long-arc competition or shorter close-ended competition,” said Stern. “There are a couple of formats from Japan and Britain that we hope to adopt soon, and one or two things that we are developing in-house.”
To give new competition-based reality shows a better chance of becoming successful, Stern said early input from advertisers and sponsors can be critical.
“The more that we can bring advertisers in as we're developing concepts, the better integrated those concepts become,” he said. “There are ideas that we really like that simply won't be approved until we figure out how to attach advertising in order to bring in additional money.”
HGTV has scored its own success in the reality competition space with Design Star, which wrapped up its second season last month.
“When it comes to reality competition, we don't stray from the brand,” said HGTV vice president of event programming James Bolosh. “With Design Star for example, we essentially added to our existing format by putting it into a competition form with the added benefit of finding a celebrity.”
Design Star's season-two finale on Sept. 16 delivered a 2.4 household rating, according to Nielsen Media Research. More women watched the episode than any other primetime series telecast in the network's history as more than 3.8 million adult females tuned in. Additionally, the episode tied for the highest-rated primetime telecast in the history of the network among women 18 and older with a 2.1 rating.
“Our viewers are loyal to us and we're loyal to them,” said Bolosh, adding that key to a competition show's success is finding contestants that viewers care about. “We just want to find someone they will love and watch,” he said. “The competition is tough, and we believe if someone can make it through this then they will be more than ready to handle their own show on HGTV.”
HGTV found that viewers' interest in the Design Star competition extended beyond the TV screen to the Web, where the network presented videos, photos, blogs and trivia.
“It was so rich with content online it's almost as if the show lived on in a virtual sense,” said Bolosh. “We received millions of hits and it completely exceeded our expectations.”
Considering all of that, Bolosh not surprisingly added: “Do we have other competition reality shows in the pipeline that we are considering? We certainly do.”
When it comes to reality competition on cable, VHI has had more than its share of success — including Flavor of Love, I Love New York and Rock of Love With Bret Michaels. Its most recent entry, America's Most Smartest Model, debuted earlier this month. But according to producer Mark Cronin, the competition angle was intentionally avoided in one of the network's earliest and biggest hits, celebreality series The Surreal Life, in an effort to mimic sitcom ratings.
While the series bowed to big ratings, they soon leveled off. “It never really built to a big number at the end as we weren't building towards a story,” said Cronin. “We didn't have a 10-episode story arc. Each episode was its own story. What the competition shows benefit from is an arc that starts with episode 1 all the way to episode 10; and the story builds up pressure, suspense and competition. Networks love those arcs.”
Flavor of Love, in which women contestants vie for the affections of rap artist Flavor Flav, to date is VH1's highest-rated show ever and is expected to return for a third season. That show led to the spin-off romance-competition I Love New York. And in Rock of Love, women compete for a chance to live with rock star Bret Michaels of the band Poison.
The formula seems to be working. VH1 ended its 21st consecutive quarter of growth among total viewers recently with the Sept. 30 finale of Rock of Love earning a 4.0 in the key 18-49 demo, the second highest-rated telecast in VH1 history. The final episode was the No. 1 program on cable for the night, as well as the No. 1 non-sports program on cable for the week.
Sci Fi’s ‘Ghost Hunters’ Goes Back to School
10/23/2008Sci Fi Schedules Summer Slate
04/29/2009Quick Hits
05/04/2009Sci Fi Channel Unveils New Series
07/15/2007
