The Stage

Growth of reality television continues to hit US actors

Published Tuesday 11 October 2005 at 09:55 by Judd Hollander

The continued rise of unscripted reality programmes such as Survivor and The Apprentice is resulting in an ever-shrinking pool of jobs for actors in the US, according to the Screen Actors Guild.

In 2004, 34,431 SAG actors found employment on television, representing a decrease of 10% compared to 2003. During this same period, the six broadcast networks increased their total hours of prime time reality programming from an average of 15 to 22 hours a week. That translates to approximately 5.1 extra hours per week over the course of the year, the equivalent of ten half-hour sitcoms or five hour-long drama series.

The data, which was submitted to the guild by producers as part of their film and television contracts with the organisation, also revealed a 7.8% overall loss in film and television work for actors from 2003 to 2004. The biggest loss of jobs for actors was in the area of supporting roles, which dropped by 3,339 from 2003 to 2004, with 98% of that total coming from episodic television.

“Our highest priority must be to create increased work opportunities for Guild members,” said SAG President Alan Rosenberg. “The statistics this year are again disturbing and the industry must begin to address this downward trend. The displacement of scripted series by reality programming continues to be a severe obstacle to a working actor’s ability to earn a living.”

Reality programmes are a great favourite of networks and production companies as they cost much less to create and, if they become popular, are relatively easy to reproduce. They can also benefit from numerous product tie-ins in ways that scripted shows cannot as reality show do not have to pay residuals to actors.

The Screen Actors Guild represents approximately 120,000 working actors in film, television, industrials, commercials, video games and music videos.