7 Must-Know Tips for Pitching Reality TV

Announcer: Welcome to Producing Unscripted with Joke and Biagio.

Angry Man: Is this some kind of joke.

Confused Woman: Biagio-WHO???

Biagio: This episode. It’s episode 70 and we’ve got seven must know tips for pitching reality TV. How to never sound like a newbie again. Second hooks, winning casts and pitching softly what Kobe Bryant and Cate Blanchett have to do with any of this, and why my wife should be arrested. Music courtesy Dave Pelman. Music Dave Pelman.com. Hey, everybody. She’s joke. He’s Biagio. We’re married. We make unscripted film and television and want to help you do the same.

Joke: Hopefully by teaming up with us.

Biagio: All right, well, welcome to episode 7170 and episodes so big. I actually did music and voiceover in front of it once again. It was too big for me to be lazy. Okay. And episodes so big. I’m holding six pages of printed out notes just to make sure we give you all the relevant information. Does that mean I killed six trees though? You get a lot of paper out of a tree, right?

Joke: Yeah, but he’s not kidding. It is big font.

Biagio: It is a big font. It’s a big font. Probably a little bit too big, but my eyes are getting tired. What can I tell you? All right, so today for our 70th episode, you know, we always try to give you guys usable information, stuff that will work for you, whether you’re pitching a show to us or anyone else. And what we’ve seen a lot of lately is, you know, we have a lot of new listeners. And thank you. Thank you to everybody who’s newly discovering our site. A lot of longtime listeners who told us, man, I can’t keep track of everything you’ve said over the course of now, 70 episodes. So what we wanted today to be is sort of like a big picture cheat sheet, you know, the seven must know tips to pitching reality TV. These are seven rules that if you follow, you will look and sound so much more professional every single time you pitch in. Unscripted TV show. Now these tips come from past podcast episodes that we’ve done, but we know many of you haven’t heard them and they can be hard to keep track of. So we’re going to break them down for you right here today on episode 70, you’ll be able to find the The Post for this podcast at Producing Unscripted seven zero. See how that works? 70 070 I’m so proud of that. And there will be links to all these other episodes so that you can have one great little place to go to to really help you shape your pitches before you pitch to anyone. Hopefully you’re pitching the US, but no matter who you’re pitching to, these tips will help you. All right, enough blathering on. Right, honey? Start it. Let’s get this party rolling. Let’s start with tip number seven.

Joke: Oh, it’s a backwards countdown.

Biagio: It’s a bit. Yeah. It’s like, you know, it’s like David Letterman in the old days.

Joke: Yeah. He doesn’t have a show.

Biagio: He doesn’t have a show anymore. Anyways. Number seven, tip number seven. One hook is not enough. You need two. Okay. What do we mean by this? Okay. What are what are two hooks. All right. Usually you need two big easy to understand ideas to frame. Whatever your concept of going out with what one is just not enough. And let me give you an example. Using our own MTV show, caged. You know, we could have looked at one basic idea of the show, which is, hey, we follow real kids living in small town America. And okay, by the way, that sounds like a lot of pictures we get. Oh yeah, they’re ups and downs, whatever. But it’s really real because we live in small town America. That’s just not enough by itself to sell a TV show today. Now let’s look at what the other hook of that show was. And look at that in isolation. Hey, it’s an inside look at the world of amateur cage fighting. All right. I mean, you know, that sounds kind of like a profile piece. Something that you’d see, like on a real sports on HBO or something. But is that really a TV show? Probably not by itself. But when you go out and you take these two ideas and you use them to frame the concept of your show, you get something much more exciting. For example, you put out a one liner like this for these kids dreaming of escaping small town life. Their only way out is inside a cage. So you get you get these two ideas coming together to give you a unique story that only our show can tell. Yes, it’s small town America, but these kids are all glued together by the second hook of MMA cage fighting, you know? And how cool the concept is that their only way out is to lock themselves in this cage. That’s how we sold that show to MTV. Now. Now the whole two hook idea, it’s a big thing and we do a full podcast on it on episode 27, which you can find over at Producing Unscripted two seven joke. Do you have anything you’d like to add to that?

Joke: Well, I think it’s a it’s a great piece of advice that we were taught a long time ago. I won’t even put a number on it, but it applies, I think, to all storytelling. So, you know, whether or not you are looking for a reality show pitch or you’re writing, you know, your next article or screenplay or whatever, I would keep this one in mind.

Biagio: Definitely. So again, you can see that over at episode 27. So moving on to tip number six.

Joke: Best cast wins.

Biagio: Best cast wins. What does that mean. And boy does that have far reaching. Boy, I can’t think of the words. It’s episode 70 and I feel like I’m 70. Anyways. Joke. Take it away.

Joke: Best Cast Wins is something that was told to us by an executive one time, and it it’s true. I mean, it’s something that, you know, we deal with here in the business, but if you’re trying to break into this business and come up with reality show ideas, it’s important to understand that. So it comes from the fact that the world is only so big. And so there’s lots of places that people want to play. And coming back to caged, you know, let’s say there are several pitches out there about young people in small town trying to break out through cage fighting. The idea of best cast wins means if you find the most dynamic characters who really have great relationships, who are authentic, who are open, who are honest, who are all those things, then your show is probably the one that will sell. So there are hundreds of pitches out there of, you know, housewives somewhere in America who all hang out. But it’s the best cast that wins, right? It’s the cast that has a great dynamic, has a great different archetypes that play well off of each other, that have natural, organic, authentic story already happening. Those are the ones that win. So. So Best Cast wins really just helps you focus on finding those people that are that good. And if you don’t think that they’re good enough to stand up against another cast in this world, then it’s probably not worth your time.

Biagio: Yeah. Now, a lot of you who are new to this business might be like, wait, wait, wait a minute. That doesn’t sound fair at all. Like, what do you mean? How can someone else be pitching the idea that I have. Well, you know, like we’ve said so many times on this podcast, ideas are not enough, right? And so, like Joe pointed out, there could have been plenty of other shows pitched about small towns and MMA fighting. There is probably plenty of shows pitched about housewives, plenty of shows pitched about guys just like the guys on Duck Dynasty. An idea is not enough. You have to have the cast that goes with that idea. And so while it might seem unfair, you need to know that your pitch is not just competing with similar ideas. You’re competing against those other casts.

Joke: And you also don’t own the concept of housewives. So, you know, it’s like, while that might be an idea you have, that doesn’t mean that, you know, nobody else can play in that same sandbox, right? So however, if you find a cast and you lock down that cast, no one else can do a show with your cast. So that’s why Best Cast wins is an easy way to break into the business. If you find a dynamic cast and you as a producer, have them and you’re the one pitching them that makes you valuable to the project, and hopefully the fact that they’re the best helps you launch your career.

Biagio: Yeah, that’s called building your package. If we talk about this in episode two of this podcast where ideas aren’t enough, but when you put together assets, when you put together more than just an idea, you make yourself valuable. But remember, you’re going to be competing against other people with similar ideas. And in the end, the best cast wins. Learn more about this concept at episode 38, which you can find at you guessed it, producing unscripted slash 038. Are you guys you guys are getting a threat of this, right? It’s whatever I am. Yeah, I just like to be clear. Okay. Moving on. Tip number five pitch TV shows, not profile pieces. Yeah.

Joke: So Biagio hinted at this earlier, right? Sometimes you come across a world or characters, whether it’s like small town MMA fighting and you’re like, oh, this. This is an interesting story. And it is. And it would probably make for a great, you know, real sports segment. The question is, is there enough going on here? Is there is there a story engine? Are there characters you would want to come back and revisit week after week? So it’s important when you find something to think about that. Is this a killer profile piece or is there enough here, enough of a story engine to keep coming back, right? Is it difference between film and television? Film? You need to tell your story, you know, in an hour and a half, two hours, and then you’re done. So that’s all the story you need television. Even in scripted, you just need to have that engine built in that you can come back week after week, you know, 13 or 22 episodes a season for several seasons, right? Same in reality where if you have a great story, maybe it’s a great documentary or it’s a great investigative journalism piece for a 60 minutes or a real sports. But if you want the TV show, it has to have that recurring story engine that keeps you coming back week after week with characters and stories that are engaging.

Biagio: Yeah, it’s a big concept. We talk about it in episode 53. Don’t worry, I’m not going to give you the whole link to 53 again, but you should really listen to that to get your head around it. And, you know, always remembering that TV show is not a profile piece. It has to be more. As a bonus tip, you can instantly move your pitch further away from being a profile piece by adding your second hook, which we talked about in the beginning of this episode, and also joke mentioned crafting your story engine. You can learn more about Story Engines in episode 31 of our podcast. So moving on to tip number four. Soft pitch correctly. Okay. What’s a soft pitch? A soft pitch is is the way you want to float a concept before spending tons of time and money on development or putting together a video pitch. But most people soft pitch the I mean the complete opposite way you should. They do it all wrong.

Joke: So here’s the thing. The soft pitch tip is really about pitching to us because most people don’t take soft pitches. So whether it’s us or you found somebody else who takes a soft pitch. The idea is simple. After okay, so after you have found a person, a real person, you’ve talked to a place, a business, you have talked to, and there are things there that you find are interesting and you’ve looked to see if you have that second hook and you you thought about what could be your story engine every week. After you’ve done that, before, you start spending money and putting people on tape. That’s when you can reach out and say, hey, I found this person. You know, this is kind of what’s going on, is this world, is this story something that might sell right now? And at that point, we can give you our insight, talking to the networks every day about, you know, yeah, we think the market is really ripe for that. Move on it quickly or, you know what, everyone’s just kind of got soured on a similar idea not too long ago. And that would be a very hard sell. Might not be the best use of your time and money. So so that’s what we can do and help you with in terms of soft pitching. Again, not a lot of people take soft pitches. So if you are reaching out to other companies or to networks with a soft pitch, you are you are doing the wrong thing. You really have to figure it everything out by then. But if there’s other people out there like us who take soft pitches, you have to have at least talk to somebody. There’s too many people reaching out to us like, hey, I woke up this morning and I had this idea, what do you think? Like, that’s not enough. You have to do some legwork. We’re just saying, well, listen to it before you spend money. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have to spend time.

Biagio: Yeah. So let me give you an example of a of a good soft pitch and a bad soft pitch. So look out.

Joke: The basket weaving thing is it.

Biagio: No no no this isn’t the basket weaving thing. No. I’ve tried to pick something even a little bit more out there because. Because no one’s going to book this show. So anyways, here’s, here’s the bad, the bad soft pitch. Hey, what about a show that follows a prosecutor working to shake down the Mafia? Now, while we haven’t gotten that exact pitch, we get many pitches that are just one liners like that. Why is that awful? First of all, what in the world makes me think you actually know a prosecutor shaking down the mafia, willing to go on camera? Second of all, the prosecutors even shakedown the Mafia anymore is the I don’t even know. Like, I mean, I know nothing from this pitch like that is an awful that just that just sounds to me like you just made this up one morning. Okay, now, here’s a version of a soft pitch. If you actually had it, that would make us go, Holy cow! My sister in law is a prosecutor specializing in taking down organized crime. Here’s a letter saying we have permission to film with her in her department, and a list of cases she’s working on. What do you think? Holy cow. Like, that’s an amazing soft pitch. Why? Because, number one, I know you know your sister in law. I’m guessing that since your sister in law wrote a letter saying you have permission to film with her, you’re going to be able to take a camera in there in film. And you’ve already put together a bunch of cases that she’s working on. So I can see that this is a real thing. There could be a real show here. That is a good soft pitch. Okay? It shows that you’ve spent a little bit of time, that you have access, you have the beginnings of a package, not just an idea. And that is a world of difference. If you don’t have a real person, place or thing to build your soft pitch around, you’re not ready to soft pitch. And honestly, in most cases, you’re not ready to pitch to anybody. So you can learn more about this in episode 47. And we ought to talk a little about this in our free e-book, How to Pitch a Reality Show. It’s free. Just Google how to pitch a reality show. It’s number one on Google can read the whole thing right there. And it’s got a lot a lot of other helpful tips as well. All right, moving on. Calm down honey. Calm down, calm down.

Joke: Number. Number. What?

Biagio: Tip number three.

Joke: This kind of goes in line with what we just said, which is you can’t pitch what you don’t have. So again.

Biagio: But this is even a little bit more egregious because it’s not like just pitching out an idea. Right? People. And people do this all the time.

Joke: They will send us video. They will send us links to things and say, you know, what about these wacky sisters? They would make for great television. And then we find out they’ve never even talked to those sisters. They have no idea who those sisters are. And frankly, when we do one Google search, we realize this is already have a TV show on a network. This has happened. So it’s one of those things where when you come up with an idea or when you find people, it’s it’s imperative that you contact them and you see one or they even up for doing a TV show too. Are they already doing a TV show? Three do they want to make a TV show with you? And four will they give you the rights to go out and pitch them for a TV show? You are not allowed to sell a product that you don’t have. That’s called fraud, right? Like, you can’t go to a car dealership and some guy is like, hey, want to buy this car? And you’re like, totally. And he’s like, cool. Yeah, I don’t actually know who owns it. Let me go find out. Like, you know, now you’re just wasting everybody’s time. So it’s a rookie mistake. I think oftentimes it’s confused with the soft pitch. They’re like, oh look, we’re just soft pitching somebody. But but you’re not. Because when you are saying, hey, you know, what do you think of so-and-so? It’s implied that, you know, you have the right to pitch them. I don’t suggest you ever pitched somebody you’ve never talked to, but if for some reason you can’t help yourself, by all means, in big, bold letters, acknowledge that you don’t know these people when you haven’t talked to them, but that before you want to talk to them. Maybe you want to ask their opinion. That’s not us. Maybe somebody else. But under no circumstances. Again, don’t pitch what you don’t have. Don’t walk into any meeting us or anybody else and and pitch something which is another form of selling. Sell something you don’t have the right to sell.

Biagio: Amen. All right. I think you all got that. So now moving on.

Joke: 32.

Biagio: Oh thank you honey.

Joke: 032.

Biagio: That’s right. Producing. Unscripted. Three, two. To hear a whole long extended reason of why you shouldn’t pitch. We don’t do it. What you don’t have. And it also fixes for that. Okay, now moving on to tip number two. Don’t confuse passion projects with TV projects. Okay? Now I don’t want to sound cynical at all. And it’s not the point of this. And joke will joke will will offer a more sensitive side to this when I’m done here. But we all have passion projects. We all have stories that we’re dying to tell. Okay? Ours was dying to do Letterman. It was. It was our documentary that actually played in movie theaters and won awards. And you know what? No one in the world was going to pay for that movie except us.

Joke: We tried.

Biagio: We did try.

Joke: They all said no, they weren’t going to pay for it.

Biagio: And by the way, I should say, and a lot of people did support us on Kickstarter, you know, although, believe me, the money we raised on Kickstarter we put in.

Joke: But that was after we already made them.

Biagio: That was that was after we already made the movie. So the movie was already done. But the point was, we were never going to get a TV network to pay for that. It wasn’t a TV show, it was at its heart. It was a thing about a guy dying of cancer. Yes, it was funny. Yes, it involved David Letterman. Yes, it had a whole host of things we knew would make it entertaining. But no TV network is going to take a chance on that. So what you have to understand is there may be stories that you are dying to tell that you think are so important, and you’re probably right. It would probably be so fulfilling for you to tell that story and people would be touched. That does not mean it is necessarily a TV show. Probably 99 times out of 100 it is not. So what do you do? You go make your documentary or you go make your YouTube series and you keep it. You pay for it yourself or you do it for no budget. And the reward you get is not financial. It’s the fulfillment you get from making something that is just so creatively wonderful, that touches you and touches others. By the way, that’s a big part of what keeps us going in our business doing projects like that. Just TV networks aren’t going to pay for them. Now, now, Joe, does that mean you can never make fulfilling TV? You can never do a passion project on TV?

Joke: Of course not. Passion is key in getting anything on the air. So I think what we’re talking about is, is projects that may not be able to sell, but you’re still passionate about. Just continue to find ways to get those made elsewhere. Like don’t keep knocking on the same doors. But every project that you know, every every show that you make, that you try to get on the air, even with the network, you have to have a certain amount of passion for it, right? Otherwise, it’s not going to get made. It’s hard enough to make a TV show if you can’t even like it yourself, it’s probably not going to do well. So, passion is really important. I mean, cage is still has this very special place in my heart. Like in terms of passion, I couldn’t have been more passionate about that project even if I tried. So I think that passion is a great catalyst. It’s something that you need as a creative person to motivate yourself to keep pushing that ball uphill, because we all know how hard it is to get something made. So yay, passion and keep that going. It’s just just remember that if you’re the only one who keeps pushing that ball at Pal and everyone tells you like, hey, you know that hill over there might be a better place to push that ball up? Then you know it’s okay to go to the other hill. Meaning either you do it independently, or you do it on a YouTube channel, or you find other ways of doing it, that’s fine, but that doesn’t mean someone else is going to pay for it, right? So if no one’s willing to pay for it, don’t don’t knock those people because they’re just running a business, you know, then find other means to pay for it.

Biagio: Yeah. You can. Now we talk about this more and again offer suggestions and more concrete examples. Over in episode 26. You guessed it, producing unscripted 026. Okay. And now, as we wind down this countdown, as we come to a close. I’m going to let joke finish this one off. Take it away, honey.

Joke: But tip number one. Ready?

Biagio: I’m ready.

Joke: Watch television.

Biagio: For God’s sakes, people, watch TV.

Joke: So this comes from a very first podcast, and it just narrows back down to if you were going to sell a product, you should know your product. You shouldn’t just know your product. You should know your competitors product. You should know your client. Right. If you’re going to sell any product, if you’re selling cupcakes or you’re running a coffee shop, you need to know who is your audience. Oh, there’s a lot of vegans living in a neighborhood. I might want to offer a vegan cupcake as opposed to just a regular cupcakes, things like that. And so what we run into a lot is people will pitch us a show and I’ll say, you know, hey, what other shows do you watch? And they’ll be like, well, I don’t I don’t really watch television. It’s like, okay, well then why why are you trying to make television? I can tell you right now, the most successful producers are also the biggest fans of television. Like, you know, we are all ardent fans of each other’s work and we learn from it. If you. I mean, I saw Kate Blanchett quote the other day where she, you know, she’s talking about how she says she great actor. She’s like, she, she just studies everybody else and she’s like, I beg, borrow and steal from the best. And so if you’re not watching television, if you don’t understand the product that’s out there, it’s going to be very hard for you to compete in this marketplace. That’s all we’re saying. Here’s the thing. I’ll be the first to tell you. It is very hard to keep up. There’s so much content out there. I try to watch one episode of every show, so I kind of know what’s out there, and that’s getting harder and harder to do because there is just so much content. But if you know you’re pitching a certain show, you know it fits a certain network. You have to study up. You have to look at the shows, at least in that, you know, if you’re the kind of person who’s pitching Deadliest Catch type shows, I’m not telling you you have to start watching Nickelodeon, but you do need to start watching Discovery and History and that Geo and see what program they currently have on their air and see, you know, the standards that are being set that you will need to match in terms of cast, their dynamics, visual style, access. Those are all things that you know everyone in this business keeps raising the bar, keeps trying to get everyone to do better work. So you have to know what’s happening to do that, right? I mean, Kobe Bryant is a great basketball player, but he’s also a student of the game. So if you want to be a television producer, you have to be a student of television.

Biagio: There you go. I never thought that Kobe Bryant and Cate Blanchett would make it as this podcast in the same episode, but that was amazing, honey. Could could not have said it better myself. Would not have even tried. Look, if the kind of show that you’re looking to pitch hasn’t been made on television in the last ten years, there’s a reason. How do you know that? How do you know if it hasn’t been made in the last ten years because you watch TV? So there you go, everybody. Seven tips courtesy of our 70th episode. I’d like to just take a second, as sometimes I do on the show, to personally thank my wife for allowing me to drag her through these 70 episodes. Honey, it means the world to me that we’ve done 70 of these and that you still plop down on the couch next to me, or wake up in the morning next to me in bed or or late at night. After we put the kids down, you manage to sneak over and we kick kick a few of these out. Well, don’t know if you can hear those police sirens going by. They probably want to arrest you for being too good of a wife. But anyways, to all of you who are listening, thank you so much. I do speak for both me and joke. I believe when I say we appreciate each and every one of you. Trust me, there’s no way we would have done 70 of these if we haven’t heard from so many of you who said you are listening and enjoying and are pitching us such wonderful ideas. So thank you for being here through these first 70. Hopefully we’ll do another 700, or at least get to 999 so that my my web link thing breaks, you know.

Joke: 800.

Biagio: By then. We’ll be old by then. Yes, we will. But you know, as always to all of you, if you’d like to, to pitch us a show, you know, we’ll make it pretty easy at, at our company, Joke Productions, just head on over to Producing Unscripted. Com, sign up for the newsletter and follow the directions. If you can’t follow the directions, it’s usually the first sign that maybe you need to spend a little bit more time getting to know the site before you pitch, right, honey?

Joke: Yeah, but are systems also pretty helpful? If there’s truly a problem, you know, just reach out and we’ll answer the question.

Biagio: We like to try to be helpful. We want to be here for you. We’ve even put together a cheat sheet. Episode 30 producing on that com slash 030, which is a cheat sheet of all the steps on how to pitch to us. So hopefully we’ll be teaming up with you soon on something. Or hopefully these ideas will help you no matter who you’re pitching to, whether it’s TV or film, a lot of these things cross all lines of entertainment. We just love to know that from the many of you that we’ve heard from that you’re enjoying this and you’re actually finding it helpful. So we’re going to keep making them. And we’ll be back in two weeks with a brand new one. Right, honey?

Joke: I guess.

Biagio: So as we steam ahead towards episode 100, which is what’s like 60 weeks away. Yeah, we’re gonna have to plan something big for episode 100. Maybe a live event. What do you think? I guess we’ll find out in about a year or so. But anyways, everybody, thanks again for tuning in, and we’ll see you in two weeks.

Unidentified Voice: Bye bye. Producing Unscripted with Joke and BiagioAjo.