John Jebbia wrote:
You know how they do the show, then periodically they cut to the peoples' commentary about what's happening? Like: Action clip, then commentary, back to action..

Do they record the commentary as they go along, or at the end as a recap?

For example, a guy is talking about maybe getting fired. Then he gets fired. Did he discuss it as they went along, or at the end after he got fired?

This is what I suspect happens.

Action happens.

They are then interviewed afterwards.

Based on their response(s), writers script the interview in such a manner that they can edit with the show as you've seen it.

That's why certain shows, like Big Brother, the "interviews" sound like horrible acting.  It is acting because they are reading the script that was provided to them based on their interview recapping what happened.

Some people are great at it and you'd never know they are reading.  Others suck at it and it's painfully obvious.

Lightcraft Studio wrote:
I think it's all of the above... lots of taping during and after, with lots of creative editing.

When I was involved in creating/maintaining Television City at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, our main client (CBS Television) was doing lots of audience testing for various Survivor episodes. They tested different endings, different scenes, and pretty much every aspect of each show in order to see which ones produces the best audience ratings.

Oh man!  Survivor was golden for CBS for a long time!  I've never worked on a reality show, but my guess is that there is some scripting and a lot of formulas being used.  Those on camera talent might as well consider themselves actors because "reality" it is not!

Patrick Walberg wrote:

Oh man!  Survivor was golden for CBS for a long time!  I've never worked on a reality show, but my guess is that there is some scripting and a lot of formulas being used.  Those on camera talent might as well consider themselves actors because "reality" it is not!

Survivor was indeed a big deal. CBS had a little shop next to the 4 screening rooms which sold all the tshirts, caps and other Survivor memorabilia. The recruiters never had any difficulty in getting the screening rooms filled with people willing to sit for a couple of hours and doing all the testing/surveys on the shows.

We did have some grand parties with the show's producers, contestants and others involved each year. It was amazing to see who much is spent producing these things... big business for sure.

John Jebbia wrote:
You know how they do the show, then periodically they cut to the peoples' commentary about what's happening? Like: Action clip, then commentary, back to action..

Do they record the commentary as they go along, or at the end as a recap?

For example, a guy is talking about maybe getting fired. Then he gets fired. Did he discuss it as they went along, or at the end after he got fired?

Reality TV is not so reality.

There is a lot of "Stand over there and resay this...", there is the usual one on one interview about whatever (sometimes this is done after the episode shoot so they can fill the time), then they cut and splice in post production.

(I have a client who is in the mist of a tv reality show thing now)