Trade Press // Non-Fiction TV
Read It And Weep: Nonfiction Producer Stories on Gawker
The Grim Realities of Reality TV: Workers Speak More than three hundred producers wrote in to tell their stories when Gawker invited them to do so in The Grim Realities of Reality TV. Here’s part of a story: “Corporate credit card? Forget it. We often have to use personal...
Writer-Producers at Original Media Vote to Join WGAE
The WGAE today announced that a majority of writer-producers at New York-based nonfiction (reality) TV production company Original Media voted overwhelmingly to join the Guild in an election held by the National Labor Relations Board. The vote was 42 to 9. Original Media produces popular shows such as Ink...
City Council Hearing on “Sweatshop” Conditions in Nonfiction TV
Civil Service and Labor Committee Hearing “It is important to the City of New York to encourage the growth of well-paying, stable jobs in the creative economy. Nonfiction television, an expanding and lucrative industry, is important to this growth. The jobs it provides should meet certain standards that our...
ITV under pressure over US worker benefits
ITV Studios just paid $360 million to acquire Pawn Stars producer Leftfield Entertainment, capping an 18-month acquisition push which, according to the company, makes ITV the largest independent unscripted TV producer in the United States. ITV also paid its CEO, Adam Crozier, £8.4 million last year, far above the...
WGAE leaflets Newfronts about ITV Studios
The WGAE held an informational picket today at the Nat Geo/Nat Geo Wild Newfronts presentation in New York. The goal of the NewFronts, or new upfronts, is to encourage marketers and ad agencies to spend more money on digital ads, either by increasing budgets or shifting TV dollars to...
WGAE Signs Contract with Sharp Entertainment
WGAE Signs Contract with Sharp Entertainment The WGAE said today that it has reached a new collective bargaining pact with Sharp Entertainment that covers its writers and producers. Said WGAE Executive Director Lowell Peterson: “We are very pleased to have reached an agreement with Sharp that includes…
Musicians and Writers Stand Together for Justice on May Day
WGAE and the American Federation of Musicians (AFM Local 802) celebrated May Day by coming together to fight for economic justice. We stopped at NBC offices at 30 Rockefeller Plaza to urge Peacock Productions to count the votes and recognize the WGAE. We also stopped at the Lionsgate headquarters...
“Ink Master” hosts accused of harassing producer
MSNBC, A former production assistant on the reality television show Ink Master accuses her former employers of engaging in “severe and pervasive” sexual harassment, according to a legal complaint filed earlier this month. The filing, which was submitted to a federal district court in New York, claims...
NY Times Editorial: Wage Theft Across The Board
When labor advocates and law enforcement officials talk about wage theft, they are usually referring to situations in which low-wage service-sector employees are forced to work off the clock, paid subminimum wages, cheated out of overtime pay or denied their tips. It is a huge and underpoliced problem. It is...
NY Prodco Execs Featured in THR Top 25 Reality Players
Brent Montgomery, Leftfield The envy of many of his peers, Montgomery’s Pawn Stars still averages more than 5.7 million viewers after five years and 288 episodes on History. More impressive, the look at a Las Vegas barter business inspired its own subgenre. Read more: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/top-25-reality-players-2014-692806