TV Reality Show ideas


Dear Hank;
November 16, 2006

I haven’t written in a while, in a long while, but I’ve been busy.
However, it’s time to talk about my idea for a new hit series on TV.
A reality game show which involves food and money as well as drama.
But first let’s look at the roots of what caused me to come up with this boffo idea.
There seem to be three trends in current television programming:
- Create a show that has a highly predictable plot structure that is self contained: ie CSI, Law and Order.
- Create a show that is very dramatic and you must see every episode or you are lost: ie Alias, Lost, 24
- Create a game show based on greed or “reality” series. It’s best if it’s copied from a successful competitor: ie Fear Factor, The Great Race, Deal or No Deal

I have been watching Heroes and now Daybreak. Both are in the You must watch every episode or you won’t know what is going on genre, however, there is a twist and that is You can watch every episode and won’t know what’s going on. Heroes is interesting in that these are supposedly normal people that have been imbued with super powers but they don’t know why. They also seem to have an evil alter ego and someone is going about trying to kill them. Fortunately, one of the heroes can jump back and forth in the old space time continuum and change things. It’s a cool idea. ABC is trying to push the idea that you can go on the web and learn more as well as get the graphic comic that explains more. Daybreak is like Ground Hog Day or Run Lola, Run, everyday Detective so and so wakes up and it’s the same day. He’s being framed for a murder of a DA that he doesn’t even know. Each day ends with him being given a sedative. However, unlike Ground Hog Day where Bill Murray keeps waking up to repeat the day without any consequences for the antics from before our hero here keeps being reminded by the mysterious man he meets at the end of most days with the recurring tag line, “For every action, there are consequences” and there does seem to be some hold over effect from the previous iteration of events, but you can’t quite figure it out. However, the ads for the show promise to reveal all if you watch all the episodes.
I’ve also watched Deal or No Deal, a show that held my interest for about one and a half shows. It’s a variant on the Monte Hall Paradox. It’s been ripped off now by The Rich List and Show Me the Money. All these shows should be stunning arguments why TV networks and executives should not be allowed to create shows.
I have a choice in creating my TV show. I can try and come up with something unique and original that is clever and thought provoking or I can follow the current modus operandi and rip-off everyone else. In the Sopranos Michael Imperioli playing mob lieutenant Christopher Moltisanti wants to make a movie and he keeps coming up with really bad ideas and trying to sell them with the tag line “It’s like (movie or character 1) meets (movie or character 2)” (It’s like Saw meets Jason. Etc.)
There are also the various talent shows: Dancing with the stars, American Idol, and Who will be the next Top Chef? Etc.
One of the things that has bothered me about the food shows is that the contestants are given a challenge and can go to a table loaded with great stuff for cooking. I’d like to see what they can do given the typical stuff found in a suburban kitchen on any given night or how about a single guy’s apartment that doesn’t cook?
How about a cooking competition that the contestants are given so much time to do their thing? At the end of that time they should have everything ready to eat and have the stuff out in the dining room because when the bell goes off rats are released into the kitchen or snakes or German Sheppard attack trained dogs. They can stay in the kitchen if they can withstand whatever has been released. The final show could have the bottom drop out of the floor and anything left on the floor falls ten stories to the pit of vermin below.

Or what about a game show where “news analysts” are given half an hour to ask one question to a public figure in as many ways as they can? The question could be something the person answering doesn’t have the answer to or has already given the answer and it should be highly personal and embarrassing.

Or what about a reality game show where contestants are asked to do gross and disgusting despicable acts with the promise of all kinds of riches. At the end the MC laughs at them and tells them that the show has no intention of giving them any of the stuff they promised them. It could be called Just Kidding.

Or my favorite would be a Candid Camera type show where people from other shows of this type are offered lots of money to do one of their segments on this show. What they don’t know is that all the victims of their pranks are mentally unstable and violently dangerous felons with a long history of anti-social behavior. Wow, watch the fun unfold as what his name Kuchner gets punked and worked over by a real thug. Watch the stunned look on Jamie Kennedy’s face as the truth is revealed to him via a knuckle sandwich and the crew tries to restrain a bull of a man who is choking the very life out of the host. Now that’s entertainment.

How about a show where you hire a Paparrazi to film a fellow papparazi and throw in a dangerous mentally unstable felon or two as film men? Hey that’s fun, that’s entertainment.

I gotta go;