Why do BBC shows have 'Producers'??

[Chip Chester]

Without addressing subjective quality issues, the average reality TV show is a bear to produce. Instead of having a written, presumably efficient plan that cast and crew follows, reality TV relies on multi-camera coverage to the extreme. This over-shooting results in tons of footage that has to be screened and logged (by producers -- the non-financial, non-decisionmaking kind ) in order to be edited together to produce the desired story line. (The story line is not left to chance as much as would be expected.) Reality show low-level producers are subject to extremely long hours with very low average pay, as there is always someone standing by in the wings to take their place as a "producer on a national network TV show". I would guess that reality shows shoot and log at least four times as much footage as a scripted multi-camera show does.

Chip