Reality check

Reality television became a force because viewers liked it and because,without celebrities or big salaries,it was cheap....

Reality television became a force because viewers liked it and because,without celebrities or big salaries,it was cheap. The shows can cost as little as $200,000 for a half-hour episode,compared with the $1 million or more typical for hourlong scripted shows.

But now the genre is creating its own stars on shows like Jersey Shore,The City on MTV and the Real Housewives franchise on Bravo. With stars come demands for higher salaries,threatening the inexpensive economic model of reality TV. Are the shows falling victim to their own success?

Network executives say no,but they concede they are constantly on guard against that possibility. They strive to make shows grow proportionally: as the salaries grow,the ratings and the rates paid by advertisers must grow in lockstep. When the proportions break down,cancellation can loom.

There can be a time when a show prices itself out of profitability, said Chris Linn,executive vice president for MTV production. The reality show The Hills which ended last month after six seasons,seems like a case study of those proportions breaking down; its stars,plucked from obscurity,were collecting six-figure paychecks near the end,yet the shows ratings were sinking.

When a shows production costs are reaching that point,well look for a way to reinvent that show or look for other efficiencies, he said. Last year,one of the stars of The Hills ,Whitney Port,was given her own show,The City ,which MTV is weighing whether to renew.

It might seem that the starlets and the housewives of The Hills hold all the cards; their personalities are the reasons that millions of viewers tune in.

In scripted,as a producer,you have the ability to write a character out. But in reality,your talent often is the show,so they have a greater ability to use nonperformance as a lever to extract a better deal, said Michael Hirschorn,a former VH1 executive who now runs a production company,Ish Entertainment.

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When shows like Jersey Shore begin,they are essentially just experiments,and the average Joe cast members are paid accordingly.

After the season one finale of Jersey Shore was watched by a startlingly high 4.8 million viewers in the dead of winter,MTV immediately promised $10,000 an episode to the cast.

Some reality show participants apparently have grand ambitions. The Situation,a. k. a. Mike Sorrentino,was quoted in The Daily Beast Web site last week as saying that he had his eye on Hollywood,mentioning Dancing With the Stars ,meetings with movie studios and people calling for sitcoms.

MTV declined to comment on contractual details though.