What is reality show 'formatting'?

What is reality show 'formatting'?

Sometimes you'll pitch a television show as just an idea for a show, and the question often comes back, "How does that continue as a series? I see how that's a great episode of television, but how does that become episode 2, 3, 4 through 10, and then what does that become season after season after season?" You have to be able to pitch the network the idea that there's a format here that continues, that it doesn't matter who the particular cast is, or it doesn't matter what the particular questions are in my game show, or it doesn't matter what the particulars are of it. The fact that it's just a concept that you can repeat with a new cast, or with new questions, or repeat over and over again, makes it a format. Customers like to buy formats because they see it as something that can go into the future. You only have to launch it once and then it continues into the future. Networks don't like, in general, buying something that just works once and that can never be repeated, because it's a very expensive thing to launch a television show and they'd like to launch a television show and have it keep going.