Reality Shows - The Pitch Meeting
How can I get a pitch meeting with a network?
One way to get in front of the network is to have an agent who represents you and promises the network that they are not waisting their time meeting with you. Another way to get in front of a network is to have such an enormous reputation that you don't need an agent - they know who you are or the like a show you've produced somewhere. Some will experiment and poke around on the Internet. Some network executives will see something they like on YouTube and say, "I have to meet that guy," and they will call somebody in for a meeting that way. It is unlikely that you'll get a meeting with a network by sending them something. Usually they either have to find you, because if you have talent, they will find you. If you're putting yourself out there in general and you have talent and popularity, and some already rising popularity either on YouTube or MySpace, or if you have some way of showing America your talent, they will find you. The people who can make money on you will find you.
What are the various levels of network executives?
When you're pitching a television show you may be pitching to someone so powerful that they have the ability to actually greenlight a series, which is basically the ability to sign checks for millions of dollars. Usually a television series costs anywhere from one to ten million dollars, in the case of some network shows, so it's a lot of money. It has to be a very powerful person at the network to have that kind of power. Often, you'll be pitching to someone a step down from that, who has the power to pilot, which is usually the power to sign checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In that case, you're pitching to at least somebody, though, who can spend some money. There's another level down which is when you're pitching to someone who has absolutely no ability to spend money but they do have the ability to hear a pitch like it and then go to their bosses and say, "I just heard a pitch I liked, I think we should look into it," and get you further down the road.
Is it worthwhile to pitch a reality show to a lower-level executive?
Pitching to a lower level executive, or somebody who isn't a green light person, is often just a reality of pitching as a new person in the reality show business. It does not mean that you should not do it. If you can't get a meeting with the green light person, take the meeting with the lower level person because it's better to pitch, and pitch in a timely fashion, than wait to hope that maybe the president will see you in a year. It just doesn't make sense and often the green light person won't even take a pitch meeting.
How should I pitch if the person I'm meeting is a lower-level executive?
There's not much difference in pitching a reality show to a lower level executive and pitching to a green light high level executive. The difference to me is that at the end of the meeting you have to understand that person has to explain your show to somebody else. I think the most important thing in those lower level meetings is to make sure that you've got them excited. Then you have a second step, which is make sure they can almost repeat back to you what the reality show is or that they fully understand it. Often you can get so excited that you think your job is done and you leave. When they try to explain it to their boss and they fumble over it because it was a week later and it was a development meeting and they blow the pitch for you. It's really important to spend a little extra time, if you can in those lower level meetings, and talk about the project more and make sure they really understand what you're selling so they can then explain it further up.
Can I insist on meeting with a high-level executive when pitching a reality show?
Of course you want to pitch your reality show to the highest level person you possibly can at the network, but depending on your level you may not get that big meeting. Top producers with long track records who have had many successful series can often push and get themselves in the room with very high level executives. Junior producers who don't have as big of a track record, who are not that well known, who maybe aren't walking in the door with a big talent sitting next to them - some kind of A-list celebrity or something - probably won't get that big meeting and may only get somebody who can't even spend money. But it doesn't matter. I recommend that you pitch your reality show, get a meeting at a network and pitch to the highest level person you can, but don't try and lever yourself into higher meetings. Another thing that happens sometimes is that people think that they want to sit in front of the person who can greenlight the show, and they don't want to take lower level meetings. What that can actually do is anger the people who you are telling, "I don't want the meeting with you, I want the meeting with your boss." You can get to a place where the people that you're angering can torpedo you even if you eventually get that meeting with the boss. They're the ones in the room after you walk out and if they say, "I don't like that guy," then they can torpedo your whole project. It's better just to be friendly and take the meeting with who you can. If you can do it in a nice way and say, "I'd like to get as many people in the room as possible" or "I'd like to get this as high level meeting as I can," it's not that insulting a thing to say, but to push repeatedly for it can be insulting.
How can I tell who the power player is in a pitch meeting?
When you go into a room to pitch a reality show, often you will be in a room with several network executives, and often you won't actually know them all. Sometimes they'll trick you - not on purpose, but sometimes someone bigger might be in the room. It happens to me sometimes, too, where the meeting is with one person but then they're brought into a room and there's more than that person there and you may not even be sure who everybody is. It is OK to ask everybody's title. They should introduce themselves with their title. You're going have to go with titles to work out the power player at the network; you're going to have to know whether directors are higher than managers, whether VPs are higher than executive VPs. It's that simple. I would definitely recommend, though, if you're going in to pitch a network, that you should really know the flowchart of that network. You should know the names of everybody's boss, and everybody's boss's boss. If you don't know that, you're going to have a little trouble in the early phases of the meeting, which is often chit-chat about what the boss just told them they're looking for, or the fact that their boss just got fired, or the fact that there's a new boss in town. You need to know all of that stuff; you need to be educated on who you're pitching to. People at networks like to be known. They like to have people come in who know what they're doing and who they are. It's not that hard to research prior to your network pitch meeting. You should know who everybody is. up to the president of the network.
Do I need to have tape to show when pitching a reality show?
Many production companies pitch reality shows completely verbally. Many production companies pitch with a tape or a demo or a presentation of some sort that they produce. I tend to lean towards verbal pitching, because I believe that the executives imagine what they like. As you're describing a show to them, they're imagining good-looking people to them, they're imagining their favorite colors, they're imagining their favorite location and they get in their own head a vision of what the reality show is; and then they feel like they own it more, they understand it more, and they like it more. If you commit to demonstrating your vision for the reality show - and often it's not even really your vision for the show, because it was done so low-budget and you didn't have the cameras you wanted, and you don't have the right cast - you're probably hurting yourself. You're probably showing them something less than what it could be, frozen in a way that they don't necessarily like: it's not their favorite color, it's not their favorite location, it's not their favorite-looking person - you could actually hurt yourself. There are times - and I've done it, too - where a presentation tape really helps when pitching a reality show to a network. If you're trying to convince them that a talent that you're working with is somebody really great, often somebody sitting in a meeting, at a pitch, is not the same as they are going to be on television. If you're trying to, for example, pitch a comedian, often in meetings they are not funny. In a sense it's a professional pride that they don't turn on the jokes just because it's a meeting. So often it helps a comedian, if you're pitching with a comedian, to have a tape of either their stand-up act, or them doing the funny thing that you're pitching that this comedian can do. Sometimes that helps make it so that if you are pitching a person who's being professional in the room, you can show them being silly on television and so everybody in the room can understand what you're pitching.
What's the secret to selling a show?
I think the secret to selling a reality show at a network pitch meeting, to get somebody to go to the next step, is really being compelling and entertaining. Television is entertainment. Ratings come from entertaining shows, that people like to watch because they're entertained by them. If you can make your pitch entertaining, people can imagine that your television show is entertaining. The biggest secret I can give you is be entertaining in your pitch, in the same way that your television show is. If you're pitching a bawdy, off-color television show, then be bawdy, and off-color, and entertaining, and get them going, and get them to understand what your show is. If you're pitching something that's thoughtful, intriguing, and dramatic, then make them feel that way in the pitch to the network. Take them and tell them the story. Take them down the road. Surprise them with the ending. Give them a little piece of the experience, of what the show is, and you will probably get them excited enough to buy it. Unfortunately, you will probably not sell your show, but at least you tried.