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“Hated” Reality TV contestants told to ‘blame the editing’

Ex-Reality contestants likely to face an audience backlash are told by producers to just blame them for poor editing.

pabbReality TV contestants who were loathed by audiences are told by Producers to blame the show for editing them badly.

Original Big Brother producer Peter Abbott told ABC’s Reality Check that contestants who were likely to face an audience backlash upon their eviction to blame the editing, in order to make their post-show life easier.

“On a show like Big Brother we used to tell them to say that. If they’d made a mess of their time in the house, the psychologist first thing (when) they came out of the house, before they did any interviews would say, ‘Just say we edited you badly,'” he told host Tom Ballard.

“When they come out, it doesn’t go so well sometimes. They don’t like it about themselves, so it’s easier to be able to say ‘It was the editing.’

Abbott also said too many stunts on Big Brother risked jeopardising the original format of the show.

“If you create an expectation amongst the contestants there will be a stunt, they don’t just get on with their everyday life and they wait for the excitement of the stunt.

“And the audience does the same thing.”

Abbott said too many stunts shifted the show from a zoo to a circus.

12 Responses

  1. even though i dont watch any reality i do enjoy RC it was a great episode last night the real or fake segement is quite funny even though there is only one real one i can just imagine most of the fake ones would be stupid enough to be real!!! quite an insight into what goes on behind the scenes of big brother i would love to see gretel as a guest panelist one night

  2. Like others here I thought last night’s was a good show, but did anyone else think that the usually excellent Poh was rather over the top with her reactions?
    At one point I thought she was going to laugh herself off her seat.

  3. I watched last week’s ep and the problem with Julian was the host only asked him about whatever clips they were showing. Tom should be really trying to get the lowdown from his guests, not ask their reactions to overseas formats. This show would be better if it focused on a genre each week. Imagine asking Julian his thoughts on House Rules. Much better tele!

  4. Very good episode last night, prob the best of the series!

    I have to disagree with Dicko though, I am very sure they scripted Idol here too, there are the DVD’s that came out early in the series (i have both :p) that have the “Best of the Worst” and there is one contestant where Dicko trots out a killer line of “This is a pen, not a magic wand” to a contestant who just butchered “Shine”, great line, until I did a bit of digging and saw that Simon Cowell had also used it previously on the US Idol…. welcome to Franchise Reality…. would you like to upgrade your fries with that 🙂

  5. I really enjoyed last nights Ep too. Obviously because I’m a reality Fan, I watch the Block and BB on Wednesday nights, but it’s become a tradion to then watch Reality Check on Iview in bed.

    Great panel last night! Poh is wonderful and we saw some great insights from Dicko and Peter.

  6. It was a very good episode last night, I’m glad I stuck with this show. I like hearing the insider info we don’t normally get to hear, like how Dicko mentioned that the US Idol judges have scripts.
    Peter Abbott was correct in his comments about the BB stunts, it completely takes away the true observational aspect of people living their daily lives trapped in a large house with 12+ strangers. Apart from the casting of BB in recent years, these stunts have been a major turn off for me to not continue with the show since around season 4.
    Interesting to hear how they edit Survivor too, but thinking about it, it makes the most sense to edit after it’s all been filmed rather than on a daily basis.

  7. Agreed Reality Check is slowly improving. I hope its producers heed Peter Abbott’s advice too – less “stunts” (ie. less silly segments like “real or fake”, less overseas freak bits) and more discussion and insight into Australian reality shows. This is when it’s at its most interesting.

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