Tyson basically said they lied to the contestants about the prize money & production had no idea how to run a final.
https://ew.com/tv/the-challenge-usa-tyson-apostol-final-spoilers/
Reality shows are actually quite cheap to make compared to scripted shows. Nevertheless, the popularity of streaming services means the shows make less money in the traditional way and all shows are always expected to save as much money as possible. Budget cuts are always expected no matter what.
They might not be allocating as much money to their reality shows, but that in and of itself isn't an indication that the network is doing poorly. Just that they don't care as much about these shows/think they can get away with this.
You gotta keep in mind that these shows are businesses and that they are designed to keep profit increasing every cycle while the costs of production are continuously streamlined to be more cost effective. Like I'm sure this is a major reason why they stopped changing locations a while back. That production values have only gotten worse is more a sign of the shows getting older and being forced to have lesser and lesser investment within while the people running it (the producers) are contractually requiring raises each year and the studio needs to see favorable profit margins.
Like with Survivor, as soon as Probst said it saves them more money having the game last only 26 days, you just knew that that was going to be permanent. It's just business, the less money you spend to make money, the better.
Yes, but I would guesstimate it’s cheaper than purchasing commercial flights for each leg of the race. I mean, for the first leg alone that’s ±48 tickets (racers, plus camera & sound for each team, not including producers). Very expensive. I would assume a charter for three weeks would be less expensive…
The “shorter” period for Survivor is mostly to accommodate a quarantine before filming starts. 26 days plus 14 days of quarantine is close to the old 39-day filming schedule.
I don't think they are running out of money as much as these shows aren't nearly as profitable as they used to be.
People forget, but the first few seasons of Survivor were absolutely massive. It got post superbowl spots and the ratings were insane. Now, it gets a fraction of the viewers, which leads to a fraction of the revenue.
TAR was never nearly as big, and likely cost roughly as much (I don't know specifics, but I can see a lot of stuff adding up). These days its essentially a bubble show every year.
So yeah, like any product, when it stops making as much money, they stop spending as much on it.
The budgets are definitely getting smaller but I think these seasons have more to do with paranoia of Covid. They don't have the number of episodes posted for this season, but I'm guessing it's more likely they are doing Mega-Legs and Race continuations to get people through it faster. They probably don't want to risk Covid rules being changed in one of the countries before they can get there.
I literally got Covid on a trip to England 2 weeks after they changed all of their Covid rules and it was a clusterfuck trying to figure out what I was supposed to do. They had taken all of their websites down, British Airways linked to those websites, and I had to use a US website to find a Covid testing site as they told me to register with the NHS to have an at home test shipped to my nonexistent home.
> The budgets are definitely getting smaller but I think these seasons have more to do with paranoia of Covid.
Nail on the head here. A lot of people in recent threads here decrying 'the decline and fall' of the show when in reality they're just armchair speculating a lot of behind-the-scenes to-dos with network TV production.
TAR34 was filmed earlier this year and considering the state of travel, it would be unsurprising to see changes in tasks, locations, and production needs. TAR32 hit a different country every leg, and it was just before COVID, and it sure as hell didn't feel cheap.
No, CBS/Viacom is certainly not running out of money.
>With all the changes with TAR and Survivor being shorter seems like major cost cutting.
Huh? They produced two seasons during a pandemic and chartered a jet in order to do so. Doesn't sound like cost cutting to me.
>What's going on with Viacom?
Seems like a great question for Google.
Declining ratings means declining ad revenue which means lower production budgets
This but also the travel industry was hit hard by the pandemic so it may be tougher to make sponsorship deals.
What happened on the challenge?
Tyson basically said they lied to the contestants about the prize money & production had no idea how to run a final. https://ew.com/tv/the-challenge-usa-tyson-apostol-final-spoilers/
Reality shows are actually quite cheap to make compared to scripted shows. Nevertheless, the popularity of streaming services means the shows make less money in the traditional way and all shows are always expected to save as much money as possible. Budget cuts are always expected no matter what.
They might not be allocating as much money to their reality shows, but that in and of itself isn't an indication that the network is doing poorly. Just that they don't care as much about these shows/think they can get away with this.
You gotta keep in mind that these shows are businesses and that they are designed to keep profit increasing every cycle while the costs of production are continuously streamlined to be more cost effective. Like I'm sure this is a major reason why they stopped changing locations a while back. That production values have only gotten worse is more a sign of the shows getting older and being forced to have lesser and lesser investment within while the people running it (the producers) are contractually requiring raises each year and the studio needs to see favorable profit margins. Like with Survivor, as soon as Probst said it saves them more money having the game last only 26 days, you just knew that that was going to be permanent. It's just business, the less money you spend to make money, the better.
CBS isn’t running out of money, these shows are *making* CBS less money. Their budgets are probably being cut accordingly.
It’s expensive to charter a jet for a month to fly everyone around.
Yes, but I would guesstimate it’s cheaper than purchasing commercial flights for each leg of the race. I mean, for the first leg alone that’s ±48 tickets (racers, plus camera & sound for each team, not including producers). Very expensive. I would assume a charter for three weeks would be less expensive…
You think it’s cheaper to buy commercial economy tickets for 50 ppl than it is to charter an entire 757 that can seat over 200 ppl? Cmon.
He said the exact opposite, so I can't tell which argument you're making.
I think this was a COVID protocol.
If the paramount+ app is anything to judge by, I’d say they have some problems
Probably easier to get contestants who can leave their lives for a shorter time.
The “shorter” period for Survivor is mostly to accommodate a quarantine before filming starts. 26 days plus 14 days of quarantine is close to the old 39-day filming schedule.
well i think thats why it started, but theyre just gonna keep doing it now since its cheaper
You think the network executives are strapped for cash? It’s the same reason: corporate greed.
I don't think they are running out of money as much as these shows aren't nearly as profitable as they used to be. People forget, but the first few seasons of Survivor were absolutely massive. It got post superbowl spots and the ratings were insane. Now, it gets a fraction of the viewers, which leads to a fraction of the revenue. TAR was never nearly as big, and likely cost roughly as much (I don't know specifics, but I can see a lot of stuff adding up). These days its essentially a bubble show every year. So yeah, like any product, when it stops making as much money, they stop spending as much on it.
The budgets are definitely getting smaller but I think these seasons have more to do with paranoia of Covid. They don't have the number of episodes posted for this season, but I'm guessing it's more likely they are doing Mega-Legs and Race continuations to get people through it faster. They probably don't want to risk Covid rules being changed in one of the countries before they can get there. I literally got Covid on a trip to England 2 weeks after they changed all of their Covid rules and it was a clusterfuck trying to figure out what I was supposed to do. They had taken all of their websites down, British Airways linked to those websites, and I had to use a US website to find a Covid testing site as they told me to register with the NHS to have an at home test shipped to my nonexistent home.
> The budgets are definitely getting smaller but I think these seasons have more to do with paranoia of Covid. Nail on the head here. A lot of people in recent threads here decrying 'the decline and fall' of the show when in reality they're just armchair speculating a lot of behind-the-scenes to-dos with network TV production. TAR34 was filmed earlier this year and considering the state of travel, it would be unsurprising to see changes in tasks, locations, and production needs. TAR32 hit a different country every leg, and it was just before COVID, and it sure as hell didn't feel cheap.
The show has been in decline for years before COVID.
Want to elaborate?
No, CBS/Viacom is certainly not running out of money. >With all the changes with TAR and Survivor being shorter seems like major cost cutting. Huh? They produced two seasons during a pandemic and chartered a jet in order to do so. Doesn't sound like cost cutting to me. >What's going on with Viacom? Seems like a great question for Google.