Want to see what works in a Reality Show and what doesn’t? Take a look at the list of Emmy nominations in the categories for Outstanding Structured Reality Program and Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program.
Depending on which type of show you are developing you can see here what works, and more importantly, HOW it works.
Record (PVR, DVR, VHS, whatever works for you) these shows and break them down scene by scene to see what they are doing that makes these shows so watchable. Watch how they combine the characters and settings and how the stories evolve out of these situations.
When working your way through episodes of these shows take note of what happens in every scene. Notice that in these award winning shows you won’t find many scenes (if any) that aren’t pushing the story-line forward.
Once you’ve worked your way through these shows go back to your show and script out an episode (it’s a lot easier when you’ve seen what they do). You’ll find a lot of gaps and holes where your idea hasn’t been fully fleshed out. Now you can decide what needs to go in these holes so that when the Execs ask “So what happens in your show” you have a better answer than simply rephrasing the show title into a longer sentence.
It’s a lot of work to go through full episodes of other shows to see how they’ve constructed them but the payoff for educating yourself by reviewing other people’s successful work is huge.
You should be able to takeaway story, character development, stakes, and the structure they use to tie it all together to improve your knowledge on how to develop your show idea into a clearly developed TV show.