Authors: Emmalee Helms, Kristy Klixbull, Varnell Moffett, and Dora Pu.

This is part 2 of a two-part series exploring research and recommendations for the unscripted video industry. Part 1 includes 4 case studies highlighting trends in the industry.

The landscape of the unscripted video industry is changing. Part 1 of this series explores four case studies demonstrating the current landscape and what features are most appealing to audiences. In this section, the researchers look to experts in the video industry and fans to explore how the landscape is changing and what content providers should expect. This research is applicable to any content provider of unscripted videos. Furthermore, this research serves as an excellent study for understanding what audiences are seeking from the entertainment industry. Many elements of this research could be used to inform artistic planning and production decisions for various audiences.

Trends from Inside the Industry

In order to understand trends in the industry, the research team conducted interviews of professionals working within the entertainment industry, with a focus on individuals who hold, or have held, positions in the unscripted television landscape. The group leveraged relationships with current entertainment industry professionals to determine what the top entertainment companies are doing to stay on top in the unscripted television landscape. Interviewing professionals from such companies as Netflix, Viacom, Disney, etc. helped to develop insights on how the industry views unscripted content and its future.

Netflix Manager of Unscripted & Comedy Physical Production

A Netflix manager on the physical production team conveyed a strong belief that the future of unscripted content is documentary-style, cause-driven content. As Netflix grows into a company that produces more content in-house, the company is trending toward high production value unscripted content with a docu-style tone. Currently, the greatest competitor of this type of content is HBO, but will likely shift to Apple and Disney streaming services in the future. She also believes more content should be made to serve minority groups, as their content preferences have not been fully acknowledged. She believes Netflix specifically needs to create unscripted content that engages younger audiences, using programming strategies to promote new content such as women-centric content during women’s history month.

As for the current unscripted landscape, she believes the most popular themes of unscripted television are long oversaturated in celebrity stories. She believes there is a lot of room in the market for unscripted wellness docs, representing a change to unscripted content that is educational, immediately applicable to life, and shows the audience how to be proactive and sustainable given the current issues we are facing. This could be represented by the recent Netflix show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.

Business and Legal Affairs Executive – Viacom

An anonymous executive from Viacom’s Business and Legal Affairs department was interviewed who has been in their current position for the past 11 years. The executive believes that in the future, there are two main trends that will be popular in unscripted content: the first is an increased attraction to documentary style content and the second is content with more involved spectacle that is difficult to produce. The prior trend will exist because the public audience is seeking more real and authentic content. The latter trend will exist because this type of content has always been underserved. There is also content the executive believes has been over-served on the market, such as gaming shows or shows that have competitive factors. This type of content is popular, but saturated.

Disney/ Former TV Development at Paramount Pictures

This interviewee noted that the shows tends to host a lot of drama and confrontation; the shows present negativity. These shows mainly focus on love and relationships failing. He found this to be true in many reality shows on VH1 that follow the lives of individuals or celebrities. He stated that, “drama is the key quality that feeds the ratings.” He added that, “Many unscripted television shows that have high ratings are usually universally relatable stories.” He also believes that unscripted shows cater to a particular audience, and that unscripted content on broadcast networks tends to be targeted toward the family-oriented audience. Examples of these shows are The Masked Singer, The Voice, American Idol and Survivor.

This interviewee added that a potential way to attract a new audience to unscripted television is to create content for underserved communities. He stated that, “In America, unscripted television rarely caters to minority audiences; the Asian and Indian community are two large communities in the United States that do not have unscripted television catered to their communities. Adding diversity to the unscripted television landscape can help improve the television content. Kids are also underserved in the unscripted television landscape.”

Assistant Editor in Unscripted Content

An assistant editor of unscripted content who has worked in the industry for six years was interviewed. He sees unscripted television moving towards formats that are more dramatic in nature and with greater spectacle. He believes that audiences are drawn to higher production quality and dramatic flair. Shows like The Masked Singer will continue to increase in popularity because people can enjoy a fun and exciting experience from their living room couches. Not only is the show spectacular, but it offers a competition aspect that audiences love. True crime genres have also been increasing in popularity; shifting from shows that follow the lives of popular celebrities. In general, unscripted shows allow viewers to turn off their brains for a bit while they watch the show. He stated that because reality television allows people to use less brain power, its popularity will remain a constant.

Former Television Agent

This interviewee not only works in the unscripted landscape, but loves watching the content as well. One thing she is seeing more in the unscripted landscape is the increased emphasis on spectacle. However, with big spectacle comes higher production budgets. Audiences need the adrenaline and excitement that comes with big spectacles to stay enthralled and attached. Another important aspect is making sure the show has a fast pace so that the audience doesn’t get bored, and that the show is hitting major plot points. Audiences of unscripted shows enjoy certain plot points and look for them while they are watching the shows, so without these it is hard for a show to be successful. International shows, particularly Korean shows, are also big hits with American unscripted fans. The job of producers and content creators in America is to make shows “bigger and better.”

During these interviews with professionals in the unscripted content landscape, several individuals predict docu-style formatting is gaining popularity, and Netflix and a few other major studios have already started participating in this trend. This follows the trend where audiences demand high production value unscripted content that is also verifiable true stories. The professionals interviewed agree that the audience is beginning to tire of the traditional formula of simply letting a camera crew follow around a glamorous celebrity. Consumers want to watch content that doesn’t just display problems within the current society, but gives solutions and shows viewers how to improve themselves and society. Although audience of unscripted content still seeking to escape, they are now demanding authenticity of content.

Public Survey Results and Opinions

This research also utilized a public survey and fan interviews. A survey to identify behavior and preferences of the general public was distributed online via a survey link. The team collected 107 completed surveys. Out of 107 individual responses, 70.8% of respondents were female and 79.2% of respondents identified as white/Caucasian. Of the 107 respondents, 68.2% reside in the Eastern and/or Southern regions of the United States. While the survey is not statistically significant, it offered some insights.

From the survey results alone, the team observed that most people watching reality television are between the ages of 18 and 28. Most younger survey respondents are consumers of unscripted content. Many of the survey respondents were under the age of 28, and a large majority were female. This may indicate that females are more open and willing to speak about their reality television preferences. This may also be a result of the lack of unscripted content for men, and therefore, men may simply not have anything to say about unscripted content.

The most popular show among survey participants was The Bachelor: 22.4% reported watching the show and 13.3% reported it as their favorite show. This may be because The Bachelor was in the middle of a new season when the survey was launched. Competition shows received more votes than any other format, with 37.1% of the survey respondents stating they are specifically drawn to shows with a competition aspect.

Figure 1: A chart showing the top reasons why people what reality shows. Source: Authors.

When it comes to favorite genre of television shows, most participants selected options that fall into the unscripted category: game shows, award shows, and sports. However, one-hour dramas received the most votes, indicating that drama is a priority for audiences. Cast member personalities were a major factor in why participants watch reality television, as 47.9% of respondents answered that a deciding factor for watching a show is the personalities of the leading characters. The lack of seriousness in the subject matter was a close second with 46.8% of respondents agreeing it is a factor. People want to be entertained, relax, and escape from their own reality with someone else’s reality.

According to the survey results, most people watch unscripted content at least a few times a month while 5.6% claim to watch unscripted content every day. Although nearly 75% of respondents watch unscripted content at least a few times a month, most of the viewers do not watch intently, and rather view unscripted content to unwind and give their mind a rest. Only 5.7% of respondents answered that they watch unscripted content “very intently,” while 18.1% claim to watch “not intently at all.”

Figure 2: A breakdown of how often survey participants watch reality television. Source: Authors.

Even though the world of television content is moving from the traditional cable subscription model to an over the top (OTT) model, most people still watch unscripted content on their televisions, claiming they would not subscribe to a SVOD platform just for the unscripted content.

Figure 3: A breakdown of how intently survey participants report watching reality television. Source: Author.

In a world where ‘cord-cutters’ and ‘cord-nevers’ are consistently growing in number, unscripted content seems to be lagging in the transition. As many unscripted shows use the weekly release strategy to build anticipation for the show, SVOD platforms have yet to master the art of creating the community and weekly buzz traditional networks have always utilized for unscripted content.

As many younger viewers only have access to SVOD platforms instead of traditional cable subscriptions, unscripted content will soon have to develop a new model. In order to capture the younger audience in the unscripted landscape, networks will have to learn to adapt in an SVOD market. Even though unscripted television is not evolving as quickly as scripted content, big streaming companies such as Netflix are beginning to create high quantities of unscripted content that have attracted high audiences.

Conclusions and Recommendations

NBCUniversal enjoys the largest market share of unscripted viewers and owns the four most popular networks our respondents like to watch; 30.9% of respondents claim to watch unscripted content on NBC, along with E! at 30.9%, and Bravo at 17.5%. NBC and E! are tied as the most successful networks under the NBCUniversal umbrella. The top two networks for consuming unscripted content were broadcast channels: ABC and NBC. Because much of the content on these two channels are family oriented, this may suggest that the more family-oriented the content the greater the audience it will attract.

According to the research, unscripted shows with high in dramatic content are preferred by audiences. The research results indicate that audience members are beginning to lean more toward shows that offer significant spectacle with large production budgets. These types of shows offer viewers an exciting experience that they can enjoy form the comfort of their homes. From speaking with industry professionals, it is concluded that documentary style shows may be a popular trend in the coming years as audience members are attracted to its authenticity.

We recommend studios that offer unscripted content focus on creating content that has higher production value to create more drama and spectacle. In addition, it is suggested they create shows viewers will think are authentic; shows that are more like documentaries in nature.

The research uncovered that SVOD is the best way to reach a younger audience. During the fan interviews, young professionals stated that they watch unscripted content on Smart TVs and consume content through streaming services. With this finding, we recommend studios create non-competition shows on streaming platforms to reach more millennials. They can make the experience more authentic for viewers and release one episode per week to build anticipation and excitement, similar to watching through a cable package.

Finally, it was discussed in the fan interviews that men are an underserved audience because reality shows usually target females. The survey results indicated that men watch mostly sports and competition-based shows. Another conclusion, garnered through an interview with an industry leader, is that minority cultural groups are also underserved. Based on these findings, we recommend studios create more content for male audiences, such as sport or competition related shows. They may also consider creating multi-cultural family-oriented content for men to watch with their families, and to better serve minority groups.

In summary, we determined that when it comes to formats of unscripted television there are 3 conclusions. First, drama, production value, and documentary style shows are expected to grow in popularity. Second, millennials are most likely to consume content through an SVOD platform. Finally, both men and culturally diverse groups are growth opportunities to consider moving forward. These usefulness of these findings can be extended beyond the unscripted television industry, and may be useful for any entertainment or arts programming as audiences continue to change.

About the Authors

This analysis was part of a capstone project by CMU Master of Entertainment Management Students: Emmalee Helms, Kristy Klixbull, Varnell Moffett, and Dora Pu.