By Jenna Bagcal
On any given day of the week, millions of people sit down on their couches with some good snacks, and tune into their favorite reality TV shows. But what many people might not know is the amount of hard work and dedication that goes into the production of each show. Whether it’s Keeping Up with the Kardashians, American Idol, or The Bachelor, massive teams of people put in hundreds of man hours every week to make these shows possible — and the cast and crew of these shows will be honored at the 3rd annual Reality TV Awards on May 13. In this celebrity interview, the founders of these awards, Kristen Moss and Andrew Ward, discuss the production of the award show, who we can expect to see, and the future of reality TV.
Reality TV Awards Founders Discuss Awards Show Process
As it approaches its third year, plans for The Reality TV Awards are bigger than ever. Moss and Ward, the founders and executive producers of these awards say that there is a lot to expect in terms of number of guests and a few other surprises.
“This year we’re going to have over 700 attendees.” Says Ward. “The first year we had about four or five hundred, so it’s grown a lot. We even have the cast of Dance Moms coming and the full cast of Deadliest Catch. It’s really exciting to see the variation of cast members that are coming to this because all of your favorite reality TV shows in one room is almost like a reality TV show in itself!”
Moss adds that in addition to reality television stars, a great number of networks and production companies will be in attendance that night. “Essentially how we start out is we call production companies and networks, and we have them submit their shows to the categories.” She says. “So as we’ve grown, we’ve seen the support of each of those production companies and networks, which is really important to us. We’re inviting all of them to come this year to show how it [the awards] benefits their shows, their company, the networks, and how their fans are really supportive of them.”
Related Link: Will Chris Soules Be Tuning in to Watch His Celebrity Exes on ‘The Bachelorette’ Season 11?
Another development in this year’s awards is the increase of fan involvement. This year marks the first time when fans can attend the award show as well as stream it live online. The venue for the show is the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills, which Ward says makes this possible. “The great thing about this year is being in a bigger venue, so we added a fan section. We have a very limited amount of tickets on sale to the public, but this gives the public a chance to see what’s actually inside the show, which has never been done before.”
In addition, Ward says the live stream of the awards will not only give fans a chance to feel like they’re guests, but also to get a backstage look of the event. “It’s going to be the nitty gritty, we’re not going to hide anything, and we know that people love to see everything there is to do backstage.”
Related Link: Reality TV Stars Kirk and Laura Knight Share Tragic News
Moss and Ward are two people who know the world of reality television very well, especially how much work goes into the production of a TV show. Although audiences only get to view the final product, they reveal that there are hundreds of people working to make things run smoothly.
“I worked on Master Chef for a couple seasons,” says Ward, “and a lot of people don’t realize that you have 150 crew members working behind [the scenes.] There’s actually so many people that it takes to film a given episode, which is why we do these awards. It’s recognizing the talent on screen, but also the entire team of people that work behind them.”
Moss says that for this reason, her favorite award show category is “Bad Ass Crew,” which honors the behind-the-scenes crew of reality TV. “It really gives a nod to the production crew who has to endure the hours and temperatures of whatever world they’re put into. A lot of time when people are watching these shows, they don’t think about the guy who’s capturing these moments. But there is somebody out there capturing the moments and putting their own life in danger, whether they get recognized or not.”
Kristen Moss and Andrew Ward Discuss the Future of Reality TV in Celebrity Interview
After being in the reality television industry, Moss says that the new trend for future shows will be “risk” based shows, specifically in the realm of dating shows. She discusses that the show Married at First Sight falls into this category. “I think what it is with Married at First Sight is, it’s a wedding, but what’s going to be so shocking at this wedding is that these people are meeting for the first time.”
Ward adds that the show has a huge fan-base who are extremely active on social media. “There are a lot of fan groups for it, and we follow them. I saw a post today that people wanted to know how the couples from season 1 are doing because it’s such a faux pas concept, and that’s what reality TV really is. They want to see if something like that can actually work.”
Related Link: ‘American Idol’ Artist Quentin Alexander Says Communication Is Most Important in Relationships
When asked about the future of reality show concepts, the pair said that creators will never run out of original ideas. “Any time I think they’re going to run out of ideas, somebody approaches us or with a new idea, even if it’s a game show, that I had no idea could be possible.” Says Ward.
Watch the Reality TV Awards live on realitytelevisionawards.com at 9PM EST/6PM PST on May 13.
