-
Reality show secret-keeping
Someone who looks a lot like me watched the final episode of Survivor last night, and he has some questions he wants me to ask:
How on earth do they keep it a secret? I have read that the producers make the contestants sign scary contracts with $5 million penalties for blabbing. I could understand a rich person, someone who has assets he wants to keep, being intimidated by a contract with a huge financial penalty attached — but the show also has young yoga instructors with, presumably, very little to lose. Just think of the gambling interests who could make millions from a few well-timed clues.
Just curious. This applies to many of the reality shows.
— Bob C
-
3 Replies
-
It really is that $5 mil NDA. That is DARN intimidating. When you are young, having a $30,000 debt to a credit card company is huge…imagine $5 mil.
That and if you give up the secret and are caught, you will never be known as a trustworthy person. And let me tell you, the world of reality TV and the circle of people who work on them is pretty small. They all know each other.
Look at how much press Richard (the guy who won the first show) is getting for not paying his taxes!
Shane
Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net -
[Shane Ross] “It really is that $5 mil NDA. That is DARN intimidating. When you are young, having a $30,000 debt to a credit card company is huge…imagine $5 mil.”
I don’t see why, if declaring bankruptcy wipes the slate clean. I suspect that there is a social engineering aspect to this question — that there is some psychological process among the contestants which helps the network keep the secret. Perhaps the contestants are even selected through psychological testing based in part on their ability to keep a secret in mind.
Absent some such angle, it’s very puzzling to me how merely monetary penalties could enforce secrecy. After all, many people run up unpayable credit card debt.
— Bob C.
-
I can think of 10 people off the top that’d have their spouce file for bankrupcy the day they arrived on the island – for just that purpose!
______
/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up