TV

Reality TV show writers want guild benefits of other writers

Reality bites, TV writers say.

Big Apple-based reality shows are actually scripted — and the “writers” want the same perks as unionized writers for some of the country’s most popular programs, industry scribes said at a City Hall hearing Wednesday.

Despite the so-called “real” nature of guilty-pleasure shows such as “Teen Mom” and “Real Housewives,” New York-based reality-show writers and producers craft story lines and even write dialog, members of the Writers Guild of America testified.

But unlike writers for popular scripted shows, such as “Law & Order” or “Saturday Night Live,” reality writer-producers sometimes work 80-hour weeks with no overtime or health care, the writers claimed.

“Perhaps the fact that reality television does not connote much culture makes us a little less sympathetic,” said Lauren Veloski, who has worked as a writer-producer for Bravo.

“Some of the shows are frivolous and throw-away, sure. But there is nothing frivolous or throw-away about the people breaking their backs to make these shows happen. Things must change.”

She and other industry veterans are pushing the City Council to regulate yet another industry — by passing a law that gives reality show “writer-producers” set schedules, health care and overtime checks.

The law would impact reality-TVs shows written or produced in the city.

Those shows include the Las Vegas-set pawn shop drama, “Pawn Stars,” “Real Housewives,” which tells the story of rich trophy wives and “First 48 in the Field,” which follows detectives in the hours immediately after a murder.

Roughly 15,000 New Yorkers work in “nonfiction” and “reality” TV, and 2,000 of them are writer-producers, according to the Writers Guild.

“Not everyone realizes that reality TV is actually written,” said Lowell Peterson, executive director of the Writers Guild of America East. “The shows we watch don’t just unfold in real time while the camera runs. Instead, writer-producers carefully craft the story lines. They write the narrative arc of each episode and season.”