According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bethenny Frankel (The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, Bethenny Ever After), former star of Real Housewives of New York, is calling for a reality TV strike. With the SAG-AFTRA and WGA double strike entering its first week, networks have filled their schedule with unscripted reality TV.
“Hollywood is on strike, entertainers are fighting for residuals and no one will promote anything. Why isn’t reality TV on strike?” she asked. “During the last writer’s strike, we were providing all the entertainment, and that’s really when the gold rush of reality TV started.”
According to Frankel, she was only paid 7,250 dollars for her first season of reality TV, and she called for reality stars to stop filming “until their free content is down.”
“I have never made a single residual,” she said. “So either I’m missing something, or we’re getting screwed too.”
Frankel also called for a potential union. “We’ve always been the losers,” she said. “Unscripted talent aka ‘reality stars’ should have a union or simply be treated fairly and valued.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, one of their sources pushed back against this idea. The source says reality stars are compensated in a “different way. The cast members use the platform to grow businesses and brands, and Bethenny did just that. She’s still making plenty off of a show she hasn’t been on in years by launching a podcast that’s dedicated to the Housewives.”
Frankel has pushed back against the idea that reality stars receive appropriate compensation from exposure. “The mentality that we were nobodies and that these streamers and networks have given us platforms and that we can capitalize on them is also moronic,” she said. “From @snooki to @laurenconrad to @kaitlynbristowe to myself, reality tv has generated millions of dollars and entertained people GLOBALLY and my name and likeness and content are used for years to come for free on episodes where I was paid peanuts for my work.”