Attachment Agreements in Unscripted Television/Reality Shows, Generally

Agreement

This information will be useful to the following folks:

  1. Producers considering an unscripted television series without the desire to spend exorbitant amounts of money;
  1. People who are prospective on-camera talent that have received an Attachment Agreement (or a so-called “Shopping Agreement”); and,
  1. People with a general thirst for insight into the infancy of a new unscripted/reality television platform (i.e., maybe you’re just someone curious what an “Attachment Agreement” is).

Here’s the hypothetical:

A Producer is interested in developing a Reality TV show. If she is reasonably far enough along in the ideation stage, and has more or less excluded the “competition” type of Reality TV show (e.g., King of the Nerds, America’s Got Talent, etc.), then her idea probably falls into the category where she believes that she can sell to a Network one of the following platforms:

  1. A show about a specific person (e.g., The Osbournes, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, etc.) ;
  2. A show about a specific group or type of person (e.g., Real Housewives of any City, etc.); or,
  3. A show about a particular preexisting business (Rob Dyrdrek’s Fantasy Factory, etc.)

Obviously, once our Producer has settled on a concept, she must seek out the services of on-camera talent that can carry her concept, and an eye for talent can make the difference between being a person with a great idea versus a producer with television shows on the air.

The importance of the talent here should not be underestimated and perhaps a comparison between scripted television and unscripted television is in order. With scripted TV, a producer relies on professional writers (generally a WGA member who already has a track record or shows on the air) and actors (most of which are members of SAG-AFTRA). By contrast, in unscripted reality shows, the on-camera talent must carry the show (rather than the writer or a known actor).

Once our Producer has decided on the talent, the Attachment Agreement is presented to them. This does not mean that our Producer is guaranteeing that a show will be produced. However, the Attachment Agreement serves the purpose of creating a binding and exclusive relationship between the our Producer and the proposed on-camera talent which allows the Producer to shop the project to Network buyers. Although the exclusivity period is limited (the Attachment Agreement is just a “Shopping Agreement” after all), on average terms will be 6-9 months, and on the extreme range tie up the talent for a couple of years. Unless the clout of the would-be on-camera talent is world class (think: a star that can validly argue that the exclusivity would prevent them from accepting the many other offers they have on the table), all of this is promised to Producer for free.

Yet, this exclusivity (i.e., “attaching talent to a reality show the Producer wants to pitch to a Network, and only to the Producer’s reality show”) is necessary because of how congested the present landscape of reality television is. Producers and networks are more interested in airing unscripted programming than ever, and the competition for fascinating families, businesses, online personas, etc. can be fierce. Even, it is quite likely that by the time she has discovered talent she believes can carry a show, that the same talent will have likely been approached by competing production companies.

So, where does all of that leave the talent? Generally, shrewd talent—even talent that has never been on-camera before—will engage entertainment counsel to review and negotiate terms of the Attachment Agreement. Obviously, it is in Producer’s best interest to have the duration of the exclusive shopping period be as long as possible, and the opposite is true for the talent.

Entertainment counsel for the talent will attempt to keep the term as short as possible—after all, an Attachment Agreement may prospectively bind their client to exclusivity for more than a year and getting out of a legally binding document is never as easy as getting into one. Sometimes the premise of an unscripted show may involve the talent’s preexisting intellectual property (think: the “business” type of talent concept I brought up earlier), causing the stakes of negotiation to be much higher. It is therefore imperative that the talent understands the potential serious implications relating to signing an Attachment Agreement. The good news is, generally anyway, a Producer will be willing to agree to waive the exclusivity requirement for any scripted shows or other forms of broadcast that do not rise get in the way of the exclusivity to the “unscripted” format (this is helpful for news anchors, presenters, panelists, etc., who do often engage in speaking gigs).

Once the talent has executed the Producer’s Attachment Agreement, the Producer can begin to develop the idea into a more tangible medium (usually a “sizzle reel”) to shop the concept to a Network. If a Producer lands a Network buyer, the talent will continue to be “attached” if the Network and Producer decide to engage the talent’s services (and another contract will be required setting out payment, more broad releases by talent to Producer, and other terms that are generally contingent on a Producer-Network side contract that talent will not be a party to).

The above information is provided to be informative but does not constitute legal advice. If you are a Producer looking for an enforceable Attachment Agreement, or talent who has received an Attachment Agreement looking to get the most out of your negotiations with a Producer, by all means you should engage your own, independent entertainment counsel.