'Reality' Sweatshops

Tuesday morning, a dozen workers from some of TV’s top reality shows, including American Idol, Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?, and American Inventor, filed 21 claims at an LA-area California labor office alleging that the producers of these shows owe them unpaid overtime and penalties that could total over $500,000.
Guess who was cheering these reality folks on from the office sidelines?
The Writer’s Guild!
The strike may technically be over, but the WGA still has some business to settle with those big media moguls.
The WGA made organizing reality TV workers a major issue during the writer’s strike, as well as animation writers, but that had to be abandoned in order to clinch a final settlement with the mogul meanies.
The mogul boys must be pissed that the union has resurfaced!
How dare they try and disrupt their reality money machines?!
The WGA did a study and found that 88% of reality writers work more than 40 hours a week, yet 91% receive no overtime pay. The study also found that 73% of respondents work through their meal break at least once a week. Most of the workers polled did not receive any form of health care or pension benefits. Yet analysts estimate that American Idol has earned over $200 million in profits for the Fox broadcast network.
“Despite the huge profits made by the companies that produce these shows, many of the workers ├óΓé¼ΓÇ£ including writers, production assistants, contestant coordinators, craft services, and office workers ├óΓé¼ΓÇ£ work long hours without receiving overtime compensation or being allowed to take proper breaks,” said a statement by the WGA.
Good luck to the reality workers who are fighting for fair compensation.
But, who’s gonna make big media change?
There’s always someone willing to work for ‘nothing’ to get their break in Hollywood!
[Image via WENN.]