On the subject of Peter Abbott here's an interview from 2017:
Peter Abbott, 60, is a veteran of Australian reality TV, having worked on the likes of Dancing with the Stars and I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! He was the original executive producer and voice of Big Brother. These days he's developing local and overseas projects with his production company, Freehand.
Big Brother was a real game-changer. What was it like making it?
Peter Abbott on making Big Brother: "All you have to do is change the environment, and people will behave differently."Credit:James Brickwood
I treated it like a wildlife film. It was a strictly observational piece about how humans behave. You are manipulating the environment, not the humans; all you have to do is change the environment, and people will behave differently. There was a belief that I was directing people to do certain things, but I never did that. You don't need to: people do much better things if you just leave them alone.
Audiences these days are more sophisticated in the way they watch reality TV, right?
Totally. They don't expect reality TV to be real, for a start. Kids these days watch it like we would have watched sitcoms like, say,
Friends. They are more aware of the techniques, and if those are done badly, they find it hilarious. I've had my kids ring me in hysterical laughter, saying, "We want to know who does the product placement on such and such a show, because it's so bad it's funny!"
I gather reality TV is cheap to make.
No, that's a complete myth. A show like
I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! can cost tens of millions to make.
Big Brother cost even more. Sometimes big reality shows actually lose money in their time-slot, but the network doesn't care so much because their audiences are really high, so the show becomes a great promotional platform for the rest of their schedule.
A good reality show can anchor the network, it boosts the rating of the shows that come after and the shows that come before, and that's how the expense is justified.
What's the secret to making good reality TV?
The really good reality shows follow the traditional docu-soap methodology, in that they only start editing after it all ends, so they know what the story is. This means they include the right episodes in the right spot, so that it builds like a normal narrative. But that's a luxury.
What do you mean?
Most reality TV shows are cut as the episodes are shot, which means you are always running the risk of getting a story wrong, or getting a character wrong, if you try to edit it too much. For example, I could cut this conversation we are having now so it appeared as if we had an unpleasant exchange.
But if I did that I would have to perpetuate that dynamic tomorrow, otherwise the story doesn't make sense. In a way, though, editing a show as it is being filmed can be a good thing, because it forces you to portray the characters as they truly are.
So how would you define reality TV?
There is no such genre as reality TV – it's an invention of the press. It's not a way of making a show, or even a style of show. There can be no such genre that includes
It's a Knockout, Survivor, and that amazing SBS show
Struggle Street. Then you have shows like
Australian Ninja Warrior, which I would say is a game show or sporting event more than reality TV.
What do you enjoy most about the process?
The characters, and the unpredictability. On
Big Brother, people would sometimes say, "Gee, that was a great piece of TV!" And I'd say, "Yeah, I just wish I'd thought of it."
