Bethenny Frankel Might Be On to Something: Reality TV Lawyers Say NDAs Are the Problem

By Emma Chance | TV | August 25, 2023 |

By Emma Chance | TV | August 25, 2023 |

Bethenny Frankel has been on a mission to unionize reality TV talent lately, but apparently, she isn’t the first person to have the idea (though I’m sure she would dispute that).

The previous Writers Guild of America strike was in 2007-08, and it was during that time that reality TV was first blowing up. The WGA “had been trying for years to organize the people who craft the stories on unscripted series.” (Hollywood Reporter) They were trying to organize producers and crew members and not the focus of Frankel’s efforts, talent. “The guild ultimately dropped that deal point to resolve the strike, but it still pursued administrative claims and lawsuits for alleged wage and hour violations on reality series.”

Now, attorneys Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos want to restart the conversation. Freedman and Gergaros allege that their unnamed clients have been “mentally, physically and financially victimized” while working in reality TV and talent is “fueled with alcohol, deprived of food and sleep and denied mental health treatment.” They claim the powers that be are getting away with such treatment because of the nondisclosure agreements that both talent and crew are required to sign.

Reality TV NDAs are supposed to protect the confidentiality of major plot points in shows. Freedman and Geragos think they also protect workplace misconduct. “The contracts are notorious for including threats of steep financial penalties, known as liquidated damages, for any breaches.”

Networks aren’t incentivized to listen to worker demands and release talent from NDAs because there are plenty of fish in the sea, as it were. “They’re always going to find someone willing to sign whatever they need them to sign because they think it might be the way to get into the entertainment industry,” says employment lawyer Ann Fromholz.

The issue here is talent. The crew of a reality TV show being represented by a union makes sense, but are people like Tom Sandoval and Bethenny Frankel actors? Does it make sense for them to be covered by SAG-AFTRA when they’re portraying themselves?

It’s an interesting time for this conversation to come up because we’ve lately been seeing the format of reality TV shows breaking down. Situations like Scandoval or divorces happen off-camera and are kept fiercely secret by talent until producers catch wind, and then cameras pick back up again to put the pieces together. On shows like The Real Housewives of New Jersey and Orange County, talent throws threats at each other of being kicked off the show or how someone got someone else on the show, or on-camera conversations are stopped mid-sentence to implore producers to stop filming because a cast member doesn’t want something to appear on television.

The talent is getting restless, and a union might change the genre as we know it. Maybe that’s a good thing?