Variety

Maybe some TV writers don't care about winning an Emmy, but it's hard to ignore the attraction: the intrinsic pride and glory, plus an express train to better pay, visibility, hireability or all of the above.

Still, there's an unspoken glitch in the Emmy writing categories for scripted series. Each year, awards go to individual writers or writing teams from a given episode. But many episodes aren't written by individuals or duos -- they're written by entire staffs.

"On our show," says "30 Rock" creator Tina Fey, "our staff breaks stories together and puts them onto index cards. Then, the episode is assigned to an individual writer or team, who takes the cards and writes the outline. The person who writes the outline writes the writer's draft ... then the draft comes back and is tabled by all the writers."

This is how TV works. Writers know it. Producers know it. The Television Academy knows it. Yet the Emmys implicitly ignore all these extra staff contributions.

"Eligibility is based on credits the show sends us for each episode (determined by series producers, along with the Writers Guild)," says TV Acad senior veep of awards John Leverence. "When we hand out Emmys, we trust the producer (as to) whom we should properly hand them to."

Of course, assigning individual credit makes sense for bookkeeping purposes, but does it make sense when rewarding collaboration, given the stakes?

"Winning -- or even being nominated for -- an Emmy can have a real and immediate impact on a career," says UTA lit agent Joel Begleiter.

Last year, the Emmys nommed Glenn Kessler, Todd A. Kessler and Daniel Zelman of "Damages" for their pilot, a rare instance devoid of authorship questions. However, pilots are often a small fraction of a given year's writing nominees. Only 11 of the past 50 have been pilots, and some years not a single pilot makes the cut.

"It becomes a ... somewhat impossible task to parse out everyone's contribution," says Glenn Kessler. "In a show like ours, when every episode is predicated on a story that comes before it ... all the pieces need to fit. You don't have the luxury of going off and working independently."

"It's sometimes unfair," adds Emmy-winning "House" creator David Shore. "The greater unfairness is that we don't know when it's unfair and when it's fair."

Which leaves many writers wondering if there's a better way.

"It's nice to acknowledge the risk someone takes for putting their name on something," says "30 Rock" exec producer Robert Carlock, but "a reward that rewards the staff would probably be a more accurate reflection."

Some writers recommend borrowing a page from the Writers Guild Awards, which acknowledge entire staffs. Others offer as a model the Humanitas Awards, which -- up until last year -- rewarded credited writers with a check and then gave plaques to the rest of the staff.

And as Fey points out, the Academy already acknowledges staffs of VMC (variety-music-comedy) shows like "Saturday Night Live" and "The Daily Show." Why not do the same with episodic programs?

"We've had (that) VMC rule in place for probably 20 years," says Leverence. "Nobody has ever mentioned the possibility of expanding that rule into (other) series. It might be a good thing to discuss."

Gene Stupinsky, a 2008 Emmy nominee from "The Office," has his own ideas for change, but isn't sure they're necessary.

"Writers ... who have Emmys are, by and large, excellent writers," he says. "I'm sure there are writers who get Emmys who didn't deserve it, but I don't know any of them."

Variety

Forty-year-old Stacey Anderson didn't seem all that different from the long line of peppy predecessors looking to find love -- or, at the very least, 15 minutes of fame -- on reality television. So how was TV Land going to sell its take on "The Bachelorette" and cut through the glut of relationship-oriented reality TV?

"We called it 'The Cougar,'" says Keith Cox, executive vice president for original programming at TV Land. "The title got us noticed. That word, 'cougar,' is so much in the zeitgeist right now that the press just picked up on it. That put us on the map."

Finding a spot on that increasingly crowded map is the big challenge right now for first-season reality programs. After all, there are only so many hours in the day to watch television (TiVo might even exacerbate the time crunch), and viewers tend to be loyal to their favorite show, even if it's a little long in the tooth. (We're looking at you, "Top Model.")

To punch through, networks are tinkering with the tried-and-true formats, devising new promotional ideas and coming up with increasingly unique concepts to stand apart from the pack. The goal, at minimum, is to hold onto the audience that's already watching a network's existing reality programming.

"We feel like we have an embarrassment of riches, but we never want to be caught short," says Frances Berwick, Bravo Media general manager. "Reality series can have a finite life. So we're constantly launching new shows and leveraging, building off our successful hits."

Bravo did just that last month, premiering "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," yet another incarnation of the net's "Real Housewives" series. Launching the show in May gave it a wide berth for media attention, and Bravo made sure that existing fans knew about it by attaching it to the finale of the New York City version.

The result was the highest-rated premiere in the history of the franchise, up 186 percent from last fall's "Real Housewives of Atlanta" opener.

Bravo's Jersey girls weren't necessarily any more outrageous than their predecessors, but the "Sopranos"-esque women did fit the profile of what reality programmers are looking for these days.

"What really works is when you present almost unbelievable people who, in fact, are entirely authentic," Berwick says. "That's where reality supersedes scripted. Because if you were to write that character in a scripted show, nobody would buy it."

Over at VH1, programming exec Jeff Olde says if a show can't be sold on a quick promo, he'll tweak or pass.

"For a show to work on VH1, it has to be loud," says Olde, executive VP of original programming. "That could be loud emotionally, it could be loud comedically, but 'loud' is the operative word."

True enough, you practically need earplugs while watching Steven Ward, the blunt matchmaker "helping" women find Mr. Right on VH1's "Tough Love." The reality-dating show just ended its first season, and the network will soon be sending Ward on the road, where he'll host relationship seminars.

"You've got to keep people talking about your show in order to keep it alive between seasons," Olde says.

BBC Worldwide is taking the touring concept one step further when it debuts "Great American Road Trip" in July on NBC. The latest from the folks behind the worldwide "Dancing With the Stars" phenomenon pits seven RV-traveling families against each other in challenges held at various iconic locations in the States.

What sets the show apart is that it's as much a travelogue and character study as it is a competition, says Jane Tranter, executive VP of programming and production for BBC Worldwide.

"The intensity of the confined space within the RV generates tension and reveals character," Tranter explains. "Anyone who has been cooped up with their families will be able to relate to that sort of pressure-cooker atmosphere."

Tranter believes that running "Road Trip" during the summer will work in its favor as viewers will be in a leisure-oriented frame of mind. That kind of synergy is important, execs says, since proper scheduling of first-year reality shows -- whether they're following proven programs or situated in primo timeslots -- can mean the difference between a franchise and a failure.

Thus, Bravo will follow the June finale of "Real Housewives of New Jersey" with the launch of another reality series, "NYC Prep." With its peel-back-the-page look at six affluent Manhattan teens, "Prep" adheres to the tone and style that has made the "Housewives" franchise a success.

"There's definitely aspiration in there as well as relating and, I suppose, judging," Bravo's Berwick says. "If you want to cut through the clutter of reality programming, you've got to have that mix of emotions. And if you have that mix focused on one character, all the better. Then you've got yourself a hit."