Confessions of an Unscripted TV Agent: Fewer Buyers, New Hustles
A top agency rep breaks down Netflix’s shift, who’s buying, what’s selling and how AI and brand money are rewriting the rules
I write about TV from L.A. and host The Ankler podcast. I wrote about what industry insiders expect from new Amazon TV head Peter Friedlander, the agency using an AI assistant and how Hollywood is muscling in on the microdrama boom. I’m elaine@theankler.com
As the real world churns in another endless cycle of bad news and turmoil, I’ve been burrowing into the one comfort I know will cocoon me from the terrors outside: The Great British Bake Off, or as it’s known stateside because of strict American trademark laws and Pillsbury’s corporate dominion, The Great British Baking Show.
Season after season, GBBS remains a delightful escape that forces me to watch TV the old-fashioned way — once a week, every Friday, in what is probably the only appointment viewing on my calendar right now. Because of the delay between new episodes airing on Channel 4 in the U.K. and on Netflix in the U.S., it means that I can’t fall down a Reddit rabbit hole after each episode, lest I spoil something for myself.
The show also sits comfortably in Netflix’s top 10 week to week, reflecting sustained interest in a series that has been on for 15 years now and whose greatest drama comes from amateur bakers fretting quietly and Britishly over the density of their Victoria sponge.
That’s the power of reality and nonscripted TV. Create a series or franchise that appeals to primal viewing needs (comfort, outrage, envy, prurience), and you’ve got a lasting hit on your hands (one that costs significantly less to produce than any scripted show). Just look at Dancing with the Stars or the Real Housewives of [Insert City Here] or American adaptations of Love Island or The Traitors.
So for the next few Mondays, Series Business will take a close look at the non-fiction market, including reality TV, competition and shiny floor game shows, docuseries and sports-adjacent programming. I’ll tell you which genres are hot, which buyers are buying and one brand-new business model that has everyone talking: brand-funded TV — most notably seen this fall with the premiere of On Brand With Jimmy Fallon that features former Netflix marketing chief and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Bozoma Saint John.
To start things off, here’s my smart, dishy, uncensored chat with a senior unscripted TV agent at a major agency, who breaks down:
What producers must bring to the table now to close a deal
What every seller needs to have in a pitch deck and presentation now to stand out
How many episodes to expect now in an initial series order — and why that might not be a bad thing
Netflix’s new unscripted strategy and the formats it’s betting on now
The surprising IP behind one big upcoming Netflix reality swing
How AI is quietly changing the pitch process for reality TV producers
How to adapt to the consolidation and corporate spinoffs reshaping the buyer landscape
The new business models giving both brands and producers a shot at upside
