Obligatory: Doug and Courtney Stodden Get a Reality Show Development Deal

Posted on | September 22, 2011 | 17 Comments

Wombat headlined this in “Live at Five,” but given how much attention we’d previously given the Hollywood teen bride, here’s some more:

Teen bride Courtney Stodden has signed a deal with a production company to produce her reality show Radaronline.com has exclusively learned.
The 17-year-old and her Green Mile actor husband Doug Hutchison have signed a deal with Roy Bank, the president of Merv Griffin Entertainment. . . .
“The reason we went with Roy is because we feel that he is the man who will be able to place Courtney’s show in front of the best network for her,” Krista Stodden, Courtney’s momager, told Radaronline.com. . . .
“They are going to be very, very open about their lives,” Courtney’s mom said. “They want everybody to see their life. Nothing is off limits.”

First of all, it’s necessary to explain what a “development deal” is: The producer has contracted with Hutchison-Stodden to develop a show, which the producer then expects to place with a network. So camera crews will now begin recording footage of the couple, which will then be edited into a rough-cut “episodes” and shown to network executives in “pitch” meetings.

It’s the reality-TV equivalent of a rock band signing with a producer to record a demo.

There is no guarantee that any network with actually buy the show, and so the producer is more or less gambling that he can sell it and thus recoup his costs, including whatever money he’s agreed to pay Hutchison-Stodden during the “development” phase. Obviously, the president of a major production company isn’t going to invest money in a project he doesn’t think he can sell. You can bet that Roy Bank has already talked to network executives to gauge their interest, and in his mind the question isn’t whether he’ll sell the show, but to whom and for what price. If he can sell 26 episodes to a broadcast network — ABC or Fox — that’s the high end, whereas if he gets a 13-episode deal with Bravo, that’s substantially less. And the difference will depend on the quality of the rough-cut episodes shown as “demos” to the execs.

This explanation is necessary because nowadays in Hollywood, everybody and their uncle is shopping a reality show. People I know personally have been involved in “development deals” where they were followed around by camera crews shooting footage for reality shows that never made it to a network. And there have been plenty of reality TV shows that aired for a few months, didn’t generate ratings and disappeared, leaving the “stars” scarcely more famous than they were before the show.

So it is by no means certain that Doug and Courtney, by signing this deal, have bought a ticket to becoming the next Kardashians.

The business of being “Famous for Being Famous” is a highly competitive industry. We note that Doug and Courtney signed with the former executive producer of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader?

Suggested title for the new show: Are You Sleeping With an 11th-Grader?

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Category: Celebrities

Comments

17 Responses to “Obligatory: Doug and Courtney Stodden Get a Reality Show Development Deal”

ThePaganTemple
September 22nd, 2011 @ 3:08 pm

Wow, whaddaya know. Another reality show I’ll never watch.
GAHCindy
September 22nd, 2011 @ 3:13 pm

So if they’re nauseating enough, they’ll get a deal, right? I’ve never seen any of these shows (except one about Hulk Hogan, once. Ugh.), but the web chatter about it leads me to believe that these shows are only popular insofar as the “celebrities” make people hate them. People love to gossip. Reality shows just feed that.
JeffS
September 22nd, 2011 @ 3:32 pm

Reality shows — meh. I’d rather clean out the stables.
Joe
September 22nd, 2011 @ 4:02 pm

What a good thing for Christian values…

Stacy, can we have a divorce pool on when these sweethearts pull the plug?
Prophet Mohammed (PBUM)
September 22nd, 2011 @ 4:24 pm

I think I may like this show. She is a little too old for my tastes.
Anonymous
September 22nd, 2011 @ 4:44 pm

You know who watches shows like this? Women and gay men. From “Survivor” to “American Idol” to “Jersey Shore,” the reality-TV genre plays to an audience with disproportionately low numbers of heterosexual guys, who would rather watch sports.
Joe
September 22nd, 2011 @ 4:50 pm

I do not watch these shows. Not that there is anything wrong with watching them.
Roxeanne de Luca
September 22nd, 2011 @ 5:36 pm

“They want everybody to see their life. Nothing is off limits.”

So we get to see the scars from her boob job? Interesting.
Threedonia
September 22nd, 2011 @ 5:46 pm

I hope he doesn’t forget the sponge.
Anonymous
September 22nd, 2011 @ 5:51 pm

They are a sad commentary on our species.
bradley
September 22nd, 2011 @ 5:54 pm

I don’t know who these people are, or what value they purport to create, but… someone should submit that photo to that “Hot Chicks With D**chebags” website.
Anonymous
September 22nd, 2011 @ 6:12 pm

I have it on good authority that Doug’s a pretty decent guy and only plays d-bags on television.
Joe
September 22nd, 2011 @ 6:43 pm

I will give Doug the benefit of doubt that his Green Mile character was just a character. But given this relationship, I do not think he would ever be on a short list for a coach of a teenage girl soccer or field hockey team.
Adjoran
September 22nd, 2011 @ 7:13 pm

How cheap has bandwidth become that we can afford to spend some on this?

It’s a market miracle despite government “help” . . .
Daily scoreboard « Don Surber
September 22nd, 2011 @ 5:01 pm

[…] 25. From Robert Stacy McCain: “Obligatory: Doug and Courtney Stodden Get a Reality Show Development Deal.” […]
Anonymous
September 23rd, 2011 @ 3:43 am

This picture of Lady Gaga and David Bowie looks fairly recent. Are they related?
Anonymous
September 25th, 2011 @ 1:39 am

My personal trainer (@AnytimeFitness) would be proud of Courtney for sticking her chest out. He’s always telling me to as I exercise…