You know television is getting oversaturated with reality programming when the company that practically invented the genre says it needs to diversify into scripted drama.
Bunim/Murray Productions, which brought us MTV’s Real World in the early 1990s and has plenty of other reality fare on the air (including The Simple Life and Starting Over), is jumping into scripted shows and movies in an attempt to diversify revenue streams, according to newly installed CEO Joey Carson. The move is part of a reorganization that follows the death from cancer last February of co-founder Mary-Ellis Bunim (co-founder Jonathan Murray is the company’s president and chairman).
The new ventures include The Look, a series based on a 1995 novel about the seamy world of sex, drugs and fashion modeling, and The Pedro Zamora Story, an MTV movie about the life and death of HIV-positive Real World cast member Zamora. His struggles were among the most compelling storylines in the early days of the MTV series.
