With New Stars, Reality Shows See Costs Rise

Snooki had kissed The Situation, Ronnie had hugged Sammi goodbye and the cameras had stopped rolling. Last summer, “Jersey Shore” wasn’t yet a runaway hit; it was just another reality show in the works for MTV. Nonetheless, the show’s executive producer, SallyAnn Salsano, sat the young cast members down and gave them each a gift — and a warning.

“Don’t lose sight of who you are,” she said, reminding them that she and MTV had been there at the outset.

AP MTV show "Jersey Shore" cast members (l-r): Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, Jenni "J-Woww'" Farley, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and DJ Pauly D Delvecchio.

Fame soon found them, and so did the desire for fortune. This summer, the stars of “Jersey Shore” held out for more money before resuming production in Seaside Heights last week. Together, they shared about $25,000 as a cast for the entire first season; now they will reportedly earn at least that much for each episode. The series will resume Thursday night on MTV, part of Viacom

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Reality television became a force because viewers liked it and because, without celebrities or big salaries, it was cheap. The shows can cost as little as $200,000 for a half-hour episode, compared with the $1 million or more typical for hourlong scripted shows.

But now the genre is creating its own stars on shows like “Jersey Shore,” “The City” on MTV and the “Real Housewives” franchise on Bravo. With stars come demands for higher salaries, threatening the inexpensive economic model of reality TV. Are the shows falling victim to their own success?

Network executives say no, but they concede they are constantly on guard against that possibility. They strive to make shows grow proportionally: as the salaries grow, the ratings and the rates paid by advertisers must grow in lockstep. When the proportions break down, cancellation can loom.

“There can be a time when a show prices itself out of profitability,” said Chris Linn, executive vice president for MTV production. The reality show “The Hills,” which ended last month after six seasons, seems like a case study of those proportions breaking down; its stars, plucked from obscurity, were collecting six-figure paychecks near the end, yet the show’s ratings were sinking. Mr. Linn, however, said no show had been canceled because it had “priced itself out” in his six years at MTV.

“When a show’s production costs are reaching that point, we’ll look for a way to reinvent that show or look for other efficiencies,” he said in a telephone interview. Last year, one of the stars of “The Hills,” Whitney Port, was given her own show, “The City,” which MTV is weighing whether to renew.

It might seem that the starlets and the housewives of the “Hills” hold all the cards; their personalities are the reasons that millions of viewers tune in.

“In scripted, as a producer, you have the ability to write a character out. But in reality, your talent often is the show, so they have a greater ability to use nonperformance as a lever to extract a better deal,” said Michael Hirschorn, a former VH1 executive who now runs a production company, Ish Entertainment.

When shows like “Jersey Shore” begin, they are essentially just experiments, and the average Joe cast members are paid accordingly. One cable executive privately characterized the initial salaries as “bubkes.”

After the season one finale of “Jersey Shore” was watched by a startlingly high 4.8 million viewers in the dead of winter, MTV immediately promised $10,000 an episode to the cast.

They retreated to South Beach last spring to tape the second season, but when it came time to film the second half of the season back in Seaside Heights, where the series was originally set, newly appointed agents for the cast members insisted on another set of raises.

The deal-making played out in the celebrity press, with some stars reportedly saying that they could make more money by hosting parties at clubs than by showing up for the TV tapings. MTV now calls the current Seaside Heights taping Season Three.

Some cast members apparently have grand ambitions. The Situation, a. k. a. Mike Sorrentino, was quoted in The Daily Beast Web site last week as saying that he had his eye on Hollywood, mentioning “Dancing With the Stars,” meetings with movie studios and “people calling for sitcoms.”

MTV declined to comment on contractual details, and the network said the cast members were not available for interviews.

Ms. Salsano clearly feels that the cast members need the exposure the TV show provides.

“The benefit is not the money they make from being on the show,” she said. “The benefit is they’ve all got so many amazing opportunities because of the show. They come here for a month; the show’s on for four months; and when the show’s airing, that’s when they’re having their heyday, if you will.”

Bravo encourages the stars of its “Housewives” shows to talk up their side projects in interviews. “We try to do well by them, and they know that they can do well with us,” said Andy Cohen, a senior vice president at Bravo, a unit of NBC Universal

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For Mr. Cohen, the crucial word is “ensemble.” He and other executives assert that almost any reality cast member is expendable, even if the person has been on a show for multiple seasons. Some housewives have departed because of financial disputes with Bravo — “I think it’s happened a couple times,” Mr. Cohen said — and the producers have successfully replaced them.

“And we’re always casting in every city,” Mr. Cohen added.

That said, Bravo just started its first “Housewives” spin-off that features just one woman, Bethenny Frankel, getting married and having a baby. Doesn’t a show centered on one person pose more of a risk? “We’re very careful with that,” Mr. Cohen said, declining to elaborate.

After the first season of a reality show, networks tend to set salaries on a sliding scale, and some offer bonuses based on ratings. Add security and transportation costs, and production budgets can soar.

At the peak of “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” TLC was paying the supersize family $22,500 an episode, according to Jon Gosselin, who was sued by the network, which accused him of breaching his contract. The show fizzled last year when the lead characters split up.

That would seem like a cautionary tale to reality stars everywhere. Ms. Salsano said “Jersey Shore” members should not forget what a gift the show is. It will keep going, she said, “as long as the kids stay true to who they are.”