A reality TV producer has admitted to “bullying” participants into becoming “villains” in ABC’s widely talked about podcast, Background Briefing.
ICYMI: the media outlet released a podcast episode called ‘Crafting a Villain’ in late June, which explored the experiences of TV villains and how they are made.
The episode heavily featured Married at First Sight Australia 2022 bride Olivia Frazer, who told reporter Annika Blau that her controversial edit left her “devoured” and “suicidal”.
Former reality stars have not been silent about the torturous tactics used by producers throughout the duration of filming these shows.
However, now producers are even speaking out about their own dirty tricks.
In the Background Briefing episode, one producer admitted that yeah, they’re absolute savages when it comes to getting a good story for TV.
Producer says TV ‘villains’ are ‘fairly often’ not bad people in real life
The unnamed producer explained that people are “cast into these roles”, and producers edit the show “according to these roles”.
“So, the lovable princess might actually be really b*tchy and say really mean things, but that’s not the character that we want them to be. So, you won’t include the b*tchy things, and you make them look loveable,” they said.
“Then you have villains, who are supposed to be the nasty ones, but sometimes they’re not. So then you really have to try and push to make them villains.”
When asked “how often” villains aren’t actually the bad people portrayed onscreen, the producer said “fairly often”.
“Maybe it’s 50/50.”
Recalling a particular instance, the producer said the “villains weren’t really villainy”.
“We ended up just bullying them, taking a bunch of comments about how weird they were and kind of just making fun of them in a way that didn’t feel particularly nice,” they laughed.
And yeah, we’re getting the gist of who the real villains are now…
It comes after countless reality stars put producers on blast, including Olivia, Bronte Schofield, and Alyssa Barmonde.
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