Get them in a bar, and fists have been known to fly. But “Jersey Shore” creator and executive producer SallyAnn Salsano insists that MTV’s latest salary negotiations with Snooki and the gang were not contentious in the slightest.
Speaking at a private reception prior to the Hollywood Radio and Television Society’s “Unscripted Hitmakers” luncheon Tuesday, the fast-talking producer said that contract talks with the “Shore” crowd have “always been friendly,” and the latest, was no exception. The party-loving crew reportedly got a pay bump to more than $100,000 an episode for Season 4, which ought to underwrite many a night at Karma.
“I have a legal team, they have a legal team,” Salsano said. “It’s never been contentious. The press likes to say that it is, but it’s always been really friendly and there’s never been like a big cast standoff and all that stuff.
“It does not happen,” she stressed.
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During her panel session at the luncheon, Salsano predicted more hijinks when the "Shore" crew travels to Italy. She said she may sleep four hours a night “but not in a row.”
“I think it’s going be insane,” she said.
Salsano shared a camaraderie (and on-stage expletives) with prolific cable producer Thom Beers (“Ax Men,” “Deadliest Catch”) and “the network guys” — Stephen Lambert (“Undercover Boss”) Nigel Lythgoe (“American Idol”), and J.D. Roth (“Biggest Loser”) — during her discussion moderated by Larry King. (From below left, Beers, Salsano, Roth, King, Lambert and Lythgoe.)
The HRTS event drew more than 400 reality television producers, executives, and agents to the Beverly Hilton ballroom. All of the top producers shared the same fundamental concern: how to attract and keep viewer attention in the increasingly fragmented media landscape.
On “Undercover Boss,” Lambert said: “It’s easy to have a hit show, all you have to do is have your first episode premiere after a Super Bowl.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Beers candidly addressed the weak premiere of his new mining series “Coal.” King asked the panel about producing “bombs,” to which Beers replied: “Have you ever been dragged down a staircase by your heels with your head banging on every step? That’s what it feels like right now,” Beers said.
Lythgoe dismissed NBC and Mark Burnett’s rival talent competition “The Voice,” in which celebrity coaches will choose singers without seeing them. “After the initial stage, the gag is over,” Lythgoe said. “You can pick a Susan Boyle – Shrek’s older sister – and then you pick the voice, and (the coaches) mentor them.” Lythgoe’s “Shrek” remark drew groans in the room.
Lythgoe hinted that they could reveal the weekly tallies of votes on “Idol” at the end of the season (as they do in the UK) but could never do that here on a weekly basis, because the show would “lose all its jeopardy.” By way of example, former winner Carrie Underwood was the highest vote getter each week on her season.
Lythgoe also suggested that “Idol” is experimenting with consumer hardware devices that would let viewers at home choose their own camera-angles during live shows, something that the Emmys, MTV, and Oscars have done online during awards shows in the past year.
Brit Lambert said it’s easier to sell in the UK, where networks will buy ideas “off paper,” without a sales tape. When Salsano pitched “Shore,” VH1 exec Jeff Olde said: “This is nuts. But if you bring me the cast, we’ll do it.”
The reality gathering came on the heels of the barely attended “Reality Rocks” fan convention over the past weekend. Media sponsor LA Times called the attendance at their own event “embarrassingly small.”
Roth suggested that the convention center was a poor choice for the event. “It was a cavernous hole that they were trying to fill with life," he told TheWrap. "They should have done it somewhere where there was life.”
Top reality agents Greg Lipstone (ICM) and Sean Perry (WME) co-chaired the HRTS luncheon. Also seen in the room: NBC reality exec Brandon Riegg who just returned from Costa Rica overseeing NBC’s summer entry “Love in the Wild”, Bunim-Murray brass Jon Murray, Gil Goldschein, and Scott Freeman, and prominent tables from reality mainstays like Fremantle Media.