REALITY TV Shows go to great lengths to keep contestants quiet

'Survivor' contestants could be fined $5 million for leaking information.
By CARY DARLING
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
When it comes to keeping mum, the CIA and FBI could take some pointers from a few other three-letter organizations: CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox.
With the rapid rise of reality TV -- specifically those shows in which a humiliated and emotionally battered contestant is eliminated and sent home in shame every week -- the networks have a vested interest in throwing a veil over who gets the boot until the program airs.
No suspense, no show, no ad revenue. Loose lips sink viewership.
But it's anywhere from several weeks to months between taping and airing. So the networks do what they must -- from making the contestants and crew members sign contracts owing their financial souls if they blab, to convincing local governments to block off air space around remote filming locations -- to ensure that there are no leaks on the reality-TV cruise to ratings success.
Even just talking about the process of secrecy is off-limits for some; representatives from such shows as "The Bachelor" and "The Apprentice" decided that discretion is the better part of TV valor and elected not to answer questions regarding their practices.
It's working
The networks' ploys seem to be working. So far, despite the increasing numbers of programs and contestants, there have been no major gaffes. But with a new edition of "The Apprentice" under way on NBC, Mark Cuban's "The Benefactor" on ABC and a new season of "Survivor" on CBS, the networks have to pray that their luck holds and contestants stay quiet.
"When you've got a $5 million fine over your head, it's silly that you would talk," says Joe Borgenicht, co-author of the just-released "The Reality TV Handbook," a guide to how to survive on a reality show, from forming alliances to eating sheep eyeballs.
But Colleen Sullivan, a vice president of publicity at CBS who spent several weeks with the cast and crew of the latest edition of "Survivor" on the Pacific island of Vanuatu, says there's more to it than simply threatening contestants with things like having to forfeit their winnings, pay a steep fine and live on macaroni and cheese for the rest of their miserable, little lives.
"Everybody signs confidentiality agreements," says Sullivan, who notes that the penalty for breaking a "Survivor" contract is $5 million, "but at the end of the day, it's an agreement of everybody involved beyond the contestants. There's a crew of 300-plus people who've done a lot of hard work, and there's a certain pride that these secrets remain secret."
Beyond agreements
But "Survivor" producers count on a little more than pride. To keep their filming spot -- always a remote, foreign location -- hidden from prying paparazzi eyes, they employ a security team and utilize areas of a country that are for their shooting purposes only.
"If we can close air space, we will, if [the local government] allows us to," says Sullivan. "We keep our production bubble."
Then those who are kicked off "Survivor" don't go home right away. Producers keep them away from civilization. Rhode Island's Jeanne Hebert, who got exiled from "Survivor: The Amazon" after 15 days of the 39-day shoot, told the Providence Journal that she and the other contestants not needed for the final "tribal council" went off on a three-week South American vacation at CBS' expense.
At Showtime's "The American Candidate," the winner of which will run for the presidency of the United States, contestants are billeted in a hotel with no cell phone or computer, according to USA Today. The paper also reports that contestants are taking seven weeks off work in exchange for a $500-a-week stipend and the chance to win $200,000.