Re: Reality TV Show Pilot - Artist Fee

Probably the best advice to give him or her, in their best interest, is to decline the task and put him or her in contact with an entertainment lawyer; these things are too specialized for a general practitioner.

If you insist on going ahead anyway, you might start by looking up the standard union rates at the SAG/AFTRA web sites, just as a ballpark. But realize that this is like shopping for a car, where the sticker price rarely is what is finally paid. Your client will be unpleasantly surprised at how low, generally speaking, the pay scales are in reality TV. This is one of the reasons those shows are so prolific, is their cost-containment strategies. Your client is looking at something at or below scale rates, but the part where you might help is to work on the non-pay compensation: that is, owning a percentage of the actual show, and a "taste" of any ancillary income from the branding of the show, i.e. if the show spins off a product line of toys, hand-bags, coffee mugs, whatever - your client needs a percentage of that. And residuals for re-runs, and a percentage of any "new media" airplay, i.e. streaming or DVD sales or Netflix rentals.

The showrunner is going to try to contractually bind the actor and everything about the production into a "package", so that no competing production company can copy the show without a lot of effort. Look at this as "non-compete" contract language. It can force your client to be stuck "married" to a dead property that's going nowhere, and they won't be able to jump to another similar show, or make their own, so they need some way to address getting a paycheck even if they are just sitting out the game on the bench for a while. You're looking at an "opportunity cost"; once they are bound to the "package", they will have to turn down other oppotunities. That's worth something. If the show is set in the client's place of business, you will need to protect the business as a separate entity apart from the show.

I am not a lawyer, my advice is worth what you paid for it. But you asked for an opinion.