Reality star and entrepreneur Bethenny Frankel prompted a powerful question this week: Why haven’t reality stars unionized?
To that end, she took to Instagram and TikTok on Friday and laid out a 10-term proposal that included a minimum fee of $5,000 per episode and a 10% raises each time a star films subsequent seasons.
Frankel’s question is especially pertinent now, as TV executives and studios are rolling out more reality TV programming to fill in the gaps left by the double strike of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA against AMPTP. With no end date in sight, studios are relying on reality TV more than ever to ensure that viewers have something to watch.
In a video shared to Instagram on Thursday, Frankel revealed she was only paid $7,250 for her “first season of reality TV” and asked, “Hollywood is on strike, entertainers are fighting for residuals and no one will promote anything. Why isn’t reality TV on strike?”
Frankel also added that like the members of SAG-AFTRA, she has never received a dime in the form of residuals from streaming. Speaking of her time on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New York,” she clarified, “I have never made a single residual. So either I’m missing something, or we’re getting screwed too.”
One day later, Frankel posted a video laying out her 10-term proposal for a union for reality TV stars. To begin, she believes that “unscripted talent with shows that make it to air” should earn a minimum of $5,000 per episode, all talent on a series should receive a 10% raise each season they film and talent should be paid an additional 10% of their talent fee if a network or streamer decides to re-air a successful season of a show each year that it is shown again.
Frankel also proposed that talent should receive an additional $5,000 a year from “each distributor” that re-airs previous seasons of a show, that they have the right to negotiate their annual raises or leave the show, that other platforms that choose to air a season of a show will also pay 10% of a talent’s individual fee and that talent receives a per diem of $100 for time spent promoting and shooting promotional material for the show.
If a streamer or platform is not willing to pay the fees, Frankel said the show should be removed completely and boycotted.
Frankel further took issue with companies that forbid their talent from seeking outside compensation, especially from brands that approach reality stars for potential promotion via social media.
“It is in fact their real lives. So for networks and streamers to be trapping people, not allowing them to do other things and forcing them to expose their real lives on reality television is unconscionable,” she said.
And finally, Frankel proposed doing away with what she called “The Bethenny Clause.” The clause, which was introduced after her Bravo deal, is a clause in some reality TV contracts that states talent must give a percentage of their business earnings to the network.
As she put it, “These terms are now the new Bethenny Clause.”
In the caption for her proposal video, Frankel called on the mega-stars of reality TV to join her fight. She wrote, “People not on this list are ‘Vanderpump Rules’ talent and the Kardashians, ironically the most powerful entities in entertainment right now, with the most leverage. They should fight for others who paved the way and for those after them.”
While Frankel also noted that the terms laid out in her video are “open to negotiation,” she made it clear in the caption that she is prepared to battle it out with networks and streamers.
“Change takes courage,” she said. “I’ve alienated this industry and burned bridges with the entire network and streaming community in one fell swoop. This is not for the faint of heart, but it’s for the greater good.”
Watch the entire proposal in the videos above. Bravo did not immediately responded to TheWrap’s request for a comment.
