Are Reality TV Producers Liable?
Producers' liability on reality shows depends on both the law and their morals.
Oct. 10, 2007 — -- For a reality TV show producer, nothing makes good television quite like filming people as they get high, drunk or sometimes even both.
On the eighth season of MTV's the Real World, for example, roommate Ruthie not only drank herself into unconsciousness on the season premiere, but later drove home from a bar drunk. Eventually, a producer gave her an ultimatum: go to rehab or go home.
On A&E's "Intervention," the camera captures addicts as they overindulge and eventually deconstruct. Vices have included cocaine, methamphetamines, crack and handles of liquor that are consumed in mere seconds.
Like the scenes caught during filming of the "Real World," "Intervention" has also seen participants drive under the influence.
How far reality programming should let a participant spiral out of control before someone — be it a producer, a director or a crew member — steps in (or, in these two cases, takes the car keys away), is up for debate, and it's not always clear what is mandated by the law, entertainment law experts told ABCNEWS.com.
While preventing someone from jumping off a balcony in a public place is not mandated by law in the United States, as it is in many European countries — where a reverse good Samaritan law exists — legal experts tell ABCNEWS.com that when producers create a situation where injury or danger is foreseeable, the rules change a bit.
"Some states say that if you have some connection to the activity, and you have the reasonable ability to intercede, then you need to do so," said Larry Waks, an entertainment lawyer, who has worked extensively with reality show producers. "And usually, the states also have good Samaritan laws that say, if you do intercede and something bad happens as a result, you cannot be held responsible."
In other words, if producers are behind a camera, filming someone who is about to drive drunk, many states will hold producers liable for any injury if, instead of stepping in to try to stop the dangerous activity, they continue to roll the tape, sure not to miss a clip, boiling over with entertainment value.
