South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Reality TV finds a home in Florida
Without incentives, filming for other productions on decline
It has been several years since the cameras all but stopped rolling in Florida for big TV and film productions. However, unscripted “reality” content in the state is flourishing. From nature-focused “Finding Adventure” to MTV’s “Siesta Key” and even Discovery+ hit “The Queen of Versailles Reigns Again,” audiences are flocking to screens like never before to see “real” Florida stories. And that could be a very good thing for an industry that has been faltering in recent years.
“I always thought that Florida would be booming in terms of TV production,” said Mark Long, who in addition to being a reality TV star on shows like “The Challenge” and “Worst Cooks in America” is also a producer for “The Challenge: All-Stars,” which is now streaming on Paramount+. “It really never took off like I thought it would.”
One of the big reasons why scripted shows have struggled to shoot in Florida is because of the lack of tax incentives in the state. For example, the recent “Father of the Bride” reboot takes place in Florida, but only the exteriors were shot in the state, with the rest of the filming happening in Georgia. Director Gaz Alazraki said while he doesn’t know “the ins and outs of the unions and incentives,” when it comes to shooting in different states, “they seemed to play a big role when the producers make decisions.”
While incentives make a sizable difference to the bottom line for big-budget films and TV shows, the reality TV medium gives producers a lot more wiggle room thanks to much lower costs. According to Investopedia, the price tag for a reality show can be as cheap as $100,000 per episode, a big contrast from the millions of dollars per episode that scripted TV takes to produce, making tax incentives less vital to this medium specifically.
Outside of simple dollars and cents, Florida has also proved itself to be quite fertile ground for unique talent and stories. Netflix had a 2020 hit with “Tiger King” (which was partially filmed in Florida) and while the follow-up to that series didn’t have the same cultural impact as its predecessor, the streamer found more Florida-based success in 2021 with “Selling Tampa,” which rocketed up to the top of the streaming charts late last year and follows an all-female, Black-owned real estate agency.
“It’s basically a huge commercial for the city,” Long said of “Selling Tampa,” adding that not only was the show a huge hit for Netflix but it also helped further raise the profile of a city looking to boost its tourism numbers.
With low-cost reality shows continuing to do well across multiple platforms, Long says he hopes Florida will fulfill its untapped potential as a production hub in the coming years.
“I think once people start to see those types of shows pop up even more in Florida it will kind of alert them to maybe looking into [shooting] here rather than in Georgia [even without] tax breaks.” Long also added that producers can make up the difference in tax incentives by saving in other ways, with “the cost of goods, the cost of renting space, the cost of hiring shooters and sound guys” all being lower in the Sunshine State.
“You get that same quality of talent, it’s just going to be financially better for the production company to explore Florida,” he said.
In Long’s perfect world, the success of reality content in the state would help politicians see how prioritizing filming incentives could help the local economy and help bring scripted productions back to the state. “Offering some tax breaks and waiving some of the fees that [other states] would require would definitely encourage people to come here.”
And while big changes have yet to happen, Long says he’s already seeing a boost from the growing slate of reality content in the state.
“I think there’s starting to be a little shift,” he said. “I think finally now we’re coming into an era where it’s definitely opening back up.”
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