# How can I protect my idea for a new reality show? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 24, 2011, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-protect-my-idea-for-a-new-reality-show/575823 "2011-03-24T10:23:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-protect-my-idea-for-a-new-reality-show/575823/21 "2011-03-26T05:49:50Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Sure! Gimme a few thousand/hundred thousand/milllion, I’ll have a pilot for you right away! The pilot for “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” cost $85 to make. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-protect-my-idea-for-a-new-reality-show/575823/22 "2011-03-26T13:59:30Z")
I was actually going to say that, not only should you make the pilot, but you should make a few episodes and put it on the Internet. If your idea is good, people will start giving you contributions, and eventually some big wig will offer to take it off your hands, if you get popular enough. That’s the only way I’ve seen Joe Blow off the street get a TV show. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-protect-my-idea-for-a-new-reality-show/575823/23 "2011-03-26T16:00:53Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Ty, I’m familiar with the route used by writers, but I was hoping it could be verified that it applied to TV shows. Who’s this Ty you keep referring to? Anyway, poor man’s copyright is a joke. It’s never been upheld in a court. Never. Everybody who knows anything about copyright has made it their life’s work to stomp the notion out of the language. Once more for the archives. Ideas are worthless. They are not protectable. They’re not even valuable. Full-fledged proposals have value, but they are like the difference between a idea for a skyscraper and the building plans for a skyscraper. Your full proposal is not only copyrightable, but is in fact copyrighted as soon as you set it into tangible form. You can register the copyright online at [copyright.gov](http://copyright.gov) for $35 and that will give you protection that is legally enforceable in court. It will never go that far, of course, but it’s real. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-protect-my-idea-for-a-new-reality-show/575823/24 "2011-03-27T03:05:46Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > The pilot for “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” cost $85 to make. It depends a ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-protect-my-idea-for-a-new-reality-show/575823/25 "2011-03-27T03:11:38Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > The pilot for “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” cost $85 to make. It depends a lot on the OP’s exact idea. Let’s assume he came up with the idea of this show where people compete in some remote place for things like comfort food and such (I believe it’s “survivor” in the USA, but I’m not sure). I can’t see him being able to produce a pilot on the cheap… Well…thinking twice, in fact I’m wrong and you’re right. He could film some episodes with a team of friends in some isolated place, like, say, a forest, in his home state. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-protect-my-idea-for-a-new-reality-show/575823/26 "2011-03-27T04:20:56Z")
How original does it have to be? “American Idol” -it’s a talent show. Almost every reality show is an elimination contest. The contestants / judges / audience / contest result votes off the next loser. You can’t copyright an idea. The similarity would have to be pretty broadly the same, pretty specific and pretty eerie before you’ll win in court. ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-protect-my-idea-for-a-new-reality-show/575823/27 "2011-03-28T14:48:40Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I claim prior art with my idea “America’s Next ‘America’s Next Reality Show Producer’ Producer”, where 144 people with ideas for reality shows about selecting reality shows get judged by a panel of network executives. > > ETA: and they all have to live in the same house when not participating in filming. Like most reality shows, that sounds gross. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-protect-my-idea-for-a-new-reality-show/575823/29 "2014-06-09T18:55:36Z")
Spam reported ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-protect-my-idea-for-a-new-reality-show/575823/30 "2014-06-09T18:55:39Z")
Reported [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-protect-my-idea-for-a-new-reality-show/575823.md?page=1)