Today I submitted a proposal to include more unscripted production into California bill SB 630. This is my best proposal I can think of to date. The initiative to bring unscripted production back to California is the product of countless discussions I've had with editors and producers over the last couple of years. In it's reasoning is my best strategy and logic which is backed up by evidence and your knowledge which you have shared with me.
Furthermore, because SB 630 is a comprehensive bill that will do so much good for our industry, my proposal is to modify it only slightly and thoughtfully.
It is as follows. (While I submitted the list of signatories to the legislature, I'm omitting them here for the sake of everyone's personal privacy.)
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Dear members of the California State Legislature,
The California Bill SB 630 is a vitally important initiative which will keep our film industry thriving when it is currently being decimated by outside competition in the form of tax credits. Unfortunately, due to its language, it is choosing to disenfranchise many entertainment workers because of their specific exclusion from tax incentives. These are entertainment workers within unscripted genres.
I started a petition which aims to include unscripted production in SB 630. It has gained over 1,000 signatures from professionals in southern California. New information has come to light on a daily basis, and I use that petition to keep the signatories updated as such.
That petition can be found here, and California signatories will be posted at the end of this letter. Know that any member’s signature on this proposal is in no way their declaration that they approve of or oppose SB 630, only that they advocate for the inclusion of unscripted production.
https://www.change.org/p/include-unscripted-programming-in-governor-newsom-s-film-tax-incentive-bill
The only section of the bill which I advocate for amendment is the following paragraph.
PAGE 9: (ix) For taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2025, and only for purposes of the credit allowed in subdivision (k), a large-scale competition show, not including traditional reality, game shows, talk shows, or documentary television programming, that is produced in California, with a minimum production budget of one million dollars ($1,000,000).
The ways I would like to see the previous statement amended are as follows.
1. Do not exclude any unscripted productions simply by the merit of their genre. Game shows and other reality shows are leaving California in a big way. In many cases they are breaking up successful union productions to go abroad. I can provide examples of this if necessary. We cannot rely on our federal government to protect union workers in California. That protection must come from the state.
2. Should the bill be amended to include the aforementioned excluded genres, I understand the logic behind hitting a budgetary benchmark of $1,000,000 per episode. But even big primetime game shows that employ all types of production crew like stagehands, art department, lighting gaffers, camera people, editors, ect…will still likely not hit this requirement. However, they shoot for many seasons, contribute much to the economy, and are leaving California in a big way as well. Let’s restructure this benchmark so that:
Traditional reality, game shows, talk shows, or documentary television programming shall qualify for a relative portion of the credit upon reaching the 1,000,000 dollar benchmark per qualified entity. The qualified entity shall receive additional relative portions of the tax credit per each 1,000,000 dollars spent on such programming over the course of the year.
Let’s pretend that the hit Fox game show starring Rob Lowe, The Floor, has decided to no longer fly American contestants all the way to Ireland to shoot and edit in pursuit of tax breaks, because thanks to a revised SB 630 it’s more equitable to produce here. Let’s say that episode 1 spends $750,000. Then episode 2 spends another $750,000. Under this proposal they would now qualify for $1,000,000 worth of the tax incentive.
This stacking approach to reaching the qualifying benchmark will make it beneficial for a studio to maximize their level of California production in more ways than one.
3. Let’s make sure to clearly define certain genres of unscripted so that they don’t miss out on potential incentives. There must be some political forces that have decided to only include “reality competition” shows within the current SB 630. In case my previous proposal doesn’t make it into the legislation, let’s make sure we properly define that genre. A “reality competition show” should be defined as “an unscripted program in which a set of contestants are cast to compete against each other over the course of a season to win a prize.” It would be tragic for massively popular shows to be mis-categorized under the vague term “traditional reality.”
The Bachelor might be casually described as a “reality dating show.” But it is in fact a competition show, because the contestants are competing for a prize over the course of a season, the bachelor. Big Brother might be casually described as a “house reality” show. But it is a competition show for the same reason.
These are big, popular shows that employ lots of people in California. Let’s make sure to keep them here and attract more of that kind of business.
Thank you for reviewing my proposal.
Eric Kenehan
Unscripted Television Editor