“Every production company, every network, must have a publishable framework for looking after participants”

How much alcohol should be consumed on a Reality Television set?

How many hours should a participant be expected to film before being given a break?

What’s the minimum age Children should be accepted into talent shows?

These are questions I raised at Screen Forever conference recently when I asked if it was time the genre had a Code of Conduct about how it makes television.

In Drama, actors are represented by Agents. Crews work to a set of MEAA conditions and a safe workplace Code of Coduct introduced following #MeToo.

But in Reality TV where participants have no TV experience, and no representation, who is there to defend them when things go awry?

In the UK, which has experienced a devastating fallout on Love Island, the industry overhauled its Duty of Care. ITV published clear guidelines around psychological support, financial advice, handling social media, reports from GPs -even requiring family consultation before casting.

Adrian Swift, Head of Content, Production and Development at Nine, said conversations around Duty of Care were ongoing and a priority.

“In response to your question about a Code of Conduct, my answer would be this.

“I think every production company, every network must have a demonstrable structure for looking after participants. A publishable, if you like, framework for looking after participants,” he said.

“We do across every one of our shows, which has been developed with a great deal of time and effort. Duty of Care is a huge issue and we won’t always get it right. I know we don’t always get it right and that people often feel that we’ve got it fundamentally wrong. But we’re trying to get it right. We really believe we’ve got processes in place to look after participants in our shows. And it’s very often, very different across different shows.”

On the question of alcohol used on set he added, “A drunk participant on one of our shows is always a problem. We have to cut them out or around them. We do not want drunk people on our shows. We do not want people out of control on our shows. So we try, where possible, to make sure that doesn’t happen. Occasionally participants will ‘pre-load,’ to use an expression where we don’t have remit over their consumption.”

Productions also try to make clear to participants what they are getting into.

“We try and be as transparent as possible. No one believes us.”