SHANNON Nering couldn't have disagreed more.
A guest at a dinner party, she was shocked when the conversation shifted to the topic of Susan Boyle, who had just made her star-making debut on a 2009 episode of Britain's Got Talent. Those in attendance were discussing how, based on Boyle's age and appearance, little had been expected of her and she blew everyone away with her powerful voice.
"This woman at the dinner was saying, 'What a great example of reality TV ruining someone's life. She thinks she's something she's not now and all the fame that she's got from this, it's going to go away and she'll be ruined," says Nering. The woman went on to say she envisioned Boyle, a year from then, returning to her "crappy little apartment," slipping into depression.
Nering was quick to speak her mind.
"I was like, 'Are you serious? Honestly you think that?' I said 'A, even if her career doesn't explode from here,' - which as we know from history it did, but even if it didn't - 'I guarantee you if she went back to her crappy apartment two years later or a year later, I guarantee you she would look back on that night on the stage and the ensuing month or two of fame as the best time of her life and something that not everybody gets to experience," she recalls. "If anything, that show was a dream come true for her, even if it doesn't last."
Nering views the exchange as a telling example of how unjustly critical people can be of reality TV.
"Even something brilliant and good like that and turning a Susan Boyle - you know a 'marmy' type into an overnight sensation and star - somehow they find the negative side of that and I thought, 'I've got to stick up for my, for this beast here,'" she says.
Nering's opinion is more than that of a rabid fan, rather, it's that of an expert. An in-demand producer and director, she's worked behind the scenes in reality TV since the late 1990s - essentially the dawn of the overwhelming popular genre as it's known today. Examples of her extensive credits include: supervising producer on MTV's Peak Season; story producer on CBC's The Week The Women Went; field producer on the Dr. Phil show; and producer/field director on Fox's Bachelorettes in Alaska. She was also a director on the upcoming much-anticipated Real Housewives of Vancouver, slated to air on Slice TV this spring.
While Nering called Los Angeles, CA, home for a number of years, she currently resides in Lions Bay with her husband Josh, an accomplished director of photography in his own right, and their two children, ages four and six.
While Nering is quick to jump to reality TV's defense, finding the work fulfilling and feeding her passion for human nature and interest in discovering the truths of her subjects, that's not to say she doesn't have her own criticisms. She shares some of those in her recently released debut novel, Reality Jane, a fictitious and hilarious journey of a 20-something Canadian girl-next-door who moves to Hollywood, set on making it in the industry that Nering has long been part of. Relatable chick-lit heroine Jane faces ridiculous hours, egomaniacs, fame-mongers, superficiality and lipo-envy; as well, struggles to find Mr. Right in Nering's candid take. Reality Jane offers an insider's look into the stories behind the stories and examines the true cost of one's rise to the top.
Born in Medicine Hat, Alta., Nering moved to Calgary at age 11, living there for many years. She studied political science at the University of Calgary and then broadcasting at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, intent on pursuing a career in journalism.
"That had always been my mission was to be a foreign reporter or something on the frontlines of Baghdad at the time," she says. "I always had that in the back of my head."
She worked on a number of shows, including CBC TV's quirky-tale-focused Rough Cutz (a separate program from the documentary series Rough Cuts).
"I sort of made a name for myself as the extreme reporter," she says. "I would cover things that people were doing that were just outrageous, like wakeboarding in October on a man-made lake."
Despite her interest in hard news, she kept getting pushed into lifestyle reporting, for example, she also did entertainment hosting for Calgary's A-Channel.
"I was like 'Oh my God, I can't handle this, it's too fluffy, it's too meaningless,' which is ironic because look where I ended up," she says.
Nering's big break came as the result of a documentary she opted to make on soulmates. Herself and three other women loaded into a car and in 1996-1997 travelled parts of the United States and Canada to conduct interviews, including with author John Gray of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus fame, as well as with a few from Cosmopolitan magazine's list of bachelors. The project garnered some media attention and Inside Edition sent a producer, Jodi Roth, to put together a story. Nering and Roth, who now works at CBS as senior vice-president, specials, became fast and enduring friends. While sadly the documentary never went anywhere, as Nering, so new to the business, had neglected to get releases from subjects, it proved fruitful because of the important connection forged.
"Big mistake but not, because I made the one contact that changed my life, which was Jodi, and she kept recommending me for jobs - job after job after job," says Nering, adding she refers to Roth as her "fairy 'job' mother."
After the soul-mate documentary wrapped, Nering attended the New York Film Academy, then moved to Vancouver and again did some reporting for CBC, until a job that Roth had recommended her for required her to head south. In 1999, Nering packed her bags and headed to Los Angeles, where she lived and worked until she returned to Vancouver with her family in 2005.
"From there, my career just took a turn," says Nering. "I was no longer in front of the camera, I was now behind the camera. I was directing, I was producing, and it was pretty easy to make the switch from reporter to director."
"It was a very exciting time for me," she adds.
When asked why she thinks reality TV is so popular, Nering says it's because it's like an anthropological study of sorts, offering an opportunity to see people's true natures when they're put in difficult, competitive or survival-type environments.
"I think that's how it became really interesting and then it turned into something else," she says. "Now it's become something where it's all about the 15 minutes.
Whereas maybe people originally in reality TV were a little more authentic and they weren't necessarily looking for a career in TV or on-air, or dying to see themselves, and they truly wanted to win the million dollar prize or whatever it was, now you're seeing a lot of people who are just clamoring to be famous.
So now it's changing and in that sense it's a little less interesting."
Some characters are more one-dimensional and seem to be cast in an attempt to fit a certain beauty stereotype, she says, vastly different from the original cast of Survivor, say, which was all over the map.
Nonetheless, many people share a fascination for watching other people and gossip.
"It might not be the most admirable thing to talk about other people, but it's interesting and reality TV is fair game because these people have signed up for it, they've offered up their lives," says Nering.
"You wonder why, you wonder how they could be benefitting from this. But at some level, they're loving the attention, they're hoping this might propel them," she adds.
Nering believes it would be rare to find someone working in reality TV who isn't at least a little bit critical of it.
"You can't look at what we do every day and go, 'Oh God it's brilliant! I'm the next Gandhi!' But at the same time, there are some brilliant, great shows that do good things for people and help them find themselves and discover themselves and if nothing else they walk away better for the mirror that we've held up," she says.
Holding a mirror up to people and showing them who they truly are is what Nering views as her job. The goal is to pull out subjects' most authentic and honest selves and that can include their most extreme - both their best and worst.
"Who are you? I'm going to find out. By the time this show is over we'll know who you are. Don't come on this show if you don't want to know who you are. When we're sitting in the edit suite we're not like, 'Oh, let's make her look really stupid.' There are people who do that on their own. We don't need to make people look that way.
. . . If somebody is meanspirited, then yes, we will pick the clips that show them being mean-spirited because that's what they gave us. If someone is truly generous and giving and sharing, we're going to use those clips, we're going to show that side of their personality because that's what they revealed to us."
People will at times show up to shows already having decided which "role" they'll take on - the "villain," the "floozy," the "difficult one," the "tramp" or the "sweet one" -however, it's all part of who they are.
"I don't think you could play that role if that wasn't naturally who you were, if you didn't have that side to your personality, unless you're truly a brilliant actor," says Nering. "We don't cast actors because actors are part of a guild and you have to pay union rates for actors, so part of it's an economic thing, but also, we really don't want somebody showing up and pretending to be something. That wouldn't work for us."
Telling someone - outside of Los Angeles or New York of course - that you work in reality TV is typically followed by an onslaught of questions as to whether the shows are "real" and what certain characters are actually like. People definitely want the inside scoop, which Nering says is interesting because you'd think people would be more curious about scripted shows.
"Reality TV, well what you see, that's the scoop," she says. "But in terms of how the crew is, and all that kind of stuff, well, that's a different story and that's what my book really delves into, it delves into both sides."
While Nering definitely drew on her personal experiences for Reality Jane, it's certainly not an autobiography.
"I'm a little more cynical, analytical, definitely not naïve, never was, didn't walk into L.A. as a naïve, happy go lucky, reporter-cum-producer. . . . " she says, contrasting herself with main character Jane. "By the time I stepped into L.A., I was pretty savvy."
Apart from the development of Jane's career, the novel also chronicles her tumultuous romantic life.
"This is stuff that I've either witnessed, heard of or maybe experienced myself - the combination of which I won't reveal," laughs Nering.
Reality Jane is funny and silly at times, though Nering hopes it proves eye-opening.
"It's a satire, where you take society's vices, society's shortcomings and I've held it up to a bit of ridicule," she says. "And the point is to maybe create some change or shame us into improvement."
Nering encourages readers to take a closer look at today's popular shows and consider who are the stars and whether they're deserving.
"I'm not saying that reality TV is not real, I'm just saying you need to question the motives of people who are on it," she says. "You need to question the industry giants - are they the people you think they are? What is the goal of this business? What's the goal of any business: To make money. Don't forget that."
Nering has a busy few months ahead of her as she continues to promote Reality Jane, which she hopes one day gets made into a feature film. As well, she has an upcoming parenting column for CTV, is an active blogger, and is working on a CBC Doc Zone documentary, Mars and Venus Today, about relationships and the differences between men and women.
She's also anxiously awaiting the premiere of Lark Productions' Real Housewives of Vancouver, set for either March or April. Unfortunately she's unable to discuss the show and its stars until it goes to air.
"I can tell you this, it's going to be a great series," says Nering. "The women were amazing and it was a really fun show to work on. I'm really looking forward to seeing it on TV."
