Casting Complications

Lynne Spillman has done the casting for Survivor since it started in the US in 2000, and can recall the days when audition tapes arrived in a dismal trickle. "In the beginning, I think we got 1,500 tapes. For Survivor 2, the show's success launched into over 70,000 tapes." Spillman went from four people working for her to, on certain days, 40: "We couldn't believe the truckloads of tapes FedEx brought to our offices. It looked like a commercial, where you opened the back and they all came pouring out."

Robyn Kass, who has cast for the US version of Big Brother since 2001, can relate. For Big Brother 2, she says 2,000 to 2,500 tapes were sent in. For season six, there were over 10,000. "Closer to the deadline," says Kass, "the tapes start pouring in; in that last week we can get 2,000 a day." It takes Kass and her six-person staff two months to view them all. "We put every single tape in the vcr, and we break lots of VCRs along the way because they're overused," she says.

A lot can change in five years, as this deluge of taped auditions proves. Since reality shows like Survivor and Big Brother have taken off, there's been a lot of pressure on the casting directors to keep fickle viewers tuned in. Their selection processes have evolved, and ironically, although they have more applicants, it's become trickier to find suitable cast members. People play roles during try-outs, or make the reality audition rounds simply because they're itching to be on TV. Some casting directors have resorted to recruiting potential cast members on the streets to make sure they get the right group dynamic.

"There are pluses and minuses casting for a hit show," explains Kass. "The plus is everybody knows the show, so a lot of the applicants know what they're getting into. The minus is they know the show, so they know what they're getting into."

Since many have followed previous seasons closely, they often come into the process putting on an act. With Survivor, Spillman soon had to uncover "who was trying to play the part of Rudy and who was trying to be Richard," she says. "It got confusing and harder very quickly."

To ensure she gets to see real personalities, Kass lives with 50 Brother finalists sequestered in a hotel for up to 10 days before they make it onto the show. "What they don't realize is that all the extra time I spend going to the pool and having drinks with them, those are the times I'm really sniffing out if they're giving me the goods. Because when they see me at dinner they let their guard down and think, 'Oh, there's no camera here, I can really tell her what's going on.'"

"Everybody's putting on a little act - that's the position we start from," says Philip Edgar-Jones, who has done casting for Channel 4's version of Big Brother. "We start hearing the same things over and over. They tell us they've got what they think we want, so they'll say, 'I'll fight and I'll argue,' and all the rest of it, and we start from the position of not believing them."