budget Budgets of reality shows?

[Blade_Jones]

Does anyone know what the budgets are to produce a season of reality shows that you see on TV? A million? 3 million? 5 million? 10 million?
Some shows like American Greed have a lot B-roll footage, reenactments, and interviews, while others like Life Below Zero seem more involved as far as sending off crew to probably do a couple of weeks' worth of shooting.

 

[directorik]

The budget for a season of reality shows that you see on TV can range from $5 million to $25 million.

 

[Blade_Jones]

According to this article, it's much less. 100K to 500K per episode. So 8 episodes X 100K = 800K. https://www.southuniversity.edu/new...programming-that-produces-high-ratings-119585

 

[directorik]

I will amend my answer:

The budget for a season of reality shows that you see on TV can range from under a
million for a small show with 8 episodes to upwards of $85 million for a larger show
with 14 to 26 episodes.

My personal experience is on bigger budget reality shows.

According to that article, it can be much higher. Depending on content each episode
can cost in the neighborhood of $500,000.