10 Mistakes That Wreck Your Pitches

One of the best ways to succeed in our business? Learn from the mistakes of others. Today, we’ll give you the top ten mistakes we see again and again in pitches for reality TV and documentary series. Avoid these — whether pitching to us or anyone else — and you’ll be WAY ahead of the curve. Some Mistakes Don’t Have to be Made If you’ve been listening to the podcast for awhile, you might think you have a good handle on the kinds of mistakes to avoid in your pitches. We’re SURE you’ve checked out our definitive guide to pitching reality TV. But even WE were surprised when we sat down with our summer development intern, the fabulous Quincie Li of Vanderbilt (introduced to us courtesy Chad Gervich and Vandy In Hollywood.) Quincie helped us investigate the kinds of mistakes that are popping up again and again in the many, many pitches we receive. In fact, her careful eye unearthed some trends we wouldn’t have even guessed existed. (By the way, you can get inside the creative mind of Quincie at her blog, Started From The Premiere.) Just a few things we cover today: * 10 Mistakes we see OVER AND OVER and what you should do instead. * The RIGHT way to position your “soft pitch.”. * Red flags that tag you as a “newbie.” * Questions you SHOULD NOT ASK. * Do we (Joke and Biagio) personally review every pitch? * Do you really need to send us video? * What do Oprah and Madonna have to do with all of this? * Why Biagio wants to punch someone in the nose. Hit the giant PLAY button above and start to get great interviews today! Transcript coming soon! Helpful and Related Links Stop Ruining Your Pitches: Top Tips from Stephanie Palmer Start Here: 7 Steps to Pitch Reality TV to Joke and Biagio Subscribe to Joke and Biagio on Youtube. Seriously, subscribe. Biagio has talked Joke into going on camera. A minor miracle. Come on, you know you want to click this sexy subscribe button: Come Make a Show With Us! Okay, you’re not going to wreck your pitches anymore. That’s great! We’ve even given you 7 simple steps to pitch to us, boiling it all down into one post. So you know what’s next: