Union: Pay TV Talent Show Contestants

The Guardian reports,

Television talent shows are using contestants as “cheap” labour, thereby undercutting professional performers in the entertainment industry, a union has warned.

The actors’ union Equity has rounded on shows such as Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor, which do not pay contestants a penny for their performances but are watched by millions of viewers on primetime TV.

In a motion tabled for this next week’s annual TUC conference in Liverpool, the union will call for contestants who qualify for the show to be paid the rate for the job amid fears that professionals are losing out.

Seizing on the controversy that surrounded Susan Boyle on the last Britain’s Got Talent contest, the union also calls for a return to “professional drama and light entertainment” rather than shows based on the “exploitation and humiliation of vulnerable people”.

Interesting that a union complained and not the contestants themselves. I doubt contestants label an appearance on television and a shot at stardom “exploitation.”