Jury Duty: Lee Eisenberg and Nicholas Hatton on Reality TV, Gentle Humanity, and Everyday Heroes
About this episode
The episode explores the behind-the-scenes of the reality TV series Jury Duty with its creators and discusses the nature of reality television.
In this episode, we’re playing with reality as we explore what’s going on behind the scenes of the Peabody Award-winning reality TV comedy, Jury Duty . In our interview with creator Lee Eisenberg and executive producer Nicholas Hatton, we discuss this highly staged reality series where only one person, the “hero,” is their authentic self. Everyone else is an actor, and all of the interactions are scripted and planned in service of telling a unique and uplifting story of one person determined to do the right thing. In the first season, the creators and writers took us into a courtroom to explore citizens in the jury system. The second season takes place at a company retreat, and again, a new hero shows us that authentic goodness in humans does actually exist, perhaps more than we think. Later, we examine the world of reality TV with Hunter Hargraves, author of Uncomfortable Television , and get his thoughts on how Jury Duty is shaking up reality TV.
People in this episode
Guests: Lee Eisenberg, Nicholas Hatton
Topics covered
- reality TV
- Jury Duty
- humanity
- storytelling
- courtroom
- company retreat
Keywords
- reality TV
- Jury Duty
- Lee Eisenberg
- Nicholas Hatton
- Hunter Hargraves
- authenticity
- storytelling
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Jury Duty, Uncomfortable Television
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