When I was voted out—on live TV

First up today, as we do usually this season five, is Curtain Pull, in which I take a quick peek behind the scenes of a show.

Today, it's actually more like the industry and the reality TV world.

I was just at the ATX TV Festival in Austin, which was fantastic.

It was my first time there, though I've seen it from afar, watched things on YouTube, watched its panel sessions, read reporting from my TV critic colleagues who've been there or been talked to those who were moderators on panels.

The Television Critics Association did a panel that I moderated this year, which was terrific and fun.

And I went to a panel that I will be writing more about with Boston Rob and a executive from NBCUniversal who is in charge of casting for NBC, Peacock, and all of their cable networks, basically.

So bravo.

One interesting thing I learned from that was just about sort of Boston Rob taking the move, making the move from CBS to the NBC Universal family.

So he's now kind of in that ecosystem.

What I thought I would share here is just something that they mentioned that people might not be too aware of and is kind of loosening in recent years.

And that is that when you go on a reality TV show or when someone signs up for a show, one of the things in the contract is an agreement to not appear on other reality TV shows within a certain amount of time without permission.

It's usually a year.

And again, the permission part is kind of key.

So they were actually talking, the executive was talking about how they, for example, let Maura from The traitors go on Dancing with the Stars because that's been her dream.

So they were glad to not enforce that part of her contract.

But it does mean that she basically has to ask permission.

And so do other people on reality TV shows.

So it's kind of like the studio system.

You're being moved into a relationship with this giant company just by appearing on Survivor or The Traitors or whatever the show might be.

Again, some flexibility.

And I think things are changing in terms of networks, letting other people from other networks, other shows beyond their shows and seeing that as a strength rather than as a weakness.

But ultimately, it's still a contractual thing and you're locked in.

So next time you see someone jumping between corporate families or shows, just know that there's been probably a lot of negotiation or discussion behind the scenes.