Reality-based networks venturing into scripted TV

Can a zebra change its stripes?

Not likely. But these days numerous reality-based networks are sporting new stripes in the form of scripted fare. Consider:

• TruTV last month added several scripted series, including the sketch-comedy show “Friends of the People.”

• Animal Planet waded into the scripted swim with “The Whale: Revenge From the Deep,” a drama special on Wednesday, Nov. 26, starring Martin Sheen. This isn't the network's first scripted program, but now it's poised to go even further: An adaptation of the popular zombie animal graphic novel “The Other Dead” is targeted for early 2016.

• Dec. 2 marks the premiere of “Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce,” Bravo's first original scripted series, with stars including Lisa Edelstein (“House”) and Paul Adelstein (“Private Practice”). It will be followed next year by the comedy “Odd Mom Out.”

• E! has announced its first scripted drama series, “The Royals,” exposing “the upstairs and downstairs lives of a fictional royal family set in modern day London,” according to the network. It premieres in March.

• WeTV dipped its toe into scripted series this summer with “The Divide.”

• SundanceTV launched its first drama series, “Rectify,” last year, with others airing since.

• History successfully entered scripted television two years ago with “The Vikings,” then struck more ratings gold with its “Hatfields & McCoys” and “The Bible” miniseries.

It's a logical response to the battle that niche networks find themselves waging, says Bravo's senior vice president of development, Lara Spotts, who speaks of “a ‘Hunger Games-ian' environment. There are so many choices for viewers that you have to find new ways to deal with your rivals.”

Marjorie Kaplan, who as Discovery group president oversees Animal Planet, agrees: “When you look at the creative landscape and you see the audience's interest in scripted, you can't NOT ask yourself, ‘Is there something we could be doing there?'”

Not only does scripted represent a promised land for boosting audience interest, it's also bursting with creativity at a moment when reality is, by comparison, “a little bit stagnant,” says truTV's president and programming boss, Chris Linn.

“There has been such a renaissance with scripted content: new worlds, larger casts, more complex characters, nonlinear storytelling,” Linn says. “It has shaken things up in a way that has grabbed the audience's attention and raised the bar for what is a satisfying experience in watching television.”

Truth may be stranger than fiction, but capturing truth on camera — and making it look real — is often easier in a fictional form.

“You can really up the ante and up the fun in ways you can't always do with reality,” says Jeff Olde, E!'s executive vice president of programming and development.

“With scripted,” says Olde, “no one says ‘No.'”

Of course, the oft-cited divide separating reality from scripted may be a false distinction, at least in the minds of viewers, who are largely savvy to the staging, scripting and editing that make some reality programs less than real.

Each network's challenge to find new ways to give the audience what they came for in the first place — entertainment — has become a strong incentive not to be so hung up on genres, especially when scripted can be more authentic, more real, than reality TV sometimes allows.

This doesn't signal an identity crisis for any of these networks, nor is any of them disavowing the reality programming that remains their bread and butter. But it's a notable encroachment into prime real estate.

“This is a radical shift for us in a new direction,” says TruTV's Linn. “But there's so much shifting in the landscape right now. Old rules don't apply.”