TV Shows - filming vs airing time

[graychalk]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone here might know the time discrepancy between when a TV show episode is aired vs when they were filmed (preferably for reality TV, game shows, or competitions)?

I googled this, but most information I came across were for TV series and sitcoms, and the time seems to vary anywhere between 2-6 weeks. If I'm understanding it correctly, it seems the early episodes were filmed earlier but the latter episodes may have a shorter time discrepancy. Also, the time has been shortening in modern days as opposed to back in the old days.

What I'm curious about is whether this applies to reality TV or reality game shows. Does anyone know anything about this?

ETA: Or shows that involve the audience or fans to vote for contestants (along the lines of Dancing with the Stars but not completely live?)

Comments

[silveradept]

Well, then there's the model that The Voice and other reality competitions use, which is basically that any block of the show that doesn't result from or directly involve audience participation is filmed completely in advance and only the live portions are done at time they need to broadcast.

Your host would need to be good at stretching or compressing to hit your time marks, and there might need to be someone with the sine wave for the seven second delay if needed. For someone like Carson Daly, with years of experience working TRL on MTV, no sweat. For someone else, maybe not so easy.