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By Daniel Frankel,
TheWrap
Jon Gosselin will face tough legal hurdles if he chooses to stay in the entertainment business.
There will be no "Jon Minus Kate" for the soon-to-be ex-husband -- at least not without a spirited court battle from TLC and its parent company, Discovery Communications.
Like most reality-show players, Gosselin signed his entertainment career away back in 2008, when he affixed his signature to release papers for "Jon & Kate Plus 8."
As reality has become TV's dominant programming genre over the last decade, producers and their lawyers have expanded and refined their release forms into voluminous, all-encompassing documents that leave no legal avenue unbarricaded -- for the producers.
"These people in essence sign everything away," conceded Kent Weed, president of A. Smith & Company, which produces reality series including "Hell's Kitchen" and "I Survived a Japanese Game Show."
Concerned that the editing made you come off like a total tool? Tough. Virtually all reality productions make you surrender rights to your "appearance, poses, movements, voice, statements, conversation, sounds and musical compositions," according to one contract. (To see a general release agreement, click here.)
Want to leave the show for any reason? You probably also signed a long-form release that mandates that you go on camera and deliver an explanation.
Convinced that series producers have conspired to keep you from winning? Well, you legally acknowledged that the producers own the game, and they can make it turn out any way they want.
Also on TheWrap: Reality TV stars suffer enduring trauma
And sexually transmitted diseases? Dude, they're your problem.
"You want a complete release of liability from anything that could arise on the show," said Greenberg Traurig LLP attorney Steven Katleman, who represents several reality producers, including A.
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