So to sum up, MTV doesn’t want to pay new “diverse” writers close to a starting salary, they could very well use this fictional competition as an idea farm to steal the work of aspiring writers, and even if the one lucky chosen person gets a script done, they won’t even be eligible for medical insurance.
The contest ended on February 4, 2022, and MTV remained silent as awareness of this terrible contest grew. Maybe they’ll do the right thing and pay their earning writer a fair wage. It won’t help the hundreds of others who entered this contest, but it will at least be a step in the right direction. It’s all over, what? Forty-something thousand dollars? This isn’t some film school collective starting a new company, it’s a billion dollar conglomerate. This money is nothing to them.
If you want to help people who need a boost, who are outside the system, who don’t have the opportunities that those who can afford to do internships and work relationships to get positions where they get their chance, so help these people by treating them like you would any real writer. Pay them. And while you’re at it, don’t pretend you own land that’s under your control. That’s not how it works, and you should know not to tell green writers you’re going to.
It’s fitting that all of this controversy surrounds the story of an out-of-touch grumpy rich man. Will MTV wake up on Christmas morning and realize he’s the bad guy in this story and change his ways? I kinda doubt it, but there’s always room for a Christmas miracle, isn’t there?