When Hollywood writers went on strike in 2007 and 2008, unscripted TV production soared.

Scripted projects stalled during the work stoppage, and studios turned to reality TV — a cheaper, faster format that didn’t rely on writers — to fill the airwaves. Audiences began keeping up with the Kardashians and saying yes to the dress, and a new era of television was born.

But around the time writers walked out again in 2023, something strange happened.

“I thought because of the strikes there might be an uptick in reality TV because most of my jobs haven’t been union,” said Celeste Diamos, a TV editor who has worked on “House Hunters,” “Property Brothers” and “The D’Amelio Show.”

“In fact, it was the opposite.”

From April through June, reality TV production in the Greater Los Angeles area plummeted by 57% compared with the same period of time last year and 50% compared with the five-year average, according to FilmLA, a nonprofit organization that tracks on-location shoot days and filming permits in the region. (The five-year average excludes three months in 2020 when production shut down because of COVID-19.)

The decline is largely a symptom of an industrywide contraction that began prior to last year’s strikes and has persisted since. But most forms of production have stabilized at roughly 15% below what FilmLA would consider a normal amount of filming activity in Los Angeles.

“Reality TV has taken a pretty substantial hit,” said Paul Audley, president of FilmLA.

Until now, reality TV was not as badly affected by cutbacks that have plagued the industry in recent years, Audley explained.

After the COVID-19 quarantine lifted, unscripted production rebounded quickly because reality TV shows were easier to make under the industry’s new health protocols, Audley said. A similar phenomenon occurred during the strikes because most reality programming doesn’t employ WGA writers or SAG-AFTRA actors.

That period of relative prosperity led to an “artificial high” for reality TV, Audley said. But unlike the COVID-19 regulations and the walkouts, the current wave of belt-tightening and production cutbacks is coming for everyone.

Studios are slashing their production slates and budgets in the wake of the so-called streaming wars, while production companies are filming projects in the United Kingdom, Ireland and other places around the world to save money.

“In 2022, you could not find an editor in this town” because the demand for workers in the field was so high, said Molly Shock, an editor whose resume includes “Project Runway,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” and “MasterChef USA.”

“That flood of work created some false expectations of people thinking, ‘Oh, streaming is great. We’re gonna have all this work all the time,’ not really seeing it as a bubble that was going to ultimately burst.”

Editors, who make up much of the reality TV workforce, say it has been especially hard to find jobs because even projects that film in Los Angeles are doing postproduction elsewhere.

Multiple editors remarked that streamers don’t need to worry as much about creating the next big reality TV show because they can count on popular titles from their back catalog to attract more subscribers. Some of the classics, such as “Survivor,” have dozens of seasons that audiences can catch up on.

“Still ... when you think of reality shows, it’s ‘Housewives.’ It’s ‘The Voice.’ It’s ‘The Amazing Race,’ ” Shock said.

“That used to be the programming when cable ruled the airwaves ... Those markets don’t exist anymore.”