The night-before checklist.

Keep this open on the other screen. Every line is a hard rule from a form or an eligibility sheet, not advice.

Every show

• The written application is finished, properly. No one-word answers.
• Everything on it is true, and nothing that a background check would find has been left off.
• Two recent photos: a headshot and a full-body. No sunglasses, no hat, no glamour shot.
• The video is under 3:00.
• The video is horizontal.
• You can hear yourself over everything else in it.
• You’ve watched it back, all the way through, on a device that didn’t make it.
• The file is under 50 MB — the actual number, not a guess.
• It’s an accepted format: mpg, mpeg, avi, mp4, wmv, mov, 3gp or mkv.
• It’s the one video you’re sending this cycle.
• You’re not related to, or living with, anyone who works for CBS or the production.
• You’re not running for office, and won’t until your season has aired.

If it’s Survivor

• You’re 18 or older (19 in Alabama, Nebraska and Wyoming; 21 in Mississippi and D.C.).
• You’re a U.S. or Canadian citizen.
• You have, or can get, a U.S. passport — semifinalists need one.
• You were not a finalist in Los Angeles before. If you were, don’t reapply; they have your file.
• You can be away for about seven weeks in the spring.
• You know casting opened in late July and you’re inside the window.

If it’s Big Brother

• You’ll be 21 by June 1 of the season year. This one is strict.
• You’re a U.S. citizen living in the U.S.
• You can give up roughly three months over the summer, with no phone.
• You know the calendar: calls come March to mid-May, and if you haven’t heard by May 31, that’s the answer for this year.
• If you’re also going to an open call, that’s a separate minute. This video is the three-minute one.

If it’s The Amazing Race

• Both of you are 18 or older (state exceptions apply; open calls have asked for 21).
• Both of you are U.S. citizens.
• Both of you have a valid passport.
• Both of you have a driver’s licence.
• You’ve known each other at least a year.
• Both of you are in the video, and it talks about the relationship — the good and the bad.
• You can both disappear for about four weeks in early autumn.

The box most people fail on

It’s the 50 MB one. The form is small, phones film big, and the error message arrives at 11pm. Filming it explains why and what to do about it. Everything else on this list, you can fix in an evening.