Tag Archives: HBO

Power of 10: Why Networks are Ordering Shorter Seasons for Their Hit Shows

power of 10

Some of the best story ideas come from chats with other TV critics and writers. And a recent conversation with Alan Sepinwall yielded the idea for this Quartz story about how no HBO series have series longer than 10 episodes.

While HBO cannot air more than 10 episodes of Game of Thrones each year due to the show’s massive production scale, even its smaller-budgeted shows (i.e. everything else on the network) stay capped at 10 episodes per season. The last show to air a season of more than 10 episodes was Girls, which had 12 episodes in early 2014, but when back down to 10 this year. But Michael Lombardo, president of HBO programming, insists that all is not what it appears:

Despite appearances, however, HBO insists that there is no 10-episode edict in place. “The number of episodes for any of our series is determined by the story,” Lombardo told Quartz. “From conversations with showrunners, writers and/or producers, we find the appropriate amount of episodes necessary to tell that particular story. You never want to rush or drag out a story, so this is a very important step in the production process.”

As I wrote later in the piece:

In other words, HBO says that it could greenlight a season of more than 10 episodes, but the network doesn’t feel that any of the shows on its slate warrant a longer season (with the possible exception of Thrones, where they are locked into 10 episodes regardless of how many they’d like to make each year). But this runs counter to what Girls executive producer Judd Apatow told HitFix last year, in lamenting the reduction of Girls’ fourth season from 12 episodes to 10. “I am a big fan of doing more episodes,” Apatow said. “Unfortunately, most of the shows on HBO are 10 episodes, so I think we will be doing 10 next year. We don’t line up with anybody when we do 12.”

HBO isn’t the only cable network to embrace shorter seasons. I also spoke with Nina Lederman, Lifetime’s SVP of scripted programing and development, who also shed some light on this trend as well.

I wish Lombardo had been a bit more open about HBO’s mindset, so for now, we’ll have to keep an eye on HBO’s season orders and see if one ever rises above 10 again. And thanks again, Alan, for the great story idea!

Power of 10: Why networks are ordering shorter seasons for their hit shows

FX Wants to be the ‘Best’ Channel on TV, Not the Highest-Rated One

fx tca fargo

Lots of crazy things have been said over the years at TCA press tour — like when Kevin Reilly declared the death of pilot season last January — but on my last day at winter tour, FX Networks CEO John Landgraf said something I’d never heard uttered there before: he’d rather be the “best” channel instead of the top-rated one. As I wrote at Adweek,

“Obviously we want as many people as possible to watch our shows, we want them to be as highly rated as possible, but there’s quite a range [of ratings], and we can support that range,” said Landgraf, referring to some of FX’s critically acclaimed, but lower-rated, shows like Louie and The Americans. “We’re not really a channel that’s trying to be the highest-rated channel in television. We’re trying as hard as we possibly can to be the best channel in television, whatever that means. If we weren’t therefore supporting shows that would help us get there, just because [they weren’t among the highest-rated], we’d be idiots.”

While Landgraf is sticking by critically-acclaimed yet low-rated shows like Louie and The Americans, his patience does have its limits, as he explained to me last fall after he canceled The Bridge. He talked about the two-horse race to be the “best” network on TV (look out, HBO!), the glut of programming on television (more than 1,700 original seasons of TV last year!) and the need to break out of a format “dictated by the terms of business.”

FX Wants to be the ‘Best’ Channel on TV, Not the Highest-Rated One

Which Networks Made the Naughty and Nice Lists This Year?

networks naughty nice

I’ve wrapped my Best (& Worst) in 2014 week, but I have one final look back for this year: my Adweek story about which networks made Santa’s naughty and nice lists in 2014. The easiest call by far? NBC, which topped the nice list:

It was a very good year for the Peacock Network, which won the 2013-14 season in 18-49 (a 2.7 average), its first demo victory in 10 years. The network picked up where it left off this fall, where it’s once again leading the pack in 18-49 (thanks largely to Sunday Night Football and The Voice). Not even Peter Pan Live’s disappointing ratings can stall NBC’s momentum, especially with Super Bowl XLIX waiting in the wings on Feb. 1.

How did the rest of the networks fare? Take a look!

And with that, TV & Not TV will be taking a holiday hiatus for a few days (barring breaking news). But we’ll be back at the end of the week with news of an exciting TV appearance this weekend that should mark TV & Not TV’s television debut.

Until then, happy holidays!

Which Networks Made the Naughty and Nice Lists This Year?

What Netflix, HBO, Amazon, Showtime and the Rest of TV Need to Resolve to Do in 2015

2015 resolutions

It seems like just yesterday that I had written five 2014 resolutions for the TV industry. But it’s already time to look ahead to 2015, which I did today for Quartz. (First, however, I took stock of how my 2014 resolutions turned out — not too shabby!)

This year, instead of making resolutions for the entire industry to follow, I created specific ones for the industry’s major players. For example, for Hulu:

Hulu: Don’t get left in the dust by Netflix and Amazon

In 2014, Hulu made some big moves to try and stay in the race with Netflix and Amazon, including an $80 million-plus deal acquiring the rights to all seasons of South Park and ordering three new series produced by the likes of J.J. Abrams, Jason Reitman and Amy Poehler. But those new shows, and South Park, need to deliver, and make Hulu a worthy streaming competitior. Oh, and Hulu, you know how you’ve been considering cutting back the number of ads running on Hulu Plus? Do that. Immediately.

I hope my 2015 resolutions fare as well as the 2014 ones did!

 What Netflix, HBO, Amazon, Showtime and the rest of TV need to resolve to do in 2015

Forget beating HBO: Netflix just revealed it has much bigger goals in mind

forget-beating-hbo

I was very surprised by the announcement late Friday night that Netflix had acquired NBC’s midseason comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, one of the NBC shows I was most looking forward to this season. Two days earlier, it had picked up the high-rated but old-skewing Longmire, which A&E had canceled after three seasons. In my Quartz analysis, I noted,

Gone are the days where Netflix tried to make a splash with programming you couldn’t find anywhere else on TV, most notably Orange is the New Black. While cable networks like USA and AMC are trying to save themselves by retrenching and focusing on what they do best, Netflix is taking the opposite approach: it wants to be everything to everyone.

For years, Netflix had said its goal was “to become HBO faster than HBO can become us.” But now, it has even loftier ambitions: it wants to be all things to all people.

Forget beating HBO: Netflix just revealed it has much bigger goals in mind

Lisa Kudrow is Feeling the Pressure to Make Her ‘Comeback’ Worth the 9-Year Wait

lisa-kudrow

I unexpectedly had a terrific chat with Lisa Kudrow during the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour, and turned that into this Adweek profile about The Comeback’s return on Sunday, nine years after HBO canceled it. She talked with me about playing both sides of the HBO/Showtime rivalry, reviving The Comeback, how her guest-appearance on Scandal last season helped make it happen and what’s next for Valerie Cherish.

Lisa Kudrow is Feeling the Pressure to Make Her Comeback Worth the 9-Year Wait

‘Squawk Alley’: Why Sunday is TV’s Hottest Night

While I’ve been on Squawk Alley several times, they’ve always been remote appearances from CNBC’s Englewood Cliffs, N.J. office. This morning, I finally made my way to the New York Stock Exchange for my first in-studio appearance, where I talked about my recent Quartz story about why the best shows air on Sundays.

Here’s a clip from my segment:

Thankfully, they didn’t include the portion where my earpiece shorted out, just as I was being asked a question by someone remotely. Oh, the fun of live TV!

‘Squawk Alley’: Why Sunday is TV’s Hottest Night

How ‘The Comeback’ Came Back

The Comeback

Most of the reporters on hand for TCA summer press tour are counting the days until The Comeback’s return in November. Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King talked to us about Valerie Cherish’s triumphant return. As I wrote at Quartz,

While Kudrow and her co-creator Michael Patrick King had talked casually over the years about what Valerie might be up to now, “it was too much of an emotional risk” to think seriously about the idea, Kudrow said at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. That changed when HBO called them in, after two network staffers persuaded HBO programming president Michael Lombardo to consider reviving it. “It just started with a kernel of a creative idea,” said Lombardo. “We started imagining it, and we called Michael Patrick King and Lisa. They came in for a meeting and it was so exciting, funny and it just happened.”

They, and HBO execs, also talked about how much reality TV — and HBO — has changed in the nine years since The Comeback went off the air, and what could be next for the show.

How ‘The Comeback’ came back

HBO Plots the Future of ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘True Detective’ and Maybe Even ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’

hbo plots the future

There’s nothing like earning 99 Emmy nominations to put a bounce in your step, and HBO was indeed in high spirits at TCA summer press tour. As I wrote at Quartz,

But the network is more concerned about keeping its subscribers happy, not Emmy voters. Speaking to reporters today at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour, chairman and CEO Richard Plepler and HBO programming president Michael Lombardo unveiled their strategy to keep the premium network’s most popular shows rolling along—and their subscribers (114 million worldwide, which generated $4.9 billion in revenue last year, plus countless others who watch HBO Go via shared passwords)—eagerly coming back for more.

At the top of their list: making a plan for Game of Thrones, plotting Season 2 of True Detective, hoping out hope for more Curb Your Enthusiasm and giving closure to True Blood, Boardwalk Empire and The Newsroom.

HBO plots the future of ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘True Detective’ and maybe even ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’

Not Even Those Who Run Netflix Shows Know How Popular They Really Are

not even those who run Netflix

This is crazy to me. We’ve all known for years that Netflix has stubbornly refused to release any ratings information on its shows. Now, I wrote at Quartz, it turns out that not even the people who make Netflix’s most popular (we think) shows have any idea how many viewers actually watch their programming.

“It’s like, ‘I’m a hit —I think,’” Orange is the New Black creator Jenji Kohan told The Hollywood Reporter. The lack of viewership metrics from Netflix “makes it hard to negotiate later,” she says, referring to the standing industry practice in which the stars and producers of hits shows leverage ratings success for significant raises in a show’s third or fourth season.

I also wrote about Netflix’s excuses for withholding that data — and why they don’t hold water.

Not even those who run Netflix shows know how popular they really are