Tag Archives: Paul Lee

5 Predictions From TV Networks Execs Last Year That Were Way Off

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failed upfronts predictions

The networks will play a variety of pop hits during their TV upfront presentations next month, but the only song that really should be part of the soundtrack that is The Lego Movie’s “Everything is Awesome.” After all, each of the the network executives who take the stage will be full of optimism that their new crop of shows will finally be the ones that take them to the top.

But as I wrote at Adweek, everything is not awesome, even for the top network in adults 18-49 (which will again be ABC). Before we hear a new batch of (at least partially) empty upfronts promises, I looked back at the five worst predictions from last year’s presentations. Among them: then Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly’s declaration that Jump of the Century and Hieroglyph will be airing soon on the network:

Reilly was far from the only one to disappear from Fox shortly after the upfronts. He touted two programs to advertisers that were canceled before they ever made it to air: straight-to-series pickup Hieroglyph (Fox pulled the plug a month later) and Jump of the Century, in which two rival stuntmen would attempt Evel Knievel’s failed jump across Idaho’s Snake River Canyon (it was scrapped last July). “The power of broadcast really shines through when there’s urgency to view,” Reilly said of Jump of the Century. Of course, it also really shines through when the shows are actually broadcast.

There’s a lot more silly predictions where that came from, so sure to read the rest of the story.

5 Predictions From TV Networks Execs Last Year That Were Way Off

How ABC Got Its Groove Back (Only Partly Because of Shonda Rhimes)

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ABC got its groove back

Showtime’s David Nevins wasn’t the only network president I interviewed at TCA’s winter press tour. I also had some time with ABC Entertainment President Lee, which I turned into this Adweek story about how things are finally looking up for ABC after a decade of dwelling in, or near, the 18-49 ratings basement.

Lee walked me through some of the network’s successful (and not-so-successful) moves this season, including the brilliant move to brand Thursday’s all-Shonda Rhimes lineup as TGIT:

Lee’s most successful play this season was handing over his Thursday night lineup to Rhimes: Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, both of which she created, and How to Get Away with Murder, which she executive produces. Most critically, he branded the night TGIT (Thank God It’s Thursday), an ode to the TGIF Friday night comedy block that was a ratings hit in the ’90s.

“We took a brand that my boss Bob Iger invented [in 1989], TGIF, and we burnished it. It was very sweet to take a dormant brand and reinvent it on Thursday as something that was just as fresh today as that was then,” said Lee.

But as successful as TGIT has been, Lee isn’t sure he can replicate it on another night. “A brand has to match the shows that are there. It has to be extremely high quality. It has to capture the mood of the nation. So it’s very difficult,” he said. “It takes time to build them, and it takes extraordinary quality and patience.”

The network still has a long way to go, but my talk with Lee was a good reminder that thanks to Rhimes and several other big swings this season (including freshman hits Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat), ABC is finally figuring itself out.

 How ABC Got Its Groove Back (Only Partly Because of Shonda Rhimes)

ABC’s Success With Diversity Comes From Focusing on Creators, Not Just Stars

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abc tca

For far too long, broadcast networks have programmed shows that don’t accurately reflect the cultural backgrounds of the audiences watching them. ABC has been changing that with a far more diverse slate than its broadcast counterparts. As I wrote at Adweek, the network’s entertainment president Paul Lee talked about the strides ABC has made as he met with reporters at winter press tour.

“I think it’s our job to reflect America,” said ABC entertainment president Paul Lee at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour this week. “I really believed from the beginning that the demographic changes in America were just as important to our revolution as the technological changes.”

At the same time, Lee noted, “We didn’t pick up these shows because they were diverse, we picked them up because they were great.”

Lee addressed a variety of other topics, including anthology-style series, the death of “least objectionable television,” and why binge-watching isn’t a bad thing. He also said that he has finally gotten the message about launching music competitions after last summer’s Rising Star fared even worse than Duets two years earlier. “I don’t think we’ll try that for a little bit,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll come back to that in the future.”

ABC’s Success With Diversity Comes From Focusing on Creators, Not Just Stars

The 10 Most Ridiculous Things Network Presidents Said in 2014

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10 most ridiculous

I had so much fun pulling together this story for Adweek, on the most outrageous statements that network presidents made in 2014. As I wrote,

The network presidents spent much of 2014 bragging about, and defending, their various programming and scheduling decisions, no matter how foolish some of them turned out.

But some of those proclamations were so outrageous that they earned a well-deserved spot on this list of the 10 most ridiculous statements network presidents made this year. (I wanted to call this their “10 Biggest Lies of 2014,” but they actually believed at least some of these things to be true at the time they said them.)

From “Mulaney is the next Seinfeld!” to “We love Bill Cosby, and his troubles will sort themselves out,” see how many of your favorites made the list. And if you think Kevin Reilly, who stepped down as Fox entertainment chairman in May, is going to figure prominently … you would be correct.

The 10 Most Ridiculous Things Network Presidents Said in 2014

 

Three Decades After ‘The Cosby Show,’ Families of Color are Back on Network Television

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three decades cosby show

Three decades after The Cosby Show, the broadcast networks are finally making sitcoms again that more accurately represent and reflect the diverse makeup of their audiences. At Quartz, I wrote about new fall sitcoms Black-ish and Cristela, as well as midseason comedy Fresh Off the Boat.

In doing so, the network is finally beginning to correct the embarrassing dearth of sitcoms featuring non-white families. “If you look at shows now that seem to lack diversity, they actually seem dated, because America doesn’t look like that anymore,” ABC Entertainment President Paul Lee told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour. “People want to see voices that reflect the America that they know. … That’s not so much diversity as authenticity.”

As just as Cosby Show did 30 years ago, these three shows focus on themes that viewers of all ethnicities can easily connect with. “We love having a diverse slate, but we think these shows are deeply relatable. [When I watch them], I am one of those families,” said Lee, who admits that the new shows will hopefully appeal to international audiences as well. “We have a chance to resonate in the US and beyond. But make no bones about it, these are American stories, all of them.”

It also helps that Black-ish is terrific, and one of fall’s best new comedies. ABC’s Lee, who is leading the charge towards presenting diverse families, knows that he and his peers still have a long way to go to close the gap. But these shows represent a very promising start.

Three decades after ‘The Cosby Show,’ families of color are back on network television

‘Selfie’ was the Word of the Year—and Now it’s a TV Show

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selfie oscars

Today I wrote about ABC’s odd decision to take a modern day take on My Fair Lady, and call it Selfie. Speaking at TCA summer press tour, the show’s creator Emily Kapnek said the title “feels very topical and relevant to me,” but I’m not so sure:

But taking a series, which its creator and the network hope will air for years to come, and calling it Selfie seems about as risky a bet as naming a show Macarena back in the mid-1990s (which no one did, thankfully). Given that some have argued that the word has already jumped the shark, Selfie’s title could quickly feel dated, and eventually become an albatross for the show.

Only time will tell if audiences will find Selfie, and its title, worthy of a retweet — or a delete.

‘Selfie’ was the word of the year—and now it’s a TV show

American Singing Competitions are Hoping Israel Can Save Them

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american singing competitions

The singing competition genre has gone off-key in the U.S., but ABC is hoping that a hit series from Israel — Rising Star, in which audiences vote in real-time, via the show’s app —will get it back on track. As I wrote at Quartz,

Speaking to reporters at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour in January, ABC Entertainment Group President Paul Lee called Rising Star “the next generation of reality shows,” adding, “It’s almost like a modern Colosseum. I mean, people are literally voting up or down. … And it really has been a big hit over there. We think it will be a star maker over here.”

Easier said than done. After all, TV success in one country does not always translate to another. For every American Idol—based on the British series Pop Idol—there is an X Factor, which couldn’t replicate the UK original’s success here. (Rising Star has also been sold to France, Germany, Italy and Russia.)

I have my doubts for several reasons, most notably the fact that the show will air in four different time zones, meaning that not everyone will be able to vote “live.” And it was just two summers ago that ABC announced another heavily-hyped singing competition, Duets, which faded quickly. It seems unlikely that Rising Star will fare any better.

American singing competitions are hoping Israel can save them 

Six Ways TV is Changing Forever

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six-ways-tv

TCA winter tour is finally winding down, but I wanted to write one last story about the various developments and announcements that I hadn’t been able to address in standalone stories. So for my final Quartz story from TCA, I noted six ways that TV is changing forever, including my observation that pilot season isn’t dead — yet:

Last week, FOX announced the death of pilot season, with Reilly explaining that “it’s highly inefficient” and “built for a different era” when CBS, ABC and NBC were the only three networks in existence. Instead, Reilly has already picked up several projects “straight to series” for next season, bypassing the usual pilot process so as not to waste resources on projects that will never make it to air.

Yet the other networks were quick to declare that while the business is indeed changing, pilot season is still very useful for them. “It’s frustrating, but also exciting,” said CBS’s Tassler, who noted that pilot season’s “compression of time”—in which pilots are cast, shot and focus-tested in a matter of weeks—gives way to “this creative adrenaline” that has delivered their biggest hits, like The Big Bang Theory. NBC’s Greenblatt noted that his network’s new hit The Blacklist “probably would never have seen the air had we not made a pilot, because it came from a relatively young, inexperienced writer. We weren’t exactly sure immediately from that script that we should order a series.”

Farewell, Pasadena!

Six ways TV is changing forever