For years, even the most serious business publications neglected showbiz, probably because showbiz has always promulgated the “we’re an art, not a business” thing so insistently. But them days are over, gang. Showbiz is Very Big Business indeed and Everyone Knows It. Especially when we’re talking about the dreaded ratings and all that affects them.
Take this latest example (please):
Prompted by a recent discussion with Andy Dehnart at realityblurred.com, here’s the key to understanding credits in reality television: Stop trying to make sense of them and start relying on context in relationship to the credits as a whole if you want to understand who’s who.
When you see nine Executive Producers listed on a show, a few could be network execs overseeing the show, a few could be owners or execs at the production company, and still others could be showrunners or even talent and their managers.
The difference between a Co-Executive Producer and a Supervising Producer? Sometimes none. A show may have one or the other or both (in which case the Supervising Producer is likely supporting the Co-EP), and each title can stand without the other. I’m aware of a few companies that don’t issue Co-EP credits for some reason, so the Supervising Producer is overseeing some part of production and/or post and reporting to an EP.
If this is the Golden Age of Television, how do we explain…this:
If you’ve wasted minutes of your life scouring the hundreds of available TV listings for something — anything — to watch, you’re not alone. A new survey shows that the large majority of TV watchers (especially those with families) are frustrated by the difficulty of locating something you might enjoy.
This is according to a new survey from Digitalsmiths, which asked thousands of U.S. consumers about their TV and streaming video behaviors and found that many of us are staring at the TV listings with glazed-over eyes.
Ooh, we love it when The New York Times gets all thoughtful about TV. Particularly when it runs an article about TVWriter™’s all time favorite showbiz paradigm shift:
by James PoniewozikAt some point during Netflix’s “Sense8” — a gorgeous, ridiculous series about eight strangers scattered across the world who use a psychic connection to aid one another in fights and at one point have a virtual orgy — I had to ask myself: What am I watching?
I didn’t mean that the way I usually do when reviewing a baffling show. I meant what, in a definitional sense, was this maximalist, supersized, latticework story? A mini-series? A megamovie? To put it another way: Is Netflix TV?
One African-American TV writer’s perspective on the condition TV’s condition is in. And it all makes sad, unhealthy, and yet in its way perfect sense:
by AnonymousOn a good day, after I pitched my heart out to a roomful of executives, they would not dismiss my creativity and ask if I had an “Empire-esque” idea to pitch. Why would I pitch Empire? I don’t rap, my father isn’t a rapper and even though my mother did spend time in jail, it wasn’t to serve a 17-year drug sentence. Yes, the Empire effect is real — but it’s not what you might think. The good news: If you’re an established writer of color, you can get a pitch meeting. The bad news: Everyone in Hollywood is looking for the next Empire from every black writer — because I cannot possibly have any other idea or perspective. My creative parameters are limited to the nextScandal, Black-ish or a TV version of Straight Outta Compton. (Side note: The Straight Out of Calabasas pitch that Fox purchased [a comedy about two white parents who live in the celebrity enclave and whose kid is a basketball prodigy] is a complete abomination and the reason I wonder why I even try.)
On a good day, my representation would submit me for shows that tonally fit my writing style and not merely for shows that happen to have the prototypical “person of color” character. So, I can only write for the sassy black, sassy Latino or sassy gay friend? As a person of color, I have no choice but to consider the perspectives of others!