Interesting article. So is LB’s comment at the end:
by Nellie Andreeva
via Team TVWriter™ News Service via TVBizwire via Deadline
The search for experienced showrunners around the end of the development season is becoming “an annual tradition,” writes Nellie Andreeva at Deadline.com, with increasing numbers of newly picked-up series “in need of a seasoned showrunner every year.”
As an example, with NBC ordering four pilots to series on Wednesday, two of them — “Allegiance” and “State of Affairs” — don’t have showrunners.
So what’s going on? After all, it’s no surprise that the networks were going to make series orders, especially since many of the projects receiving orders were early front-runners.
“Industry insiders trace the problem back a decade ago when the studios cut back on staff writers, breaking the merit-based system for growing writing producers,” Andreeva writes. “The very few staff writer jobs started going to mandatory minority hires and friends of writers or writers assistants.”
Andreeva adds: “While there is nothing wrong with that, the overall dearth of entry-level positions readily available to up-and-coming scribes has resulted in fewer writers getting trained as they go up the ranks, creating a big discrepancy with a lot of senior-level writers and green ones and very few middle-level writers with some experience who are ready to take on a show.”
Additionally, experienced showrunners are either moving to cable or retiring, and there are few writers ready to take their place. “Cable has been a big A-list talent drainer, especially on the drama side,” Andreeva notes.
She points to John Shiban of “The X Files” as an example of that, as he was recently hired to serve as showrunner on the Starz series “Da Vinci’s Demons.”
EDITOR’S NOTE FROM LB: “Additionally, experienced showrunners are either moving to cable or retiring….” Retiring? Let’s get things straight here. I’d amend this sentence to read, “”Additionally, experienced showrunners are either moving to cable or being forced into retirement by age discriminatory hiring practices.” Because that’s what’s been happening since the ’90s – at least.
There, I feel better now.
Well (some of these are estimates), Matt Weiner’s 50, Darren Star, who hasn’t had a hit in over 15 years, is probably older than that, Amy Palladino is almost 50, Glenn Caron is 60, J.J. Abrams is almost 50, Carol Mendelsohn is around 65, Brenda Hampton also around 65, McG is 45, Norman Buckley is 65, Shonda Rhimes is 45, Kevin Williamson is 50-ish, Jason Katims must be over 50, Aaron Sorkin, 50, Dan Schneider, who does shows for tweens and captures their voice as if he’s one of them, is almost 50, Chuck Lorre, who has a hand in almost everything, is over 60, Marc Cherry is 50, Terence Winter is over 50, and none of these show any signs of “retiring” any time soon.