What a year for screw-ups! A bumper crop!
Somewhere in 2019, there were no doubt some decisions that will go down as visionary, but when Hollywood looks back at these 12 months we’ve just survived, what will stand out is how in the face of mounting catastrophe heading our way, how many people chose to do the same thing that hasn’t worked before for the thousandth time.
That’s what is notable about our Bad Decisions Honor Role, how many aren’t crazy, screwball choices, but just doing business as usual despite every glaring sign that business, as usual, is no longer doing business here. Many, or even most of these Worst Decisions would’ve been hailed as solid competent leadership in 2009, or certainly in 1997.
A couple notes about the list: we went a few over this year, but such is the nature of 2019 that there were so many wonderful screw-ups, we hated to leave any out in the cold. And this holiday season, in the Tower of Babel days that we live in, it is very hard to rank dumb decisions; they all are special in the eyes of their Creator. So this list is unranked. Every Screw-Up is sacred in the eyes of the Ankler.
With all that said, without further ado, say hello to the Ankler 100! Your 2019 Class of the Worst Decisions and Biggest Screw-Ups of this Year!
The New Model Studio chief: putting a faceless, MBA-friendly television apparatchik in charge of modern entertainment studios.
Comcast’s late, constantly-evolving streaming plan.
Letting John Stankey bury every inch of the HBO Max rollout in corporate-speak.
The name HBO Max
Attempting to repurpose the Tiffany brand of HBO into a Wallmart mass streaming product.
AT&T’s initial three-tiered price structure for HBO Max.
AT&T’s bigfoot TV execs pile-up.
Re-upping Kevin Tsujihara’s contract one week before firing him, over matters that were well known for many months.
Joe Ianello and his $28 million paycheck not only staying intact but getting promoted after the fall of his mentor Les Moonves, with no accounting for his role in the cover-ups that brought Les down.
CBS’ Survivor scandal, at an organization that just lost its CEO on harassment charges.
Not to mention it’s 60 Minutes problems.
And its Bull problems.
And itsCarol’s Second Act problems, all at this particular company.
Netflix blocking an episode of Patriot Act critical of MBS from airing in Saudi Arabia.
Hollywood in general’s shrugging off of the Hong Kong crackdown amidst a general rush to embrace China in every possible way.
Netflix preaching sobriety and austerity, announcing the new budget-conscious era to replace the DSE, right before acquiring a Dwayne Johnson/Ryan Reynolds project.
Barry Diller saying in Feb, “Netflix has won this game. I mean, short of some existential event, it is Netflix’s. No one can get, I believe, to their level of subscribers, which gives them real dominance.”
Building up mountains of goodwill around the One Day at a Time revival, and then canceling it, even as they greenlight Dwayne Johnson projects.
Netflix producing a documentary tribute to Ted’s father in law.
$100 million to pick up Triple Frontier.
Put together, all in, spending the better part of a billion dollars on three movies: The Irishman, 6, Underground and Triple Frontier.
Netflix paying no taxes.
Netflix’s leaked plan to let users view in high speed.
Disney paying $71 billion for Fox for a handful of franchises, library, and no real estate.
Closing the doors on one of Hollywood’s great legacy studios.
Shutting Fox 2000, suddenly and without warning.
Allowing a fight to become public with the Disney family, over the most sensitive issues of corporate behavior.
Opening Star Wars Land without its central ride incurring months of stories about vanishing crowds.
Marvel parting ways with Downey and Evans.
Sony breaking off their partnership with Marvel (before coming to their senses.)
All parties at the table in the WGA/ATA dispute who have conjured up ongoing pain, disruption, and distraction for their sides.
The WGA getting bogged down in this permanent squabble with their own agents, alienating their own membership and doing nothing to set the public table for the much larger dispute now looming months away – the contract.
The WGA calling for a return to old school networking, just when Hollywood is trying to get past those old school networks so someone other than old school white men can get their way through. In what is perhaps the most undiverse calling in the business.
The agencies standing by the manifold conflicts of affiliated production without finding some new formula or arrangement to make this sustainable.
The half-hearted, amateurish Phyllis Nagy challenge to the WGA leadership, which effectively deprived the members of a viable choice.
Craig Mazin’s bizarre aborted campaign for WGA VP, abandoning ship from what was clearly a lost cause in mid-cruise without explanation.
The WGA paying its union negotiator David Young a $1.1 million dollar salary to rile up the troops against corporate greed.
HBO Max and the JJ Bidding War
Comcast’s $100 million for the creator of Mr. Robot, a show typically watched by circa 300,000 people.
Netflix paying $200 – 300 mil for a deal with Benioff and Weiss.
And then letting them go make a movie for Warners.
Viacom selling off Black Rock and the message that sends about its future.
Viacom selling off TV City and the message that sends about its future.
The WME IPO
The studios walking away from and ceding huge swaths of artistic territory – like comedy! And romantic comedy! – to Netflix.
Having taken on Netflix as a member (to replace Fox’s dues), Charles Rivkin and the MPA do a 180 and declares that streaming is good for the film world! Streaming encourages people to go to the theaters!
Megan Ellison refusing to show a little fiscal discipline and driving her company into the ground.
Annapurna dumping what would’ve been their long-awaited smash hit.
Opening Booksmart on 3000 screens.
Warners releasing Blinded by the Light just weeks after the more broadly popular Yesterday, with which it shared many superficial similarities.
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