Amazon TV’s Brutal Keeper Test Begins: Palladino Exit, ‘LOTR’ Nightmare, Execs

Peter Friedlander steps in to a ‘battered’ team, a star showrunner departure and an insanely high kill fee to the Tolkien estate

SCREEN SAVER “It will be interesting to see if Peter gets more autonomy or has the strength of will to change the decision-making structure,” says one source familiar with Amazon. (The Ankler illustration; Michael Kovac/Getty Images for AFI; Liudmila Chernetska/Getty Images)

I cover TV from L.A. I scooped Vince Gilligan’s overall deal renewal with Sony TV and Julie Plec & Andre Agassi’s YA tennis drama in development at Amazon and spoke to ATX TV’s founders about buying their festival back from Penske. I’m lesley.goldberg@theankler.com

Amy Sherman-Palladino’s relationship with Amazon goes back to Prime Video’s Roy Price era and the early days of the tech giant’s entry into the scripted originals business. The creator of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel first signed with the streamer in late 2017, before that show launched and ultimately helped to define Amazon as a legit destination for prestige programming.

Now, as Amazon transitions into its Peter Friedlander era beginning Oct. 6, the creator of The Gilmore Girls — who saw her latest Amazon series, Étoile, unceremoniously un-renewed in June by a regime that has since seen its two top execs pushed out — has parted ways with the platform she once called the “future of television” in what I’m told was a mutual decision.

Sherman-Palladino was one of what sources tell me are multiple showrunners whose exclusive deals are also expiring this year. Friedlander, Amazon’s new head of global television, will need to dive right into the deep end to forge his own relationships with talent who have spent the past few years battered by indecision.

A month removed from serving as head of U.S. and Canadian scripted series at Netflix where he was credited with hits including Outer Banks, The Queen’s Gambit and 3 Body Problem, Friedlander now takes over a slate that includes “Dad TV” staples Jack Ryan, Reacher and The Terminal List; young adult fare The Summer I Turned Pretty and We Were Liars; and such pricey genre plays as The Lord of the Rings and Fallout.

Along with the slate, Friedlander inherits an executive regime that’s spent much of the past six months reeling from the March exit of Jennifer Salke, with her top lieutenant, Vernon Sanders, now following her out the door. “Everyone at Amazon has been miserable,” one lit agent tells me. “People who haven’t left are like, ‘Welp, we have jobs.’ That’s the mentality.”

Multiple sources all agreed that Friedlander will need to repair Amazon’s culture the same way Salke did after Price’s messy exit in 2017 all while stabilizing morale as much as possible for an executive team that has been reorganized more often than the Dodgers have won the National League West.

For today, I spoke with agents and execs familiar with Amazon’s business and culture to provide a cheat sheet for what Friedlander needs to prioritize — read on for key changes in decision-making, vibe and business structure that people inside and outside of the company are hoping he’ll make AND some exclusive information I have about the completion rate on season 2 of Lord of the Rings and the truly jaw-dropping kill fee to the Tolkien estate that makes potential cancellation of the series one of Friedlander’s toughest decisions.

Read on for:

• My exclusive: New numbers on Lord of the Rings’ season 2 — plus the staggering exact dollar figure kill fee owed to the Tolkien estate if Amazon pulls the plug

• The palace intrigue: Who really controls greenlights above Friedlander — and which lieutenants may not survive the shake-up coming

• The chaotic Salke–Sanders playbook that paralyzed greenlights — and why it has to go

• How Friedlander can rally — or completely remake — Amazon’s “battered and broken” TV teams

• What top showrunners and agents say must change if Amazon wants to keep talent

• Whether Friedlander can bring back an “appetite for risk” to a culture built on fear and indecision

• The Big Question: Beyond “Dad TV” and YA hits, does Amazon even know what an Amazon show is?

This column is for paid subscribers only. Interested in a group sub for your team or company? Click here.

For full access and to continue reading all Ankler content, paid subscribers can click here.