Exit Interview #1: The Renown TV Exec
'Mediocre' leaders, anger at the guilds, scripted's decline: Our year-end confessionals start
In the last week of every year, we say goodbye to the 12 months past by having talks with some of the smartest folks we know in this business, hoping they can help us make sense of what the hell that was all about. I talk to them anonymously so they can express the full extent of their thoughts and feelings about this business.
Reminder these thoughts are not necessarily our own and hopefully before we are through, we’ll have a range of perspectives and opinions.
Today I talked with a very renowned television executive who shared his very candid thoughts about the state of things, where we are headed and the questionable leadership guiding us through these woods. If you disagree here, as ever, share your thoughts in the comments.
RUSHFIELD: How do you think 2023 went for Hollywood? A good year? Big thumbs up?
TV EXEC: Disastrous.
Why? What were the biggest setbacks?
The biggest setbacks were the strikes. Here's what the strikes achieved for all of us in Hollywood: What the guilds managed to do was contract the scripted business across TV and film. They managed to make the overall pie smaller. The people who were at the beginning or the middle of their careers are getting boxed out.
And people who were doing really well before are now going to do even better because everyone's spending much, much, much less money on scripted TV shows and movies. They've made scripted TV shows and movies more expensive, so they're going to make less scripted TV shows and movies. So the opportunities for writers and directors and actors are going to go down. I bet if you took a percentage of jobs in '22, and jobs still here in '24 — I bet it's a double-digit decline, and that's thanks to the strike.
“[Streamers] don't care if they show a soccer game, or a reality show, or a series. They need a billion hours of programming, and they pay the cheapest they can to get the billion hours that people watch. They don't care. So they shifted spend away from the things that employ people.”
If people are spending less, why would that not mean more opportunity for younger cheaper people?
They're spending less, and so instead of making 10 shows a year, if you're making six, you're going to make six more expensive shows and bet on people with experience. Perhaps this was the direction it was going anyway, and even if the strike accelerated that, it was headed here anyway.