ICYMI: TV Agents' 'Rough' Market; AI-Made Docs; Dad TV Stats
Catch up on our recent best
Come see us in person! We love serving you in your email, on social, in your ears (in your podcast feed and on LAist 89.3 FM) — and definitely in person. Next month brings a number of amazing events where we hope you’ll convene with folks from The Ankler and your fellow subscribers.
May 2 First up is legendary sitcom star Kelsey Grammer, in conversation with Series Business’ Elaine Low as part of our The Ankler x Backstage Screening Series. Don’t sleep on this one.
May 10 Academy Award-winning writer-director Ed Zwick sits down with Janice Min to discuss his heralded memoir, Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions, at Santa Monica’s charming Zibby’s Bookshop.
May 13 Next up on The Ankler x Backstage Screening Series: the Prime Video limited series Expats. Director Lulu Wang and stars Sarayu Blue and Ji-young Yoo will chat with our new awards editor Katey Rich.
RSVP link coming
May 14 The next day, two legendary White House press secretaries —MSNBC host Jen Psaki, and Gavin Newsom senior advisor Dee Dee Myers —join Janice in a lunchtime conversation about this 2024 election year.
RSVP here.
There’s more to come, too! Now make your RSVPs, update your calendar, and check out our best of the week, ICYMI:
TV Agents Spill: 'It’s Really Rough Out There'
Last week, Elaine got the scoop from five TV agents on what’s selling and not. This week, Elaine shares what those same agents are saying about the state of the marketplace: pilots, jobs, budgets and deals post-strike:
Making a Murderer (And Another, and Another)
In our Reel AI newsletter, Erik Barmack makes a short doc using AI tools about a real CIA plan to utilize cats as spies. You can watch it as part of his analysis of how the tech could disrupt true-crime documentary and why that’s so worrisome:
Richard Rushfield: Marketing Magic and
In the battle for attention, Richard Rushfield names five recent out-there studio marketing tactics that broke through:
In Richard’s Jamboree: massive paychecks for Ari Emanuel, Bob Bakish and David Zaslav make a bigger mess of things; Jerry Seinfeld’s misbegotten take on the film business; and OG Blair Witch actor Josh Leonard vs. Lionsgate:
Dad TV’s Dominance
Entertainment Strategy Guy dives into the maligned Dad TV genre: what it is (and isn’t), why Prime Video’s success with it isn’t an outlier and why we need a lot more of it — and Mom TV:
☀️THE WAKEUP
As earning season heats up, you need to be reading Sean McNulty break down the financials of the major entertainment companies. This week, he assessed Peacock’s growth versus Comcast’s linear TV losses, the continued cord-cutting across the industry and YouTube’s stunning rise:
🎧 PODCASTS
THE ANKLER
How Dad TV Muscled Into Hollywood Prime Video, Par+ and the future of what gets watched (and what NFL has to do with it):
MARTINI SHOT
Dumpster Diving on the Studio Lot Rob Long on what one TV writer gleaned from Paramount's garbage:
👓 THE OPTIONIST
FINAL HOUSEKEEPING!
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