So You Made a Hit. Now the Real Hustle Starts
Producers behind unscripted winners on avoiding the one-and-done rut
I host the Ankler Agenda podcast and wrote about Taylor Frankie Paul and Disney’s Bachelorette mess. My Disappearing Ladder series about how each generation is navigating Hollywood’s narrowing path has covered millennials’ challenges and Gen Z’s entry pains.
Happy Monday, folks. The Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers surprised everyone over the weekend by reaching a deal way earlier than expected, with a four-year contract instead of the usual three, no less. The tentative agreement puts the health plan front and center. Any writers out there have feelings about the new agreement? Talk to me at elaine@theankler.com.
Now, onto today’s column, which is all about sweet success and how to navigate it — or act as if you’ve got it on your way to a win …
Readers occasionally send in questions about the TV business. What’s happening with the Taylor Frankie Paul season of The Bachelorette? (This trainwreck.) Now that you’ve written about Gen Z’s struggle, what about millennials? (Here you go.) What kind of TV shows are streamers and networks looking to buy? (A new sellers’ guide is coming!)
So I was intrigued when a docuseries producer asked me an interesting question: I’ve got a show that reached No. 1 on Netflix. What do I do now?
Pitching, developing and getting any show made is already a small miracle, and seeing it fly to the top of the charts is incredibly validating. But if you’re a producer from a young company with your first big hit, à la Wise Child Studios’ Jason Beekman, executive producer of Netflix’s Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model (and who asked me the question), figuring out how to capitalize on momentum can be overwhelming.
I checked in with Beekman six weeks after our last chat. Aside from taking more interviews with news outlets to publicize the project and his involvement (good call), he has “hustled to make sure that we had 10 projects ready to go, so that if this was a hit, our agents could go out to all the buyers and be like, ‘See that hit show? Well, here are 10 projects they’ve developed,’” he told me Friday. “We haven’t really taken a breath at all and have just kind of doubled down.”
But he still had lots of questions. So I asked experienced unscripted producers for their advice, including Mary Robertson, exec producer and co-director of Investigation Discovery and HBO Max’s Quiet on Set; Anthony Carbone, showrunner and exec producer of Fox’s The Floor and Netflix’s The Floor Is Lava; Jeff Apploff, creator of Fox’s Don’t Forget the Lyrics; Done + Dusted North America CEO Melanie Fletcher, who recently exec produced Netflix’s BTS The Comeback Live: Arirang; and Velvet Hammer Media founders and former HBO Max top unscripted execs Jen O’Connell and Rebecca Quinn, whose Netflix dating show Age of Attraction was just renewed for a second season last week.
“Number one: enjoy it. Number two: don’t take it for granted, because you just don’t know what season 2 is going to do,” says O’Connell. “Don’t rest on your laurels, because that’s where things go wrong.”
Even if you don’t have a hit show on the air right now, there’s a lot to learn from these producers. The hustle is real. So while you’re still waiting for your golden idea to get picked up, here’s smart advice you can implement now on the way to your No. 1 hit.
For this week, I bring you the real playbook for what comes after a hit — and how to turn one win into something sustainable:
How to sell your next show off your last one — fast
Why a hit doesn’t mean buyers will move any quicker
The biggest mistake people make right after they break through
What to build internally while your show is still hot
How streamers respond differently than networks to a hit, and what that means for you
The truth about overall deals (and why they’re not what they used to be)
How to figure out what the market will actually buy next
Why networking matters more after a hit — not less