Transcript: TV Deal Turmoil 2024
Overalls eroded, employment upended and Amazon, Apple bring back the backend
Sean McNulty (00:04):
Welcome to the Ankler Podcast. This is Sean McNulty of The Wakeup newsletter here at the Ankler here in New York City on Thursday, May 2nd. I'm joined by Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield in Los Angeles, or as we're known here at the Ankler, the Office of the CEO. Elaine, do you know that? We have a new name?
Elaine Low (00:21):
Yes. That's how everyone should refer to the three of us now, please.
Sean McNulty (00:24):
That's how all trios are related to in Hollywood now, I think. So of course, alluding to our friends at Paramount Global who fired the CEO this week and installed three new ones. We'll dive into that in a bit. But Richard, what happened? They couldn't fit a fourth desk in the office? I'm a little disappointed here.
Richard Rushfield (00:42):
Why just have a CEO when you can have an office? Before they had one back-ish, now they have a whole office full of CEOs. So yeah, what could be better than that? And as a bonus, there are people who actually who work in Hollywood and have relations with talent and all that stuff. So however long the offices of CEO survives might go down as a golden age.
Sean McNulty (01:04):
Yeah, who knows? Elaine, I picture the three desks in a triangle position so they all see each other at the same time kind of thing. What do you think? How does this office work?
Elaine Low (01:12):
I was thinking more of a Shark Tank scenario, where you have the leather chairs converging on one table.
Sean McNulty (01:17):
Interesting.
Elaine Low (01:18):
And you have a guest come in. Yeah? No?
Sean McNulty (01:20):
We'll see when they tweet out their first photo of the day of the office, we'll see what happens. But anyway, before we get started, just a reminder, you can catch the Ankler crew over on L.A.'s number one NPR station and Southern California Public Radio's Flagship Radio Station 89.3 LAist throughout the day, every Thursday as part of their Entertainment Thursday programming during Morning Edition Air Talk and All Things Considered. And you can reach us here anytime at the podcasts at podcasts@theankler.com. Elaine, a third of 2024 is over. Just let that sink in for a second.
Elaine Low (01:51):
That went really fast.
Sean McNulty (01:53):
Little bit.
Elaine Low (01:53):
The day that we're recording, we're a year on when the writer strike started.
Sean McNulty (01:58):
I had this knee-jerk reaction to ask you for the latest developments on the strike. And I'm like, wait, no, no, you don't have to do that anymore. It's like this time of year just brings that out in me now, Elaine.
Elaine Low (02:05):
No. God, that was a summer. Let's not ever do that again.
Sean McNulty (02:10):
More than a summer and a fall. Keep going. Oh, boy. And Richard, as of July, we're going to be living in a world where Peacock costs more than Netflix. Anybody have that in their bingo card for 2024?
Richard Rushfield (02:21):
Well, traders is worth more than some entire services.
Sean McNulty (02:26):
Oh, wow. Okay. All right.
Richard Rushfield (02:28):
We're watching traders at home. I'd gladly pay, what is it, $8 a month now?
Sean McNulty (02:33):
You will be paying. Yes, exactly. So no choice in the matter, Richard. So as of July or August, depending upon what kind of subscriber you are, that will be kicking in for America.
Richard Rushfield (02:42):
I'm a wonderful subscriber.
Sean McNulty (02:43):
Exactly. Very, very happy subscriber in Richard Rushfield, their Peacock, so.
Richard Rushfield (02:46):
Yes.
Sean McNulty (02:47):
Anyway, a couple of events here just to give a heads-up. It'll be a very, very busy week. First up, Janice will be speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference to discuss new frontiers of journalism on May 7th. That's at 4 P.M. And she's also going to be moderating a conversation with filmmaker Edward Zwick, or Ed Zwick, to discuss his new book Hits Flops and Other Illusions that's at Zibby's Bookstore in Los Angeles on May 10th. The Ankler and Backstage event series also continues as the Ankler's Katie Rich is going to host a special screening of Amazon Prime Video's Expats, and we'll be doing a Q&A with Lulu Wang and Sarayu Blue. And lastly, on Tuesday, May 14th, Janice will be moderating a conversation around the presidential election year with former White House Press secretaries, Jen Psaki, and Dee Dee Myers. That is on May 14th in Beverly Hills.
(03:37):
You can find links to RSVP to all of those events in the show notes here for this here podcast. All right. So we're going to have a pretty wide-ranging conversation today. You and Ashley Cullins both had two must reads this week. Elaine looking at the state of TV writing careers once we've had, as you mentioned, one year since the start of the strikes, everything from staffing employment for folks maybe in the earlier parts of their career to what it's like in the world of overall deals for top level writers. We'll dive into that shortly. And Peter Kiefer will be joining us as well to dive into a piece looking at how celebrity talent is diversifying now that maybe production work is not driving all of their income needs here in the post-strikes world. But a lot of folks are expanding into entrepreneurship and building businesses of their own. And Peter's going to give us the lay of the land on how that is or is not interacting with the world of Hollywood agencies.
(04:27):
All right, Elaine, we have a lot to dive into. Didn't mention Paramount, but before Business Talk, we have to answer the burning question on the minds of Ankler Podcast listeners everywhere. How was Challengers?