Peter Friedlander Is Remaking Amazon TV. What’s Taking So Long?
‘People are mystified’ six months in about the agenda, as agents grow restless for the streamer to start buying again
I wrote about why Netflix is buying so many shows right now, decoded Dana Walden’s Disney TV re-org, reported on who slayed the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, and mapped the org chart from hell looming at Paramount-Warners. I’m lesley.goldberg@theankler.com
It’s quiet at Amazon.
Back in 2018, four months after Jennifer Salke replaced Roy Price as head of Amazon’s film and TV business, the former NBC entertainment president had already filled out her executive ranks and had ordered Jordan Peele’s Hunters, Gillian Flynn’s Utopia and anthology Modern Love before outlining her plans to spend $4.5 billion of Jeff Bezos’ money.
Cut to today, more than six months after Netflix’s longtime head of U.S. and Canadian scripted series Peter Friedlander was named head of global television, Hollywood is still waiting to learn his vision for the streamer. Since his Oct. 6 start date, the well-regarded executive has yet to firm up his team as he unspools the messy Prime Video corporate structure Salke left behind. He has greenlit a pair of long-gestating originals including, I can report exclusively, a reboot of MGM’s Robocop and turned the previous regime’s pass into a series order for Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani’s Sex Criminals.
It’s a start, to be sure, but Friedlander still hasn’t announced a head of scripted — the most important step in fully building out his team. “Even with Peter coming in, it’s still a byzantine place to get a straight answer of what the vision is and who to take stuff to,” a lit agent tells me. “It’s chaotic and confusing.”
Just as Salke was tasked with repairing Prime Video’s corporate culture after Price was pushed out amid allegations of inappropriate behavior, Friedlander has been hard at work repairing morale, having inherited a team that has been through more reorganizations than even Marie Kondo could handle.
Still, “people are mystified by the sheer amount of time it’s taken,” says a second agent who covers Amazon.
Six months in, there’s still no clear vision — and that’s unusual.
To better understand Friedlander’s approach to the platform and its 200 million global subscribers — and the hopeful signs and possible red flags for the creative community — I spoke with agents, insiders familiar with Amazon’s business, execs and showrunners who have projects at the streamer.
Today:
Why Friedlander still hasn’t named a No. 2 — and who’s not in the mix despite rumors
Inside his effort to flatten Amazon’s bloated structure (and who’s been pushed out)
My exclusive reporting on the status of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Citadel
His challenge with the internal bottlenecks after Salke’s spending spree: “I don’t know who is turning on the money faucet for them”
Why confusion still reigns internally: “No one knows what to do”
What his early greenlights signal — and what they don’t
Why reps are “bullish,” if impatient about Friedlander’s regime