In part one of this trilogy, “Making the Deal,” I outlined the nuts and bolts of pitching, presenting, and selling a long-form, episodic series for streaming, cable, and broadcast network television. If and when the creators/producers of a proposed program hit paydirt, sell the show, and get a contractual commitment from a content provider, then the real fun begins: the hands-on production of the series. This has lasted for several years with hits like “Game of Thrones” and “Stranger Things,” but can be over in weeks when a show misses and eludes ratings and viewership.
Here in chapter two, I cover the ins and outs of bringing the show to life, of realizing “the vision,” with all the creative, business, and financial demands producing a series entails. The starting point for this has to be where all roads lead in long-form production, where the sun rises and falls, and rises again, the beginning and the end and everything in between, and that is with the role of the showrunner. Very simply, as it says, the showrunner is the person who “runs the show.”
You can liken the showrunner on a streaming or network show to a director on a feature film. The showrunner has creative and managerial control over every aspect of an episodic series. They are quite often the creator of the show, and usually without fail a primary writer and also an executive producer on the show.
As such, the showrunner’s role actually has precedent over a film director, as well as the episodic directors on a series, because the showrunner oversees all aspects of staffing, creating, and producing a show, not just control of on-set physical production, and editing/mixing in post. And from a business and financial standpoint, all this responsibility is clearly exemplified in top showrunners’ contracts and salaries.
Many showrunners have worked their way up from writers’ rooms on series. The showrunner keeps the writers’ room productive and on-target, makes sure the actors are happy, and keeps the show on budget from first episode to last, season to season. A first-time showrunner tends to make around $30,000 per episode. A top creator/producer like Shonda Rhimes (“Greys Anatomy,” “How to Get Away with Murder”) can make $20,000,000 and more per year in the role.
The contracts of the highest paid showrunners in the industry are on par with top professional athletes in the NFL and the NBA. This seems appropriate when you consider that a master showrunner is “pulling the strings” and “working the field” over the course of a programming season the same way a Tom Brady does during an annual football campaign.
Most importantly, the showrunner has the task of guaranteeing the central creative vision of the series. This is the basic concept that sold the show in the first place. Streaming and limited series employ multiple writers, producers, and directors, not to mention the cast and crew. Getting a full season “in the can” over multiple weeks or months, especially on shows with ambitious production values, is like shooting several motion pictures all at the same time. During this cycle, the showrunner and his team have to successfully maintain the singular tone of the series. Achieving this goes a long way toward connecting with an audience and producing a hit.
After a series is greenlit and pre-production begins, the showrunner takes the reins and oversees casting and the hiring of all key production personnel for the entire season. The budget also has to be managed, with both individual episodes and the full season in mind, and requires a great deal of long-term strategy. With all legal and contractual business matters addressed, and the prep timeline complete, the show is a go for shooting the first episode, or, if a broadcast network, the pilot.
Generally speaking, streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu produce scripted series with 6-12 episodes per season, while cable giants HBO, Showtime, and the rest run a 10-16 episode season. The traditional, “old school” television networks, including CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox, still broadcast 22 episodes per season, and sometimes up to 26. A network can also order a “half season” of 10-13 episodes.
It takes about three to nine months to shoot a full season for streaming or cable, depending on the number of episodes, plus at least two weeks of post-production after principal photography has wrapped. For network shows, the timeline is nine months for 22-24 episodes, with editing/post on each after a 5-8 day shoot.
Each “season” is covered for all parties with standard legal and licensing agreements. With Netflix originals, as well as other platform-produced series, contracts are drafted for entire seasons. The streamers release complete seasons, or near-seasons, all at once after shooting and post is completed in order to accommodate binge watching, and unscheduled, 24/7 random viewing.
Since the broadcast networks essentially invest in the “pilot” when greenlighting a show, and are operating on more of a step-by-step basis, especially during the early run of a series, contracts can be drafted in accordance with this. Network series start airing while episodes are still being shot for the current season.
Once the series has come to creative and physical life and is released for public consumption, it all comes down to viewership. At the end of the day, however you want to categorize it, whatever the programming source, the channel, the network, the platform, and, yes, even the device, it’s about audience, and what the data, the ratings, and the subscriber base say about the size of that audience. Case in point, Netflix has canceled popular series because the “data” showed that their viewership didn’t justify investing in another season.
As I write this, even as powerful media pied pipers like Netflix still hold the purse strings, dramatic changes are brewing in our fast-paced “Peak TV” era. Developments that could radically affect the rules of the game regarding distribution, revenue, and ownership in the streaming and broadcast universe are just around the corner.
I’ll cover this and more in part three of this series, focused on long-form distribution. Coming soon.
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