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EXCLUSIVE: It takes a lot to shock me when it comes to Hollywood business. But this is lunacy. I’ve confirmed that Lionsgate execs are calling Hollywood agencies looking for a showrunner to replace Matthew Weiner, the brilliant creator of Mad Men. The reason is that they think Weiner’s agents at CAA are asking for too much money for him. I hear CAA wants a multi-year deal that pays Weiner $10 million a year. (As opposed to what people tell me is the $2.5 million he should probably pocket…) Plus he wants control over promotion and advertising. Now that’s consistent with a big hit on pay cable and what Darren Star or David Chase made on HBO. 
But it’s way, way rich for a Lionsgate show on AMC, and execs are telling CAA it can’t pay that. “The ‘ask’ was insanity,” one insider tells me. “It’s preposterous. AMC is a basic cable network. The economics don’t support this. It’s why Lionsgate is throwing their arms up in the air. And, remember, they got a two-year pickup for the show with or without Matt Weiner.” So Lionsgate picked up the phone and began asking the tenpercenteries for a “general list” of possible showrunners, and about the availability of specific names (like Aaron Sorkin). The agents’ reactions were exactly like mine: are these suits NUTS?
Of course, no one decent would ever trample on Weiner’s toes unless he blessed it. But this is also the surest way to fuck up the first basic cable program to ever win the Emmy for best drama. And let’s not forget that the AMC show ended its 2nd season Sunday with record ratings. Sunday’s finale averaged 1.75 million total viewers for its 10 PM airing, an 89% improvement over the first-season finale’s 926,000. Compared with Season 1, Mad Men 2.0 saw a 63% increase in total viewers (an average of 1.5 million viewers vs. 925,000), a 109% jump in the adults 18-49 demo (705,000 vs. 338,000) and an 81% increase in adults 25-54 (780,000 vs. 430,000). Those still aren’t great numbers even if every thinking person loves the series. When I asked a Lionsgate source about this situation, I was told, “We’re negotiating with Matthew Weiner. But we want him back…” Then why do this? My bet is it’s a reaction to having Carl Icahn crawling up Jon Feltheimer’s ass.
- ‘Mad Men’ 2nd Season Finale Tonight
- Carl Icahn Takes 9% Stake In Lionsgate
- Summer TV Left Us Maddened And Burned
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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So Weiner (how appropriate) wants a million dollars per viewer? Seriously, if the guy wants the big bucks then he needs to get his ass to a real network and produce a show that attracts an audience of actual viewers (as opposed to fawning critics).
Morons.
Let Weiner run his show and stick to doing what you do well.
Oh wait, Lionsgate doesn’t do anything well. Woops.
Might as well get rid of Don Draper too. Why does Hollywood ALWAYS screw up a good thing?
No one heard of AMC before Mad Men. No one. I’m sorry, AMC what? Is that the Ted Turner channel that shows all those old movies? Now AMC has the momentum to become another USA or FX. Matt Weiner gave them that, and it’s worth more than the $10 mil/yr he is asking.
But, he already gave it to them. They figure they have banked the lion’s (yar) share of the prestige the show will garner, and they can kick Weiner out and coast for a few years. Ah what fools these mortals be! A couple of bad episodes next year, and not only is Mad Men off the radar, but so is AMC. Done. Finished. The actors will start kicking to get out of their contracts. Enough of them will succeed to hurt the show. And then in two years, the network that could have been another USA-level cash cow will have become simply… another AMC.
Matt, as a writer who watches this show and weeps at how amazingly good it is, I say, get the money or run. The money shows they respect you and you deserve respect. And if those assholes don’t appreciate how special you are, let them find out the hard way, when everything they’ve gained through you is lost in short order. Two years hence, they’ll only wish they could buy another Mad Men for 10mil/yr. What struggling basic cable net wouldn’t?
Art=Life=Hollywood
The season ends with Don Draper walking out on his terms, now his creator does the same. Go for it, Weiner!
Sigh. This is more of the same. It’s just a more specific version of “Writers/Actors want $X of Y” instead of “X% of Y”. The former is an unfair demand which has the production company bearing all of the risk and the person taking the first money out. The latter is a more equitable demand which provides an appropriate risk/reward tradeoff (assuming X and Y are agreed upon).
“I have a hit show, therefore I can make a ludicrous demand” is all too popular an occurrence. Of course, it works with on camera talent because the Darren/Darren and Becky/Becky swaps don’t usually work. A producer with a ridiculous demand – not the same by a long shot.
I am uninmpressed with the demand, and those who thought it was a good idea, and I hope Lionsgate pushes back.
All of this may very well be a tempest in a teapot anyway. If a rep decides to toss out a crazy offer (because you can only go down from your first offer), the only real reaction is to start looking for a replacement. That will bear positive fruit in either a good replacement or a more reasonable counter demand. Of course, if the next counter-demand is equally insane, you push more toward the former. A few rounds of insane counters, and they sign the new guy. If that happens, it is the representative who failed.
How can they produce the same show without its Creator? They’re going to take one of the best written and most interesting shows on TV and bury it.
I definitely think that $10MM is over the top. Hopefully they can meet somewhere in the middle and Weiner stays on.
I can’t believe anyone is making noise about this. It’s business as usual. Agents (especially CAA agents)always start with ridiculous and work their way down from there. That said, Weiner created a brilliant show and deserves to make money from it. They’ll find a compromise. There’s no way Weiner wants to leave this show in anyone else’s hands.
Come on CAA… Ovitz left a along time ago and your innovative, salary enhancing days are behind you. Keep turning into a corporation, signing athletes, and destroying your clients’ careers. Maybe if they don’t get the 10 mil they can get him a back end only deal like Jim Carey.
as a civilian, could someone explain what the norm is for something like this so we can determine who is the greedy asshole here? Does mr. Weiner get any DVD money? What do other showrunners get?
Weiner hit a five run homer with the finale of season two. The people at Lionsgate can play hardball it they like, but they will lose the audience that is paying attention, and that’s most of the small crowd whose watching this great show.
Seriously, this is as good as it gets right now, though it can’t hold a candle to the best show ever on TV, which got a total of ZERO Emmys in its five season run, The Wire.
The Wire is Barack Obama’s favorite show of all time. He’s one smart mofo.
I have been in sales for years of course he knows that is ridiculous. You start high they start low and you end somewhere in the middle.
what??? what would The Sopranos have been like if DC did only 2 seasons?? get the tranquilizer gun ready for these Lionsgate dudes…
Mad Men is the best show on TV.
Matt is a controlling, cheating, two-faced douchebag without a sense of humor. But, he should get as much as he possibly can. I don’t like the show as much as the rest of America does. Ratings are not great. Demographics are OK. Run 4 million up the flag pole. Matt will salute.
The ratings are misleading. I watch the show twice
on Sunday, and again On Demand. (Yeah, I know I
should record it. But I don’t.)
Mad Men has taken AMC to a whole new level. Look
at what’s happened with Showtime. It’s the new
HBO. It started with a few break out hits and now
it’s a juggernaut of fine writing and talent.
Ad revenue should increase, and Weiner should
reap rewards now for making us obsessed with Mad
Men.
The other new show that got to me like that is
Damages. If it hadn’t been renewed, I’d have been
devastated. Ratings were low, though. I wonder
what the creators of Damages are paid.
Rebop
yeah, take one of the most original shows, which only breathed life into an entire cable network and put it on the map, then try to replace the creator. um, real good move.
hopefully the negotiation tantrums will settle down without yanking out the show’s brilliant creator. i agree with the guy who weeps at the show’s writing. hope it survives the execs. otherwise, what’s AMC?
Agree with the other posters here who say that AMC was nowhere before Mad Men entered the picture. Remember, it wasn’t all that long ago that AMC ran nothing but theatricals and had no original series. Mad Men may have a small (and growing) audience, but it’s got Hollywood’s attention. Regular people, too, talk and blog about it endlessly.
Also agree that this is more of business as usual. Big swinging dicks, blah, blah, blah. Who knows where it’s all going to shake out? This is just the opening round, I hope.
And Crystal Diane Stevens? $10 million for 1,750,000 viewers isn’t a million bucks per viewer. You might want to check your math on that.
Just sayin’.
Leave it to CAA to mess up a good thing…they are going to blow the best thing that AMC has – at the end of the day, it’s ICM’s hard work that made the show. They repped Matt Weiner and got AMC to buy it when everyone else passed, they cast the core of the show (Jon Hamm, January Jones, Vincent Kartheiser).
As a young, aspiring television writer, does anyone know what other cable showrunners get paid? Even for shows on premium cable like HBO or Showtime? I would think one would have to know the barometer to measure against, in order to fully comprehend the nature of Weiner’s quote.
Oh give me break…there is a difference between a great show and one with high income potential.
Nice try, CAA…great show doesn’t = an earner. Dumb fucks.
Yes…Mad Men may be nothing without Weiner…but it’s still an AMC show.
If I were to fill my toilet with awesome low revenue shows i would have to call a plumber to clean up my entire building.
CAA needs to get over their ignorant “market share, market share..” mantra and embrace reality.
If I’m AMC, fab though Mad Men is i’d flush it before I agreed on $10m/annum for a show runner.
If Weiner wants that cash, he should sell some assy show about lawyers/teachers in south central to Fox.
MAD MEN is a serialized, period drama being produced by an outside studio for AMC. The real money being made here is by AMC, who took tons of risk in launching and promoting this show. They will, along with Cablevision, reap the benefits in years to come when they renegotiate with cable systems like Comcast, Time Warner and Cox to raise their monthly fee. This is a replay of THE SHIELD for FX, where Shawn Ryan and Michael Chiklis rewrote the rules. SOPRANOS and SEX AND THE CITY were big, but HBO already was throwing off $1b per year for Time Warner.
But, this is still BASIC TINY cable. The increases due to MW and his actors will come. But they will come within the normal parameters, no matter how much bluster MW and his manager Keith Addis put out there via DHD, Variety, etc. CAA must be going crazy with the leaked info here … no one wants to hear that their client’s $10m per year demand is insane (And it is). No one wants that number tossed around freely.
The deal ends up at under $10m for 2 years including his next piece of development. MW should go make his money in movies …
if he wants to get super rich in television, he should go create a procedural drama. HEre, he can get mildly rich … prob 2,3,4 million per year plus some development pad.
He’s lucky to have this show, and incredibly skilled in making it.
Maybe, Matt, it’s not all about the cash.
You’ll work forever off this credit, and can continue to “cash that check”. But dont equate this show with SOPRANOS. Their audience was 8 times bigger (at least) and they came at the peak of the DVD market. Oh, and they had an off-HBO sale of $1.9m per episode. Factor all that in, and you have a cash cow.
Forgot to add…
Total viewers over the 3 airings (10p, 11p, 1a) for the finale were 2.9 million. That ain’t hay, folks. Matt Weiner has a case for what he’s asking. Primetime drama Emmys don’t come cheap.
Mad Men is overhyped and underwritten. This season it was style over substance and everyone’s falling for it. C’mon, everything in 1962 was subtextual — no one says what they feel? Huh? And both seasons ending with a main character getting pregnant — redundant! And it’s not great writing to stretch a story arc — unwanted pregnancy/what happened to baby — for 12 eps. C’mon! Oh, and why can’t poor Matty Weiner write a whole eps himself — he always has to share credit. I know, so hard to be a showrunner — suck it and write the eps yourself, you thought of it!
Much better show is BREAKING BAD. Characters are real and situations totally original and complex. Acting amazing – check. Writing amazing – check. Directing — f’ing brilliant — double check. Watch it!