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UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers 
Is it the fault of Keith Samples whose last day as president of Media Rights Capital is October 31st? 
(I just was told that he was fired for “irregularities”. Yes I know what they are. No, I can’t write them without being sued. The two sides were trying to work out a separation agreement which is why it’s taken so long for Samples to exit.) Or are co-CEOs Asif Satchu and Modi Wiczyk to blame because they were uber-ambitious and bit off more than they could chew? Or maybe Tribune TV punted for putting MRC and The CW together in a failed to bid to help its tanking CW affiliates? Or else the problem really lies with Les Moonves and Barry Meyer for creating yet another weblet that no one wants to watch no matter who’s programming? Fuck it — let’s blame everybody!
Discuss amongst yourselves.
- MRC Delays CW Sunday Debut By A Week
- Good/Bad News For Media Rights Capital
- Another Indie Finds Big Bucks Financing
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Plenty of blame for everyone.
Blame Modi who doesn’t know anything about TV, blame Asif who doesn’t know anything about the entertainment business and blame Keith Samples for taking a job that he clearly couldn’t handle. The guy was out of touch from the start.
In the end, it doesn’t matter who takes the blame because this is ATG all over again!
Keith Samples is a wolf in sheep’s clothing who only wants to direct and bullies and gossips about others – destroying reputations while building his own. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy! And I speak from first hand experience…
Nikki, you are so damn funny! “Blaming everybody” works in the political realm, too.
MEMO TO DRUDGE-ITES: this is NOT a cue for your bile, thank you.
I know the ratings are in the toilet, but I’m really digging “Easy Money.” Laurie Metcalf is fantastic. It’s actually better and smarter than a lot of the new shows on the Big 4 networks this fall. I don’t think it has a shot in hell of lasting a full season, but I’ll enjoy it until the sadly inevitable cancellation…
MRC is behind THE LIFE and TIMES OF TIM… which is hilarious!!!!
There’s something smug about the whole MRC-CW thing. Like the smug people who run the CW and think, well at least I can leave the programming decisions to others by trusting one untried supplier for an entire night of programming. After all, MRC does have the funds. Perhaps MRC should just give the money to people like Bruckheimer, Wolf or even Judd Apatow and let THEM make the programs.
Shame they have a pretty good business model if you take the CW debacle out.
It’s a shame that MRC and it’s one decent show “Easy Money” has to be relegated to Sunday night. If I remember correctly, even CW didn’t fare too well with its Sunday night line-ups of the past, so what is now happening to MRC seems to be par for the course (boardroom backstabbings aside). Perhaps if Dawn O. got her head out of her ass and realized that there is a bigger audience out there to woo besides teen girls, entertaining shows such as “Easy Money” would have a chance, instead of an aggregate of a bunch of cookie-cutter rich-teen shows. Even its only other true quality show, Supernatural, gets treated like crap because it’s not pulling in the teen girls as it’s only viewers. Gosh, in the brain of Dawn, it must be hard to believe that there are women in their 30s and 40s, along with men, that might be interested in watching TV. Guess she never heard that “variety is the spice of life.” I hope MRC can work through its woes… if for no other reason than the fact that it is offering programming that is a departure from the Sex Sagas of the Rich Teens.
I blame whoever was in charge of promotion. I guarantee 99% of the population has never even heard of these shows. And that’s a problem when they’re completely stranded on their own night. Privileged was also woefully under promoted, but at least it’s airing after 90210, which probably received more promotion than any show this fall. It also didn’t help that MRC didn’t have the shows ready by upfronts and no pilot screeners until right before the shows aired.
totally predictable. finance guys who think they’re so smart and show biz so easy that it was there for the picking. not so fast…not so easy…not so glamorous. and they’re not so smart. move in and try to change the business model by going cheap on the very elements that make good shows–they should look at their own business model first, which is woefully flawed, reliant on flimsy financing and debt. Welcome to Hollywood boys.
Who says MRC has the funds? They do? Yes, and stated income mortgages are the backbone of US home financing. Great.
Where to begin… there are so many points of entry for this unfortunate end result to what was a game changer for television. Putting Keith Samples’ irregularities aside what’s ironic is that the broadcastg networks are absolutely dying financially and here, a new way to approach not only a financial partnership but a creative one was wholly wasted because of three things; indifference on the part of the CW, a ridiculous production schedule once the deal was announced which is the problem with all television; not enough time to bank scripts and prep shows, and P&A so that an audience could know thee shows even exist– we live in LA, has anyone seen one billboar?. Add to that the importance of long lead press and the need for ideas and auspices that make noise unto themselves and you had a half-baked execution of a half-baked idea. But mavericks to this end fight on, change indeed is coming.
Are they really giving that moron a severance? REALLY? HAVE YOU SEEN THE SHOWS HE DEVELOPED? WHAT? The viewers of Samples shows should sue him for the precious time lost in their lives. They would have been more entertained staring at a snail moving across the ground.
Needless to say, they’re all amateurs over there. Is MRC a finance company or studio, whichever they’re choosing to call themselves these days they’re hack jobs.
If the MRC and CW were going to make a deal, they should have found a way that mixed the two up more so as to provide lead-ins. Though, the CW doesn’t have too many of those to go around… of course an all-new block was going to fail. It only worked for ABC last year because of all the critical buzz Pushing Daisies had combined with Addison/spin-off curiousity… and even that line up is faltering now. Programming execs have forgotten the art of scheduling, from lead-ins to counterprogramming (Chuck vs T:SCC? DOND vs 5th Grader? DSM vs Lipstick Jungle?).
The only way the block would have had a chance would be with stars like Jennifer Aniston and huge critical props. A show like Easy Money, which has received some good reviews, also never should have been put up against Desperate Housewives.
the nicest thing i can say about Keith Samples is that he is a lying nasty Prick..
I want to know what the “irregularities” were.
Did someone say that The Life and Times of Tim is hilarious?
Didja?
Wow, that’s just remarkable.
These CW shows looked and sounded to me like TV from the mid-eighties.