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2ND UPDATE: The word to me is that Christina Wayne is going to Starz. But I’m also getting off-the-record denials from folks inside the company.
UPDATE: Yes, it’s true. She’s certainly received a slew of press in recent months: EW, Portfolio, W magazine.
The Televisionary blog is reporting that Christina Wayne has “quit” AMC effective today. She was just promoted last year to SVP for Scripted Series and Mini-Series at the basic cabler. “No reason was given for her abrupt exit and it’s not immediately clear where Wayne will head next or if she had secured a position elsewhere,” said the blog, relying on a source inside the network. Wayne has served as AMC’s head of original scripted programming since 2005 and helped oversee AMC’s signature hit dramas Mad Men and Breaking Bad. (See my previous, SANITY PREVAILS! Matthew Weiner & Lionsgate Agree To More ‘Mad Men’)
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AMC is still a tiny channel in the TV universe. She probably got offered something bigger and better. Not surprising at all.
I think she was just profiled in W Magazine for her power in TV.
The writing was on the wall. She had a new boss, and the net was deep in discussions about its future, ie they like the Emmys fine, but they really want viewers more. That may have cut into the brand she developed, and led to the exit. Jumped or pushed? Who knows.
Any impact on shows currently in pre/production? Warren Ellis’ DEAD CHANNEL, for example?
Everyone knows she had zero to do with mad men. Matthew weiner wrote it as a spec and has always refused to take network notes. She has a bad rep with writers too.
I am a showrunner in a deal who was anxious and curious to pitch to AMC. On a big project that sold, I and my co-horts found her rude, boring, and essentially a stuck-up chucklehead. And most writer/producers I’ve spoken to think less of her than that. Adios, and have fun in the NY TV “indie” world…..
Charlie Collier is the genius at AMC, no need for his rude, boring underling to stick around and piss off more writers.
Some bitter people up here. I love Christina and every other writer I know do, including Matt Weiner who says, and I quote: “Talking to her is like talking to another artist,” says Mad Men’s creator, Matthew Weiner. “She has great taste, she’s not afraid of new things, and it’s never about a focus group or second-guessing the market.”
You think AMC would OK all the press she got touting her MadMen success if she had nothing to do with it? Would Matt Weiner sing her praises or thank her at award shows if she was just in the right place at the right time?
The commenters on here bashing her are just jealous of her – or anyone’s – success. How shocking in Hollywood.
I hope she lands somewhere good.
Christina Wayne is not going to Starz. This is all fluff.
-RnsW
I’ve known Christina Wayne for over 10 years — back when she was hustling her screenplay, TART, that she eventually directed as her first feature. In all this time, I’ve learned that Christina can rub people the wrong way. I’ve also learned that she can be dismissive and come across as snooty. However, why does any of this matter? Many of this industry’s most accomplished executives and producers are difficult, uncompromising yet rude and juvenile. So, she pisses some people off…so does everybody else in this town who has managed to rise anywhere remotely close to “the top.”
Christina was hired as a consultant at AMC and later brought on in a senior level executive capacity. In this role, it was her job to identify promising material and shepherd it through the burgeoning AMC system, all with idea of creating a recognizable brand. By snagging MAD MEN and BREAKING BAD (with a helpful assist from former F/X exec / asst Jeremy Elice) out of turnaround (yes, turnaround) from HBO and F/X respectively, she did what the executives at these other networks neglected to do: she pushed these groundbreaking programs through the politics of the AMC system and onto the air. And voila! Look what happened: glowing press, cultural influence, brand repositioning, Emmys!
Putting AMC on the map was Christina’s job and while some of you may take issue with her manner, the fact is that she did her job and did it quite well (and quickly). AMC would be nowhere without these two shows and it is clearly questionable whether these shows would be on the air had Christina not joined AMC and championed them.
Matthew Weiner should thank CW: she thrust him into the cultural zeitgeist by her decision to take a chance on “Mad Men.” She showed more balls (and estrogen) than all the yahoos at NBC, FOX, CBS, HBO, et al. Kudos to her for that.
However, CW is also a rude, obnoxious and overrated exec. For someone who claims to be an “artist” herself, she fits more comfortably into the skin of one of the execrable characters she “channeled” in Tart — a spoiled Upper East side poseur with more good fortune than good taste.
I have supervised/produced nearly 60 aired projects of one sort or another, have worked with Emmy-, Oscar-, WGA-, and Tony award winning writers, and I’ve had hundreds (and hundreds) of script mtgs as both a network and studio exec and as a producer. 17 years in the biz as a senior executive.
The single worst and weirdest meeting I ever had was a conference call with Ms Wayne, the writer, and the producer of a project I was overseeing as a studio exec which was set-up at AMC.
It took her 1 hour to say, in essense, “I love the script, I don’t like this draft, I don’t have any idea how to fix it, but we love the project, so rewrite it doing everything different from what you already did but don’t lose the good stuff that you’ve already got but you should feel free to go crazy and really shake things up but don’t go too crazy because we like what you’ve already got.” And she said it in the tone of an overbearing, “I’m smarter than you” blowhard mixed with someone who spends an hour telling you that crystals can cure cancer. Now I worked as a network exec for 11 years at a broadcast network, and I always understood that it ain’t you, it’s the chair you sit in, and once you start believing your own bullshit, you are officially full of shit, and she was full of shit. (And I’m no misogynist – I prefer working with female execs b/c I think 98% of the time they’re more creative than male execs).
As the studio exec, I felt compelled for the sake of my writer (and the future prospects of the project) to get her to be more specific, and she said, “How can you say I haven’t been specific?” I politely retorted that she didn’t give a single note, didn’t make any remarks on the story or structure or lead characters or even on the plot points. I started to go through my own notes (she was correct in that the draft wasn’t perfect), asking her specific questions about tone and structure, and suddenly she stops me and says, “I have another meeting. Let’s get the new draft in as soon as possible,” and she hung up.
The writer, producer, and I remained on the phone in shocked silence, and finally the producer joked, “Well, there’s an hour of my life I’ll never get back.”
Now I’ve had some bad meetings before, meetings where physical violence broke out, personal threats leveled, vile insults hurled. As a studio exec and producer, I’ve encountered my fair share of dumbass, full-of-shit network execs who truly believe they are geniuses. I’ve worked on some really good programming and worked on some serious dogs. But she has a track record of 1 indie film and 2 series with microscopic audiences that were developed by other companies. I know execs at networks who have impressive track records of award-winning shows watched by MILLIONS each week. Maybe AMC got tired of putting up with her ego and realized there are a hundred more talented, more experienced execs out there who can do the job.
In short, my guess is that she’ll replace Ben Silverman at NBC, or perhaps Les Moonves at CBS, or even Steven Spielberg at Dreamworks 2.0. Because the only thing true about Hollywood is that you fail upwards.
I watched two episodes of Mad Men and I’m sorry, but I do not get the appeal, and I don’t know a single other person who watches the show. I have one colleague at work who tivo’s it, but hasn’t watched yet.
Not saying it isn’t a good show, but the show is NOT part of the cultural zeitgeist. I mean, anything under a 2.0 rating is a test pattern. It’s a second-tier basic cable series used as a loss-leader marketing tool for AMC that happens to have been reviewed well and won some awards. “Golden Girls” won Emmys too. I remember when Christina got the job, and there was a collective, “WHO?” that went around the cable world.
Working with Christina Wayne at AMC was one of the best experiences in my professional life. As a writer, I found her to be an extremely supportive, respectful, and creative executive. Wherever she lands, I hope to have the opportunity to work with her again.
i’ve known christina for 15 years. i’ve worked with her on a project she was writing/directing when we were friends, and we had a disagreement which led to a long time falling out. even through that though i’ve always been impressed by her toughness and intelligence. i have no doubt that the fact that mad men and breaking bad made it to air was largely due to her championing them both.
but people are forgetting “broken trail”, which she supervised. i am told by a reliable source who was there that while on set she constantly got into spats with the producer and the star and the director, and that at one point the star (he’s an old guy, if that helps) turned to said producer and director (himself an old guy) and, pointing at christina, said “she’s got bigger balls then either of you.” i can tell you from having read different drafts of the script when at my old gig that christina’s notes were dead on and she should get a large amount of the credit for all those emmys.
she’s not the easiest person in the world to deal with but neither am i, and god knows neither are half the “successful” people in network or features. who cares? smart and cool and funny with a touch of arrogance is fine, and that is christina in a nutshell. and to the retired thank god…listen, someone had a different view of your story then you did. and you are whingeing about it? give me a break.
It was only just a little more than three years ago that AMC,
a small basic cable channel, programming classic and not so classic movies previously aired everywhere, decided to break into the scripted arena and compete with the likes of HBO. No harm in thinking big.
Christina Wayne, with whom I worked as a writer/producer
twice in those three years, was entrusted with AMC’s newly hatched original programming department when we did
BROKEN TRAIL.
And she was there all the way to the completion of post production.
Robert Duvall and Walter Hill valued her taste and integrity.
The first night, BROKEN TRAIL aired to an audience of 9.7 million, the second-highest-rated basic-cable-network miniseries of the previous 10 years.
It won Emmys for Duvall and Thomas Haden Church, and as
Best Mini-Series.
Christina’s next challenge was an original series. And that was MAD MEN, lauded and awarded from its first year on AMC to the present.
Christina Wayne was a vital part of the engine that powered The Little Basic Channel That Could.
Ronald Parker
I’m a young writer who graduated from Christina’s alma mater, Barnard College/College University, six years ago. Upon graduating, I found Christina’s number through some alum connections and contacted her out of the blue. She couldn’t have been any nicer. She took me out to dinner, talked to me for hours and steered me in the right direction – and away from a “free option” on a script of mine offered by a “producer.” There was no reason for her to go out of her way for me but she did.
I am not in your biz, but I love reading these comments. What’s absolutely amazing to me is that, repeatedly, the same person will be lauded as a god by some and viciously excoriated by others. What gives? Is there some kind of weird Jekyll-Hyde effect at work in your business?