WME Signs Peter Chernin’s TV Production

COMMENTS (8)

• To clarify, any put pilots that Chernin Ent. is kissed into (without WME clients)… which, I understand, make up the majority of their pickups.

  Comment by Joe Randa — Monday April 12, 2010 @ 9:40pm PDT  Reply to this post

• WME’s TV department is on another level. I don’t even know who has the number two shop in town now, the others are just so far behind. Seems like the vast majority of shows on air or in development are theirs.

  Comment by Studio Honcho — Monday April 12, 2010 @ 10:00pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • No wonder TV sucks.

    Comment by industry observer — Monday April 12, 2010 @ 11:14pm PDT  Reply to this post

• That’s some TV biz…. except those put deals resulted in how many pilots actually ordered to be shot out of the many they developed? One.

  Comment by um — Monday April 12, 2010 @ 10:01pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I would hardly say its a two agency town in TV. UTA has Dick Wolf, Alan Ball, Steve Levitan, to name a few. ICM has Shanda Rhimes, Chcuk Lorre, and Mark Gordon. The biz is spread out. WME is just signing companies because they cant sign the writers post merger. In fact, I can give you a list of 35 writers that have fired WME in the past six months. They are a disorganized agency with zero focus on the individual clients. Don’t get me wrong, they have some good agents, but get your info straight before you say they are on a different level.

  Comment by mike is right — Tuesday April 13, 2010 @ 7:18am PDT  Reply to this post

• Chernin went with WME because Chernin’s boy, Jesse Jacobs, formerly worked with Raine. Raine operates with the financial backing of WME.

  Comment by harry van ardsdale — Tuesday April 13, 2010 @ 9:45am PDT  Reply to this post

  • Please…Jesse Jacobs was at Raine for the blink of an eye before he figured out it was a dead end.

    Jesse Jacobs is far more established as a Barneys shopper than a dealmaker…zero idea what he’ll be doing for Chernin, as he did nothing for Raine (the co. strategy) and even less for GS before that. But even he could tell that it was time to bail with zero in the deal pipeline and tons of overhead.

    His first big deal was going to be selling the TX Rangers for Tom Hicks. Didn’t see Raine mentioned anywhere in the SBJ article on the transaction.

    Ravitch and Sine are better talkers than closers.

    Raine was created for the simple reason that Ari wants to be Teddy Forstmann meets Mike Ovitz. And he paid for their ridiculous overhead with the $$ he pilfered from the flush WMA. But Teddy is broke (ask Chris Albrecht), and Ari’s going long on talent about a decade past the right moment.

    So let’s just say Raine isn’t working out as planned, unless I missed the 20 headlines they promised by now.

    As for Ari’s big brand integration strategy with Mark Dowley, looks like IPG is betting the house on John Ferriter.

    So Ari’s left holding the bag with Dowley, Ravitch and Sine…and there is tons more overhead than business on each P/L.

    Why don’t we just change the name from Raine to Golden Shower?

    The only possible way to salvage this thing is to let a big thinker like JMF or DZW take charge.

    Comment by Call it what it is — Tuesday April 13, 2010 @ 5:56pm PDT  Reply to this post

    • Sounds like an insider to me.

      Comment by Anonymous — Wednesday April 14, 2010 @ 12:39pm PDT  Reply to this post