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AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan told analysts at the UBS Annual Global Media and Communications Conference that he’s “exploring changing the mix of content on AMC” based on the recent success of its zombiefest The Walking Dead – and four non-fiction series he plans to introduce beginning next year. He wasn’t specific about how a revamped channel would look, though. “We’ll see how it goes,” he says. It’s easy to appreciate why he wants to shake up people’s perception of AMC. Pay TV companies currently pay about 25 cents a month for each home that receives the channel. But Sapan says that, with its many original shows, in a perfect world it’s “at minimum a 75 cent channel. …. We’re way underpaid.” He’s a realist, though, acknowledging that “we’re not necessarily going to get that tomorrow.” 
As a result, Sapan talked up his company’s efficient management of costs. For example, he says that his development costs are “modest.” Although it owns most of its non-fiction shows — “they’re not that expensive,” he says — for most of the shows on AMC “we have chosen not to 100% own.” Sapan says that ”it’s about risk appetite. … If a studio partner is going to come in and fund 30-odd percent of the cost, it’s sensible to de-risk that transaction.” Of course he has second thoughts about not seizing the chance to own AMC’s hit Mad Men. He wasn’t convinced that AMC would do so well with a talky series about ad execs in the 1950s and ’60s. ”It took everybody by surprise,” he says. But he was more confident about Walking Dead. ”That ownership decision was the wisest and best one,” Sapan says. READ MORE »
AMC Networks Chief Weighs Programming Revamp: UBS Confab
AMC Delivers Strong 3Q Profit: But Without ‘Mad Men’, Network Falls Short Of Forecasts
We’ll see whether the Street is more impressed by AMC’s better-than-expected profits, or disappointed in the worse-than-expected revenues. The cable network company reports 3Q net earnings of $40M, up 58.4%, on revenues of $283.9M, up 4.6%. Analysts thought they’d … Read More »
EMMYS: ‘Walking Dead’s Frank Darabont
Frank Darabont spent five fruitless years of pitching an idea for a zombie television series. But he’s back on Hollywood’s A-list after The Walking Dead, which he created from Robert Kirkman’s original comic book, generated higher ratings in its first season than any of AMC’s previous … Read More »
Broadcast Nets Are Going For Genre And Period Dramas This Development Season, But Can Such Series Work On The Big 4?
Genre series are all the rage in cable with the success of AMC’s The Walking Dead and HBO’s True Blood, which have been breaking series records to rank as their network’s top-rated series and become pop culture staples. A genre … Read More »
Golden Globes TV: Andreeva Analyzes; Zombies, Multi-Camera Comedies, & ‘Glee’
The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. once again went for a mix of critical darlings and pop culture standouts in its TV nominations, with stronger emphasis on popular shows this year. The freshman series that landed first best series noms were the praised HBO drama Boardwalk Empire and Showtime comedy The Big C as well as AMC’s hugely popular zombie drama The Walking Dead. Speaking of popular, Fox’s red-hot Glee was the most nominated program for a second straight year with 5 noms. And CBS hit The Big Bang Theory broke into the best comedy series field, the first multi-camera comedy to do so in 6 years. FX’s highly rated edgy biker drama Sons of Anarchy landed its first mainstream award nomination, a best drama actress nom for Katey Sagal. And two popcorn series, USA’s Covert Affairs and CBS’ Hawaii Five-O, landed surprise nominations, best actress for Piper Perabo and best supporting actor for Scott Caan.
CBS’ The Big Bang Theory scored its first 2 Golden Globe nominations, best comedy series and best lead actor in a comedy series for Emmy winner Jim Parsons. How significant was the best series nom? The last time a multi-camera comedy landed one was Will & Grace 6 years ago. HFPA traditionally overlooks traditional sitcoms for edgier single-camera fare. That especially applies to CBS’ popularmulti-camera comedies . Everybody Loves Raymond, which won 2 best comedy series Emmys among a truckload of other awards, was never nominated for a Golden Globe in the best comedy series category and only landed 2 Globe noms and no wins for star Ray Romano for its entire run. Returning in the best series field, which was expanded to 6 slots this year, are last year’s winner Glee, current Emmy winner Modern Family and previous Globe and Emmy winner 30 Rock. Out are The Office and Entourage, in are Big Bang and 2 Showtime series, Nurse Jackie and The Big C. Showtime nabbed the most series nominations of any network, broadcast or cable, 8. HBO had the most nominations overall, 12. The comedy series acting categories remained virtually unchanged from last year with only one tweak on each side: Laura Linney of the Big C subbing for Courteney Cox, and Parsons taking over for David Duchovny. Returning nominees include Toni Collette of United States of Tara, Edie Falco of Nurse Jackie, Tina Fey of 30 Rock, Lea Michele of Glee, Alec Baldwin of 30 Rock, Steve Carell of The Office, Thomas Jane of Hung and Matthew Morrison of Glee. No love again for NBC’s Parks & Recreation and Community or HBO’s Bored to Death and Eastbound & Down, none of which scored a nom. Read More »
2011 WGA Award Nominations For TV
Only two new series, HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and Showtime’s Nurse Jackie, were able to crack the top series categories for the 2011 WGA Awards for television, which remained largely unchanged from last year, with 4 out of 5 nominees in each category returning from last year. On the drama side, Boardwalk Empire replaced Lost, while Nurse Jackie took over for Curb Your Enthusiasm, which hasn’t aired a fresh season. Lost still got a nice farewell with a nomination in the episodic drama category for the series finale written by Damon Lindeloff and Carlton Cuse. After the comedy breakthrough last year when the New Series category featured four comedies, Glee, Modern Family, Hung and Nurse Jackie, and only one drama, The Good Wife, the pendulum swung the other way, with no comedy series making the cut in the field at all this year. Somewhat surprisingly, AMC’s breakout zombie hit The Walking Dead did make it, joined by another surprise nominee, Ray Romano’s buddy drama Men of a Certain Age, as well as Boardwalk Empire, Justified and Treme. Speaking of surprises, the canceled Sarah Silverman Program on Comedy Central scored a posthumous nom in the episodic comedy category. Overall, Breaking Bad, 30 Rock and Modern Family topped the list with the most nominations, 3 each. Here is the list of the 2011 WGA nominees for TV, news, radio, promotional writing and graphic animation:
TELEVISION NOMINEES
DRAMA SERIES
Boardwalk Empire, Written by Meg Jackson, Lawrence Konner, Howard Korder, Steve Kornacki, Margaret Nagle, Tim Van Patten, Paul Simms, Terence Winter; HBO
Breaking Bad, Written by Sam Catlin, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Gennifer Hutchison, George Mastras, Tom Schnauz, John Shiban, Moira Walley-Beckett; AMCDexter, Written by Scott Buck, Manny Coto, Charles H. Eglee, Lauren Gussis, Chip Johannessen, Jim Leonard, Clyde Phillips, Scott Reynolds, Melissa Rosenberg, Tim Schlattmann, Wendy West; Showtime
Friday Night Lights, Written by Bridget Carpenter, Kerry Ehrin, Ron Fitzgerald, Etan Frankel, Monica Henderson, David Hudgins, Rolin Jones, Jason Katims, Patrick Massett, Derek Santos Olson, John Zinman; NBC
Mad Men, Written by Jonathan Abrahams, Lisa Albert, Keith Huff, Jonathan Igla, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Brett Johnson, Janet Leahy, Erin Levy, Tracy McMillan, Dahvi Waller, Matthew Weiner; AMC
COMEDY SERIES
30 Rock, Written by Jack Burditt, Hannibal Buress, Kay Cannon, Robert Carlock, Tom Ceraulo, Vali Chandrasekaran, Tina Fey, Jon Haller, Steve Hely, Matt Hubbard, Dylan Morgan, Paula Pell, John Riggi, Josh Siegal, Ron Weiner, Tracey Wigfield; NBCGlee, Written by Ian Brennan, Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy; Fox
Modern Family, Written by Jerry Collins, Paul Corrigan, Alex Herschlag, Abraham Higginbotham, Elaine Ko, Joe Lawson, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Dan O’Shannon, Jeffrey Richman, Brad Walsh, Ilana Wernick, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker; ABC
Nurse Jackie, Written by Liz Brixius, Rick Cleveland, Nancy Fichman, Liz Flahive, Jennifer Hoppe-House, Mark Hudis, Linda Wallem, Christine Zander; Showtime
The Office, Written by Jennifer Celotta, Daniel Chun, Greg Daniels, Lee Eisenberg, Brent Forrester, Amelie Gillette, Charlie Grandy, Steve Hely, Jonathan A. Hughes, Mindy Kaling, Carrie Kemper, Jason Kessler, Paul Lieberstein, Warren Lieberstein, B.J. Novak, Peter Ocko, Robert Padnick, Aaron Shure, Justin Spitzer, Gene Stupnitsky, Halsted Sullivan, Jon Vitti; NBC
NEW SERIES
Boardwalk Empire, Written by Meg Jackson, Lawrence Konner, Howard Korder, Steve Kornacki, Margaret Nagle, Tim Van Patten, Paul Simms, Terence Winter; HBOJustified, Written by Dave Andron, Wendy Calhoun, Benjamin Cavell, Fred Golan, Gary Lennon, Benjamin Daniel Lobato, Chris Provenzano, Graham Yost; FX
Men of a Certain Age, Written by Bridget Bedard, Warren Hutcherson, Rick Muirragui, Jack Orman, Ray Romano, Mike Royce, Lew Schneider, Mark Stegemann; TNT
Treme, Written by Lolis Eric Elie, David Mills, Eric Overmyer, George Pelecanos, Tom Piazza, Davis Rogan, David Simon; HBO
The Walking Dead, Written by Frank Darabont; Charles H. Eglee, Robert Kirkman, Jack LoGiudice, Glen Mazzara; AMC
The ‘Walking Dead’ Finale Draws 6 Million
AMC’s breakout hit The Walking Dead ended its 6-episode first-season run with another series high. More than 6 million viewers tuned in last night for the closer, eclipsing the previous series high of 5.6 million posted the previous Sunday. In … Read More »
‘The Walking Dead’ Lets Go Of Writers; Considers No Writing Staff For Season 2
UPDATE WEDNESDAY 10:45AM: AMC just issued a statement confirming “that there will be changes to the writing staff” of The Walking Dead.
EXCLUSIVE TUESDAY 5PM: I hear The Walking Dead writer/ executive producer/ director Frank Darabont has let go of the … Read More »
‘Walking Dead’ Hits Another Ratings High
The zombie craze continues. I think we can safely say that The Walking Dead‘s first season finale next week will do gangbuster ratings. The penultimate fifth episode of the AMC zombie drama last night drew 5.6 million viewers, a series high, besting the series’ monster premiere that averaged 5.3 million. … Read More »
CABLE RAT RACE: Palin Drops Big In Week 2; ‘Walking Dead’ Steady
Sarah Palin lost almost half of her premiere audience in the second airing of her TLC reality series Sarah Palin’s Alaska. On Sunday, the series executive produced by Mark Burnett, drew 3 million viewers. That is down 40% from the 5 million who tuned in for the debut last … Read More »
AMC Renews ‘Walking Dead’ For Season 2
No surprise here: AMC just announced it is renewing breakout hit The Walking Dead for a second season with a 13-episode order. The pickup comes on the heels of Walking Dead‘s record-breaking premiere on October 31, that drew 5.3 million viewers, … Read More »
Big Debut For ‘Walking Dead’ On AMC
Following AMC’s most expansive promotional campaign, the cable network’s new drama The Walking Dead launched with more that 5.3 total million viewers last night, the largest audience for an original series on AMC. In adults 18-49, Walking Dead garnered 3.6 … Read More »
‘Walking Dead’ To Become Series Of Novels
Robert Kirkman’s bestselling comic series The Walking Dead, which already migrated to TV with the upcoming AMC series, will now spawn a trilogy of original novels to be published by Thomas Dunne books, an imprint of St. Martins Press, starting in … Read More »
Hot Teaser: AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’
After the parade of vampire TV series, AMC is giving equal time to flesh eating zombies. Frank Darabont’s The Walking Dead starts its run on Halloween, October 31st, with a 90-minute premiere at 10 PM, but the cable network has put up a teaser.
Comic-Con 2010 Preview: Friday, July 23
FRIDAY, JULY 23
STAR WARS DAY (This is a meaningless appellation unless and until George Lucas sees fit to say or do anything regarding the proposed live-action TV series.)
Luke Y Thompson covers Hollywood events at the … Read More »
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