CW will be given some time but the Netflix/Hulu deals stink a little of desperation.

Hm - I think the CW/Netflix/Hulu deals are a solid move, don't stink of desperation really to me (in that it's incremental money CW made, no one else would've bought that stuff). Also it lines up very well with CW's W18-34 demo (as of course that demo watches a lot more Netflix/Hulu than old people do).

I think CW is a decent brand with some ok assets, and as they're a broadcast platform they can still theoretically launch shows and hits. So we'll see how they do next year...

(Also, don't follow CW too closely, but I assume they are some kind of repository for airing CBS Corp and Time Warner owned TV assets, so there is value to that as well.)

Minor corporate aside - Viacom spun out CBS Corp in 2006, and they are separate companies. Viacom is the cable assets and movie studio, and CBS Corp is the broadcast TV assets including CW (although Showtime is owned by CBS Corp, I'm not actually sure how that all worked out).

Al, do you work for a studio?

What kind of degree do you need to be able to end up where you are?

What is the typical career track to become a TV executive, including degrees?

How do you get into it?

I work for a large media company (one of the bigger ones that owns a bunch of media assets).

I'm on the business side of things - typical background for people here can be management consulting, investment banking, corporate planning for other types of businesses. MBA is good to have for these types of roles, but not necessary (like in other corporate planning roles at large companies). There are also of course, outside of "strategy" or corporate planning roles, normal business functions like accounting, finance, operations, HR etc. etc.

Creative Side - go check out Riverman's thread about working at WME. Gives a good rundown of how to get into the business as a studio exec or something like that. (The person buying scripts/developing talent/making TV shows and movies.)

I actually have an "Ask Me About TV Industry Thread" somewhere in OOTV and I think I break down how one can break into the "business" side vs. the "creative" side of the business.

(Obvious, but worth emphasizing - really, and although I enjoy my job - we are all just cogs in the wheel of the media industry - the real power/earnings/driver of the business is the talent, the actors and writers like fsoyars for entertainment assets - for other type of programming like Sports or say Discovery, not true of course)

Thanks for that info.

Can you describe what you mean, without giving away the company name? Do you mean like a Viacom, before they owned CBS (they do own CBS, right?)?

I'm in the creative side (Re-Recording Mixer), but the only other part of the business that has really fascinated me is the TV executive side. I took the track I took (I'm nearly 40, and mostly out of work these days), and I'm kind of stuck with it. I love mixing, but these days, I probably have much more interest in following TV shows, their fates, ratings, etc.

I grew up watching a ton of TV, and wasn't nearly as snobby then, as I am now...lol. I have a decent amount of TV historical knowledge, and have seen at least one episode of the vast majority of major programs since the 1950s through probably the early 90s. I have a gaping hole of TV knowledge between the year 2000 and 2009, largely because I worked very off shift (night shift and graveyard), and didn't have DVR until around 2005. There was a lot of good stuff I missed, but I'm making it kind of a mission to make sure that doesn't happen again (even though I may never catch up on some of the great shows I missed, since I just don't have the time).

Things are also a lot different in the business, since the threatened Actors' strike of 2008. My understanding is that the Pilot season doesn't really exist anymore, and that (as of 2008), the networks had no interest in going back to that model. It's part of the reason why I feel following the ratings is really important, since nothing is developed properly, anymore. Back when I used to aspire to mixing network TV content, the only chance someone like me would get was during Pilot season. Now it doesn't exist, anymore.

By the way, the closest I ever came to working on anything at network level was by "almost" getting hired as a sitcom sound editor, with the potential idea of getting to take over sitcom mixing possibly the following TV season. Since I wasn't Union, it didn't work out, but I had a good run after that, doing something completely different.

It's just a shame the business has changed so much, in such a short time. There, I guess that's all my "woe is me" venting...lol.

Something like a Viacom yah, the other big ones tend to be globally facing owning a TV studio/network/movie studio-distribution, among other media assets.

And Viacom no longer owns CBS - they spun out the broadcast tv assets in 2006 and are now a separate company called CBS Corp.

Haha, that's interesting - the Research group at Networks tracks this stuff for a living. Maybe if you want to career switch you can do that.

That's not true actually - 2008 through a wrench in pilot development season but today, all the broadcast networks go through a traditional pilot season. Some produce less than others, but the Networks for the most part are at historical pilot production levels IIRC. That's actually definitely something fsoyars has a feel for - as he just went out for staffing during this past pilot season. (My understanding is that there were a lot of pilots produced this past season.)

BTW - I'm not really privy to this stuff, but I do believe that the relationships the studio/network have with the talent on a series can influence how long the show airs, if it gets picked up etc etc. I'm not sure how dramatic an impact it has, but it can have some influence IIRC.

And for pilots above - I'm referring to broadcast TV pilots - cable TV pilots are on a different cycle, I believe it's much more year-round (they of course, say USA/TNT/TBS produce way less pilots than NBC/CBS/FOX etc).

Networks may still be producing them at the same level, but I always thought the Pilots would actually air in May, and that the ratings of those Pilots, as well the reception of those Pilots, would often determine whether they got picked up.

There are obviously Pilots shot for every show on air, these days, but I haven't ever noticed the actual "season" for airing them in May, anymore. These days, I think the networks look at the Pilot, along with whatever focus group stuff they do, determine what to put on the schedule, and just go with it. It doesn't really appear to be up to the mass audience, like I seem to remember it used to be.

When I refer to Pilot Season, to me, it always referred to two things. The first is the period of time, after production has shut down on the regular season offerings, and now everything is about shooting, editing, mixing Pilots (this used to happen in April, for maybe three or four weeks, through the late 90s). The second is when all those Pilots would air on the networks, which I believe was in May. It's a long time ago, so I might have that screwed up. I just seem to remember a time where nothing was green lit for 6 or even 13 episodes (recent inventions, right?), without having been through the "Pilot Season" of a real test audience (in May, on TV). I think, back then, everything used to be a full season order, though I'm sure I could be way wrong about that.

Can you be a part of those research groups you spoke of from home? I live in Vegas now, so L.A. is probably out, at least for now.

Just from the amount of time I've read about certain series being in development, I think that USA and TNT both go through a pretty true development cycle. It's probably a big part of why their shows tend to be so successful. I remember seeing the Pilot for Fairly Legal (USA), and being blown away by how well developed it was, even though it's changed a lot since then, in addition to the massive re-tooling we are supposedly expecting. Most of the new network shows I've seen, outside of maybe Person of Interest, Revenge, Once Upon a Time, and Grimm, seem like they're fumbling around trying to figure out what they are.

It's part of why I detest Prime Suspect so much. It was so bad to start that it couldn't fix how bad it was fast enough to avoid cancellation (even though NBC has given it every opportunity). Body of Proof is a joke, but yet they still don't do all the obvious re-tooling it needs. Fully formed Pilots are kind of a thing of the past on network TV these days, most just try to find their way after a few episodes. Some do that well, some don't.

I'm sure what you're saying plays a large part in how long something stays on air. Most network shows these days don't have huge stars on them, but I think they probably all are trying to find the next big writer/director/producer, and if they see that potential, they will keep a crappy show on the air longer, just to make them want to come back in the future.

Oh - I don't think that's ever been the case. I can't recall a Network airing a pilot on their Network to test it out. Think it's always been in-house testing with focus groups, and selection made without a broadcast air:

The way it works (has for the past decade AFAIK) - it's year round but let's start with script buying (again, fsoyars would know this better than me but I think I'm generally correct):

1) Script Buying: From June to December
2) Pilot Casting/Production: From January to May
3) Pilot Selection: May, in time for the Network upfronts where the Pilots selected are first shown to advertisers

Is it possible that was an 80s to mid 90s thing? Because I sure seem to remember something like that going on.

I'm fairly sure the Networks never aired pilots without having first picked it up for series (with 100% committment to air it in series). But not positive.

I'm sure you're probably right. I don't know why I thought that was the case, though.

I've seen some great pilots over the years that were never picked up to series: shame the Networks won't/don't care to somehow distribute all the failed pilots over the years.

Maybe you can answer this question, Al. I've heard that Person of Interest is considered a bubble show. If CBS were to cancel it, how hard would it be for a network like NBC to pick it up? Is that impossible, these days?

Pretty solid season finale (or end-of-episode or whatever, perhaps) song amirite?

Yes, this. I've never heard of a pilot airing in May or at any time without at least a 13 episode order (on a network anyway).

Possible but very unlikely and uncommon. Much more likely for a failed network show to land somewhere on cable than on another network.

Outside of Scrubs, I can't think of an example of a broadcast network show moving to another broadcast network

medium went from nbc to cbs a few years ago before it got canned.

there were talks about house moving to nbc earlier this yr .

(nbc produces house , cbs produces medium )

also remember some abc shows moving to upn/ cw or one of the outlier networks.

And ABC produces Scrubs - outside of the Studio-network relationship I'm not sure why a broadcast network would pick up another broadcast networks failed series

In the case of NBC, bringing over almost any other network's failed show would result in a ratings increase. For Person of Interest, NBC would be bringing over a show with a large built in audience that crushes the audience numbers of any show on the network.

Taking a Network's canceled series (which has already proven to have limited upside) isn't really a winning strategy for the long run health of the business (even if it does drive marginally higher ratings than other stuff on-air).

If you are interested to read a POV on NBC's woes, this was I thought an interesting one in AdAge:

http://adage.com/article/tuning-in/n...matter/230778/

"How Much Does an NBC Turnaround Even Matter Any More?"

That's a pretty good article, but I found his thinking that Prime Suspect is a "bright spot" to be kind of bizarre. It's not, it's a piece of sh*t, and Maria Bello is an enormously polarizing actor, in general. The problem is that NBC is trying to find the next Law & Order, and thinks that Prime Suspect is the way to go. It wasn't, it's a failed experiment. They should have stuck with LOLa, or even tried to give a revival to Criminal Intent, rather than trot out Prime Suspect.

I can honestly say that, despite Maria Bello's casting (I do not like her), I was excited to see the series. I'm still watching it, but it sucks, in my opinion. It's trying way too hard to create dramatic tension in situations where tension is about the worst thing you can have. Then, as a police procedural, it's completely unbelievable.

Sorry to say it, but I think Comcast buying NBC was a bad thing. I think we're going to be greeted with a lot more reality programming in the coming years, because of that deal, on that network. It really is a shame that NBC is such a joke these days. I personally think the NBC "style" is better than any other network, and I just cringe at the ABC "style", even though I can get past it.

NBC should probably spend a lot more time developing their programming, BEFORE it hits air. The writer also seems to forget that Southland was originally on NBC, prior to being canceled. NBC made the decision to go way cheaper on a lot of their programming, around the time of The Office. That was their decision, and now they are having a difficult time getting away from that thought.

It would be a shame if NBC just fades away, in my opinion.

I enjoyed last night's episode of Grimm, but it did drop a bit from the premiere (not surprisingly).

It had a 1.8 in the 18-49 demo with 5.92 million overall viewers. Even against two other genre heavyweights (not ratings heavyweights, but shows that definitely target some of the same audience), it's held its own, and should absolutely be moved off of this day. These ratings destroy anything that Prime Suspect has ever produced, and that's on a FRIDAY.

NBC needs to pull their heads out of their asses, switch these two shows, or at least move it to another day. I wanted a 2.0 for Grimm to pretty much guarantee that, but this evidence should be enough for them to move the show. If there is not some kind of announcement out of NBC, by the end of Monday, I might cry.

Chuck had another disastrous rating with a 0.8 and 3.08 million overall viewers. If it weren't its last season, it would probably be canceled in a couple more weeks.

Fringe had a 1.3 and 3.52 million overall viewers, for those keeping score.

Grimm is holding well in a slot that it shouldn't hold well in, so it should be pretty easy to tell what NBC needs to do with it. Now, we just need to see if they will.