Variety returns in-person for its annual Entertainment & Technology Summit, presented by City National Bank. This one-day event will explore advancing technology’s impact on TV, film, gaming, music, digital media and consumer brands.
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00:00We're going to talk about truly just purely sort of managing the many different, so many
00:06shows and so many different genres and formats, and they all have their own distinct needs,
00:10I know.
00:11But we're going to start by talking, and we're so grateful for your time at this moment when
00:16you are very busy and about to be a whole lot busier starting next year.
00:20You were promoted in August, which, hard to believe, but feels probably about a year ago.
00:26But you were promoted in August to a new role.
00:29You are now overseeing all of what we just saw at Warner Brothers Television Group, and
00:33in your spare time, you're going to add all of the U.S. linear networks, which is a formidable
00:39group of networks.
00:41I got a few of them here, of course.
00:43TNT, Discovery, TBS Food Network, HGTV Cartoon Network, and CNN, yes or no?
00:50Is that...
00:51CNN, no.
00:52CNN, no.
00:53That would be...
00:54That would be the tipping.
00:55I thought that, yeah, but I mean, there's a lot of linear television, and everybody
01:00in this room is aware that linear television is facing some challenges, although a lot
01:06of the commentary here today has really underscored that there is so much opportunity.
01:12It's become a cliche, but this is a moment of reinvention, but this really does feel
01:16like a moment where linear, if the investment is there, the pipes work.
01:22It's a matter of kind of figuring out that, and that figuring out is definitely going
01:25to be part of your journey.
01:27I know that you are not taking that role till next year, but kind of high level, can you
01:32tell us what you're thinking about how you can organize just your universe to make sense
01:38of it all, and what you're thinking about with this linear opportunity coming onto your
01:43plate?
01:44Yeah, I mean, as you mentioned, I don't step into the role officially until January, so
01:48right now I'm kind of in the midst of what I've been calling my listening tour, meeting
01:51with everyone at all of the various networks, and kind of understanding how that business
01:55has been operating.
01:56For me, I feel like I'm excited about the opportunity for better collaboration between
02:01Warner Brothers Television Group and some of the U.S. networks.
02:04I think that there's real opportunity there, and that makes me excited, and I kind of am
02:08in the place where you are, which is that the pipes are there, they work, and so the
02:11question is just figuring out how can we do some of these things differently?
02:15How can we be maybe a little bit more innovative in the space?
02:19I think for me, coming into it, not having been part of the U.S. networks group before,
02:25the one thing that I do know is that I'm bringing fresh perspective, and so I think from that,
02:29even in the conversations we've already had, some interesting discussions have arisen,
02:34which is exciting.
02:35So, more to come.
02:36Well, and again, you have so many content assets, content creation assets under the
02:41roof, and it's true.
02:42I mean, in terms of coordination, Warner Brothers is, of course, very well known, synonymous
02:48with big network shows, but as that clip showed us, shows like Shrinking, of course,
02:54shows like Ted Lasso are not, the studio is never quite as well known as the network platform,
03:00but all of this, Warner's has very savvily and very effectively played in a lot of different
03:07sandboxes.
03:08Now, with that said, this is a genuine, how do you manage your day?
03:14How do you manage all the volume of everything from unscripted to animation to scripted to,
03:21you know, lifestyle?
03:22Yeah.
03:23Yeah.
03:24The interesting thing is that what I love about my job is that every day is different,
03:28right?
03:29And it's, there are always new things arising and different challenges in front of me, and
03:34I think, for me, what I try to think about is where would my opinion or my input bring
03:40the most value, and those are the places where I try to put my energy and my time, and that
03:44can vary day-to-day, right?
03:46So I rely on the fact that I have amazing people, you know, within Warner Brothers Television
03:51Group, you know, Brett Paul, who's the president of WBTV, Clancy Collins-White, who oversees
03:56all of our development, Vicki Demmer, who oversees the, you know, current programming,
04:00and then, you know, my partners in unscripted and animation, you know, Sam Register, who's
04:04on his way back from New Zealand, having just watched another cut of The War of the Rohirrim,
04:09our film that comes out in December, but I think the key is having great, great lieutenants
04:13who are excellent at what they do, and they're going to make sure that my energies are being
04:18pointed in the right way.
04:20Can you talk about in, you know, as you are managing a portfolio of content, how much
04:27do you, is there a point at the year where you say, we need to have a certain amount
04:31of this type of show, we need to have a certain amount of this type of show, or is it a little
04:36bit more of an organic as things, as opportunities arise?
04:40Yeah, I think it's more organic.
04:42The nice thing about being the studio is that you're not at a network or a platform where
04:47you have to say, oh, we don't have this, or we have too much of this.
04:51We, what I, what we always say at Warner Brothers is that we want to be the best creative home
04:55for talent.
04:56And then that means meeting with the talent, hearing what they're excited about, talking
05:01about those ideas, you know, if they love it and we love it, then we're going to find
05:04the right home for it.
05:05And so, you know, we try not to directly compete with ourselves, you know, we just launched
05:09Rescue High Surf at Fox, we're probably not going to immediately leap out and do another
05:14show that is in that same universe, it's very specific.
05:17But I think that there's a lot of room for us to tell many different kinds of stories,
05:20which is exciting.
05:21Absolutely.
05:22And of course, before you were at Warner Brothers, you had a time at Netflix, you had a long
05:27run at ABC, where you rose to be head of ABC Entertainment.
05:31Is there a part of you that's itching to program a network again?
05:34Well, I guess maybe I'm going to get the chance because I have a whole bunch of networks coming
05:37my way.
05:38Right.
05:40But, you know, I've been really lucky.
05:41I've had many different roles and they've all brought different aspects of sort of my
05:47skill set to the surface.
05:48You know, right now, I've been really enjoying being at the top of Warner Brothers Television
05:51Group and getting to play in, you know, live action scripted and unscripted in animation.
05:57That to me has kind of been the best of all worlds.
05:59And in terms of like fun stuff, I have to mention my colleague, Mike Schneider, who's
06:03somewhere in the office.
06:04He went, he traveled to Washington, D.C. last week to be with you.
06:08You all had a fun, really, really fun and all the feelings, all the nostalgia.
06:13You had a fun 25th anniversary celebration for the West Wing at the White House.
06:17Now, I think I am duty bound to ask you, any West Wing revival or sequel, prequel, any
06:23activity going on?
06:25You know, I mean, look, I'm not getting ahead of myself because Aaron Sorkin has spoken
06:29very publicly about how moved he was by the experience.
06:32And it's one of those things where, you know, we always joke about we're making television,
06:36we're telling stories, we're not saving lives or changing lives.
06:40But it is interesting, when we were there, to see how many people we met.
06:44They had a reception afterward in the Garden and there were so many people that were coming
06:48up to the various actors and saying, you know, your character inspired me to pursue this
06:53career.
06:54And, you know, when you feel the impact that storytelling and television can have, it's
06:58very powerful.
06:59I think Aaron was moved and I think, you know, he was, you know, buzzing, his head was buzzing.
07:03We'll see if anything comes from it.
07:05I'm thinking there was a draft written on the plane ride home.
07:08No, that's awesome.
07:10And it is, that is so true and on so many levels, whether it's futuristic shows, you
07:16know, Star Trek.
07:17I mean, I think the reason that laptops and, you know, communicators and pagers and things
07:22look the way they did is because that's what the people that were inspired looked on.
07:26So never discount that soft power of entertainment.
07:30Obviously, we're here, the theme of this conference is technology and entertainment.
07:35You know, it's not news to say that technology is a, technology has consistently driven innovation
07:42and entertainment.
07:43And that goes back to the player piano and radio and such.
07:47But I think we can all agree that in the last five to 10 years, the pace, it's somebody
07:52turned up the pace quite a bit.
07:55This is a little bit of a heady question, but how has the sheer pace of change affected
08:00the way you work, the types of things that you go after, the way creatives work, the
08:07sheer pace of the change?
08:09Yeah, it's an interesting question.
08:11I mean, you know, at the end of the day, we're here to tell great stories, right?
08:15And that is, that's a skill that is not necessarily impacted by technology.
08:21You know, what I think has been exciting has been keeping pace with the audience and how
08:27they consume the shows and what types of shows they like to consume and in what way.
08:31You know, if you'd asked somebody 15 years ago, if they were going to binge a show, they
08:35would have looked at you like, what are you even talking about?
08:37That makes no sense.
08:38And now, of course, that's a common part.
08:40It would have been like, oh, a tub of ice cream.
08:42Right, exactly.
08:43That's how I'm going to binge the show.
08:44And now that's a very common phrase, right?
08:47And I do think that there are some shows now that are written and shot in a way that
08:52make them extra bingeable, right?
08:54The one episode ends and directly pulls you into the next one and, you know, you can kind
08:59of just do that whole thing.
09:00All of a sudden, it's 2 a.m.
09:02That's right.
09:03That's right.
09:04But I also think that there is something really nice.
09:05You know, what we, you know, do, the shows that we do for HBO and for Max and for Apple,
09:10you know, most of them are still released on a weekly cadence.
09:13And I think that there's something really nice about that, too.
09:16I think that audiences consume television differently when they watch it in discrete
09:22chunks as opposed to as one long binge.
09:24But, you know, I think that's all been really exciting.
09:26And then I think for me, what's been more exciting is the advances in technology that
09:30have allowed us to tell stories differently, right?
09:32You no longer have to go to every single practical location in order to make something work.
09:37You can have, you know, what we've been able to do now with VFX has, it's been a game changer,
09:42right?
09:43It allows you to tell stories that might have felt like they were out of reach at the time.
09:46And now it's like, oh, we actually can do this.
09:49And, you know, we can, you know, go back and fix this in a way that makes sense.
09:52And we're in obviously really early days of AI.
09:55And I know that there's a lot of, you know, suspicion and fear, you know, AI is coming
10:01to take everyone's jobs.
10:02And, you know, I'm not saying that that isn't a concern that we shouldn't think about smartly.
10:07But I think that AI is a tool.
10:10And if we think about it as a tool, there are things that it's going to enable us to
10:13do more quickly and more efficiently, which means hopefully telling better stories and
10:18getting them to the audience in a, you know, in a better, faster manner.
10:21So I'm not intimidated by it.
10:24It's actually something I want to learn a lot more about.
10:26And you mentioned AI tools that I feel like this time last year at this event and others,
10:31we were just talking AI, AI in a very amorphous way.
10:35And now even here, we're talking about the very specific marketing techniques, the very
10:38specific translation.
10:41And there are use cases that don't involve replacing all of the human technology.
10:46But are there, if I could ask you a specific on that, are there any specific tools that
10:50you are seeing impacting your work or the work of the studio at this point?
10:54Not, no, because we're not really at the point where outside of some of the AI tools that
10:59we're using in VFX and post-production, we're not really at a point yet where that's a day
11:02to day part of what we're doing.
11:04But we have been a part of a lot of really interesting conversations about future use
11:07cases, which I think, you know, this time next year, I might have more to say about
11:11that.
11:12And with, you know, with streaming, obviously, when you partner with a Netflix or an Apple
11:15or an Amazon, you know, you're going worldwide in a way.
11:20Warners has always been a studio to really export its content around the world.
11:25But how does that, is it just a different process when it goes worldwide all at once?
11:30Is that, does that, that the need for a big hit like a Ted Lasso to serve a global
11:36audience, does that impact the way you think about content, the stories that you tell?
11:43Not necessarily, because I think that great stories become global stories.
11:49It's hard, it's hard to start out of the gate and deciding that this particular idea or
11:55concept is going to be a global idea.
11:58What I think makes something a concept that will travel is that audiences, wherever they
12:04are, are able to relate to it, right?
12:06They're able to see themselves in the characters.
12:09They're able to recognize certain situations.
12:11You know, this is one reason why stories that have to do with family, you know, resonate
12:16so well, right?
12:17Because everyone has a family or had a family or wants a family.
12:20You know, that's a connective tissue that everybody can identify with.
12:24We try to think about.
12:27Who's going to be the core evangelizing audience for this particular idea that we're
12:31talking about, because you sort of need that audience to get your show off the ground,
12:37right?
12:37And then once that core audience is excited and talking about it and, you know, it
12:42builds momentum, then if the show is good and it's a it's a high quality show that has
12:47great storytelling, others are going to fall, you know, fall for it as well.
12:50I mean, that's kind of how Ted Lasso started.
12:52You know, it was not designed to be a global phenomenon, but it became one.
12:57And on paper, you would not have you would not have predicted that one to be to be the
13:02one, probably not.
13:03But we you know, who doesn't love who doesn't love rooting for an underdog?
13:09Let me ask you, in your experience in seeing a show either take off or start to have a
13:14slow build, does it do you is there a different path or pattern for something that does
13:20premiere on a broadcast network in a linear fashion weekly versus something that is in
13:24streaming and might drop either all episodes or half a season at once?
13:29Is that a different process?
13:33I mean, certainly if you know you're going to have gaps week to week in terms of how
13:38the show rolls out, you are going to build it slightly differently, right, because you
13:42want to make sure you're leaving them with something that's going to make them want to
13:45come back a week later.
13:46And you also want to make sure that when you're picking back up that you're maybe
13:50resetting a little bit.
13:51You know, that's a little bit more the old broadcast method of storytelling.
13:54You certainly don't need to think about that nearly as much when you're doing a show
13:57for Netflix is going to drop all episodes at once.
13:59In fact, it's kind of actively discouraged because you don't want the audience to feel
14:02like you're being repetitive.
14:04So certainly there is an aspect to developing for the platform.
14:09I mean, that's one of the things at Warner Brothers right now.
14:11We have 90 shows across 20 different platforms and we we want to be bespoke everywhere
14:16we work to make sure that what we're delivering is going to work the best for that
14:20platform. So certainly that is something that comes to mind as you are
14:24developing the process. But what I would say is that when you're going out and selling
14:27an idea, you know, you're just trying to sell a great story and then depending on where
14:31you end up landing, then you're going to build it in the in the way that best fits
14:35that platform. It's so interesting.
14:37The smartest creatives and executives that we speak to, it it it all tacks back to that
14:43great story. You don't have anything with that great story.
14:46That is that is definitely wanted to ask you about just kind of in general.
14:52Obviously, last year was a tough year for the industry.
14:55We had very long strikes, a lot of pipeline issues.
14:58We starting to really feel, especially with the the falls, the traditional fall season
15:02rolling out, starting to feel like things are getting back to to to a normal cadence.
15:07But but I would love your thoughts on the post strike marketplace.
15:11Obviously, I think it's very clear that the industry has downshifted some on the volume.
15:15How are you feeling as you're out there?
15:16You really have a perch selling to many outside places as well as internally.
15:21Yeah, and I think the industry was due maybe for a little bit of a of a reset in that
15:26way. You know, just speaking about live action scripted 600 shows, nobody can keep up
15:32with 600 shows. And there's also something that's very disheartening.
15:35And I can say this is, you know, as the studio.
15:37But I feel for the creatives and the talent, you know, if you spend the better part of a
15:42year working on something that drops over the course of a weekend and then sort of fades
15:46from view three weeks later, it's over.
15:49Right. That is, you know, that that's hard.
15:52It's very disappointing. And so you want to be able to feel like you're in a space where
15:56your shows are going to be sampled, where people are going to have the opportunity to
15:59fall in love with them. So the fact that there may be fewer things being made, I don't
16:03think is a bad thing for the business overall.
16:06And I think that when you are.
16:09In a situation where the platforms are making more deliberate choices, that's that's
16:14good, you know, I mean, that that is a good thing because they don't think of the things
16:17that they're buying as, you know, as disposable, you know, I mean, if you only are
16:21going to if you're only going to have, you know, 20 new shows on your development slate
16:25versus 60, right, you're going to be that much more invested in each one of those 20.
16:29So it's it's not as much of a volume game.
16:32It's a it's a quality game.
16:33But I will say we're in a place right now we have over the course of this year, we've
16:38had close to 20 new shows premiere and another 20 to 25 returning shows come back.
16:45And so there's still there is a lot of momentum.
16:48You know, we're we're feeling like there still is a lot of great opportunity.
16:52It's just a little bit more.
16:54I think the platform is a little bit more deliberate now than they were two, three years
16:57ago. We're not hearing quite as much as, you know, eight episodes.
17:00It's one hundred million dollars.
17:01Like it's it's a little a little bit more sober.
17:04And on that note, you know, you cannot you cannot miss that.
17:08There has been a little whether it's a full resurgent, but a real rebound in procedurals,
17:13traditional clothes and the spine of television for decades, traditional clothes, ended
17:17stories, cops, docs and lawyers, you know, throw a few in a few more in.
17:21And, you know, this this fall just recently, Rescue High Surf is coming on to Fox.
17:25Brilliant Minds is a medical drama with Zachary Quinto.
17:28Correct. Great, great actor.
17:30Always, always worth checking out.
17:32Zachary Brilliant Minds is a medical show on NBC that has just premiered or just
17:36premiered. Yeah, it was Monday night.
17:38Good. Congratulations.
17:39I know those are always, you know, you're you're eagerly awaiting the the numbers.
17:44But, you know, this is a tried and true format.
17:46And it had been somewhat out of favor for the last couple of years while it was very
17:51esoteric, very limited series.
17:53What do you attribute?
17:55What is fueling this interest in close ended storytelling among particularly among
17:58creatives? Yeah, well, I think what what happened was the streamers were really
18:02interested in a lot of that big, splashy, you know, the limiteds and the really
18:07complicated, you know, as they say, lean in programming, right, where you have to pay
18:11very close attention to follow all the twists and turns of the storytelling.
18:15And what people were realizing was that although people were consuming those and
18:20really enjoying those, they were also watching lean back programming.
18:24Right. So you're looking at shows like Grey's Anatomy and Suits, where people are
18:27just, you know, watching hundreds of hours of these old procedural stories from
18:31broadcast television.
18:33So now I think there's an interest in making more new procedural fare because there is
18:38something really nice as a viewer.
18:39I love a good procedural.
18:40There's something very nice about that closed ended storytelling, the satisfaction of,
18:44you know, you know, within the hour, things have kind of wrapped up and and also that,
18:48you know, kind of what you're getting.
18:50There's a there's a comfort in that expectation, which is nice.
18:53We're about to start.
18:55We've actually just started a procedural for Max, which is called The Pit.
19:00And we're doing it with John Wells, a man who knows his way around.
19:04Absolutely. And this is, as we say, this is sort of the procedural Max style.
19:10So it's borrowing from a lot of what John does really well.
19:13But we have a little bit of that kind of streaming twist to it, too, which is
19:16exciting. We'll definitely keep an eye on that.
19:18And another big thing, I can't believe our time is short here, but I can't let you go
19:22without getting your sense on The Penguin.
19:24Yeah, obviously. I mean, Colin Farrell is unrecognizable.
19:28It's, you know, obviously quite a Tristan Milioti is like amazing.
19:33She has been just like, you know, I mean, obviously how I met your mother, but like
19:36she's really just been waiting to pop.
19:37And it sounds like this. Can you I mean, obviously a lot of anticipation, but a show
19:41like that big property, you know, big priority for HBO.
19:45How do you in this day and age, what are the forces you marshal to make sure that you
19:50can just get get that off to the very best possible launch?
19:54And maybe that isn't maybe that isn't so much the the prelaunch.
19:58Maybe it's a couple weeks into the show.
20:00But can you talk about sort of what that means for you and for HBO?
20:03Yeah, well, the Penguin is is obviously, as you pointed out, a huge property for us.
20:08And it is part of the D.C.
20:10universe. And what's been really exciting, having Peter Safran and James Gunn now at
20:14the head of D.C. studios.
20:16You know, these guys have a honestly a master plan.
20:18You know, they were like, and here's the first 10 years.
20:20And here's the end. But what's nice is that we now feel like everything's working in
20:23concert. The things that we're doing in in in television, the things that we're doing
20:28for HBO are dovetailing very nicely with the plans that they have for the more
20:33theatrical experiences.
20:34You know, we have Creature Commandos, which is coming right on the heels of this.
20:37We have Peacemaker season two.
20:39And it's it's it's wonderful because you really feel like now there's a cohesive
20:44narrative that all of these shows and films are playing into, which is really exciting
20:49and more so coordinated than in the past, more so coordinated than in the past.
20:53I mean, I couldn't be more proud of everything that Warner Brothers television did in the
20:56D.C. universe when we were doing the Arrowverse and all of that at the CW.
21:01But it is exciting to be part of something that feels bigger than just what we're doing at
21:05the studio, at the television studio.
21:07The idea that we're all kind of working in concert towards a bigger narrative is fun.
21:10Yeah. A universe. I have to ask you, any other characters in the Batman or any of the D.C.
21:15universe that we might be seeing on HBO or any of any of the platforms?
21:19I'm not going to tell you because, you know, I'm a little afraid of James and Peter.
21:23I'm going to let them have their moments.
21:25But yeah, no, it's seriously we do have really exciting stuff coming down the pike.
21:28But I will say the next the next two from us are Creature Commandos and Peacemaker season
21:32two, which is exciting.
21:34Very great. Very great.
21:35Well, we again are so gratefully for your time.
21:38I want to just offer you a chance.
21:39Is there anything else we haven't talked about, anything coming up for 2025 that you
21:44would love to kind of tease for this audience that we should watch out for from Warner
21:47Brothers? Oh, my goodness.
21:49Well, shrinking season two is about to drop.
21:52Oh, the trailers look really good.
21:55Yeah, it's such a good platform for Harrison Ford because we haven't seen that Harrison
21:59Ford in a while. We have not.
22:01We have not. All I can say is that if you like the first season, you will love the
22:04second season. It really delivers.
22:05Excellent. All right. Thank you.
22:06Thank you, Channing.