TV Talk at TCA: More TV series than ever, more challenges than ever destabilize entertainment industry

PASADENA, Calif. – The entertainment business is in turmoil, particularly in TV and streaming.

On the TV side, ratings for linear – broadcast and cable – continue an inexorable decline.

For streaming, viewing is on the rise but profits remain scarce due to exorbitant programming costs.

Those challenges impact companies large and small.

Big fish Warner Bros. Discovery canceled an entire platform (CNN+), multiple series on HBO and HBO Max and took library shows off HBO Max to sell to third parties.

Little fish AMC Networks laid off 20% of its staff and canceled multiple series (shows set in the “Walking Dead,” Anne Rice and Bob Odenkirk universes seem safe – for now).

Although he didn’t take questions, AMC Networks president of original programming Dan McDermott did address the industry-wide challenges during AMC’s portion of the Television Critics Association winter 2023 press tour.

“As human behavior continues to evolve, our industry is experiencing a necessary period of reflection and correction,” McDermott said. “Factors including rising inflation, a challenging ad market, too many shows, and an overreliance on streaming metrics that don’t necessarily deliver profitability, have caused most content companies, including ourselves, to take stock and recalibrate their forward path.”

FX Content and FX Productions chairman John Landgraf, who’s earned the nickname “the mayor of television” for his thoughtful takes on the state of the medium, always takes questions at TCA.

Landgraf said FX researchers found 599 adult, scripted original series aired across TV, cable and streaming in 2022, just a 7% gain from 2021(which had been up 14% from 2020).

Although the internet removes constraints that used to exist on volume — on broadcast and cable there’s always a limited amount of shelf space — Landgraf’s data also corroborated a New York Times report that found a decline in series orders in the second half of 2022.

“I humbly reiterate that I’ve been wrong about this twice,” Landgraf said, “but I’m going to go out on a limb and say I think that 599 is the peak.”

While FX has no plans to remove library shows from Hulu, where FX programming lives, Landgraf is not surprised to see HBO Max do it.

“The entertainment industry has always found ways of making something and then offering it to consumers in different ways, in different contexts, with ads, without ads, in premium formats, like theatrical film or, say, a subscriber service, like HBO. And it’s figuring it out again,” Landgraf said. “You just can’t take this infinite amount of money, spend it on something, and then just dump it in a single [place].”

Content grows stale over time and with 10,000-20,000 pieces of content on a service it becomes nearly impossible to find. Selling it to a third party gives companies the opportunity to wring more value out of a piece of content.

Landgraf expressed concern about the future of scripted originals on basic cable, particularly AMC. He said he feels fortunate that the Walt Disney Company bought 20th Century Fox, which included FX, “and incorporated us into their much larger enterprise and much more ambitious streaming ambitions.”

Regarding how shows roll out on streaming, Landgraf said all things being equal he’d rather release shows weekly. But he said FX’s partners at Hulu endorse a binge release for some series, including FX hit “The Bear,” which will return for its 10-episode second season this summer.

“You could easily watch one or two episodes of ‘The Bear’ and say, eh, you know what? Not for me,” Landgraf said. “We just had a sense that some people would binge it, forge ahead to the end, and then there would be word of mouth that says, you know what, this is really good and stick with it. It really, really is worth the journey.”

While the industry is in the midst of a reckoning, Landgraf said he’s confident things will get sorted.

“We’re just in this middle inning period of radical transformation from the pre internet era to the post internet era, and we’re in the really bumpy part of that transition,” he said. “We’re still — and we’re not the only ones — that are still really dedicated to trying to make stories the best we can, make them worth stopping to watch and continuing to try to figure out how to have something different than what TikTok provides or different than what YouTube provides.”

Hallmark launches new series

For its first new scripted series since a change in executive leadership in 2021, Hallmark Channel decided to try … time travel.

It’s not an obvious choice for the network and “The Way Home” (9 p.m. Sunday) is actually more notable for another element: More conflict among the characters than viewers often see in Hallmark programming.

A family drama that follows three generations of women, the premiere begins with soon-to-be-divorced Kat (Chyler Leigh, “Grey’s Anatomy”) moving her rebellious teen daughter Alice (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) from the United States to Kat’s small Canadian hometown where Kat’s mother, Del (Andie MacDowell), lives. There Kat reconnects with childhood friend/potential love interest Elliot (Evan Williams). (Clearly Hallmark is not abandoning its winning formula altogether.)

It’s there that the time travel element kicks in.

MacDowell, so good in Netflix’s “Maid,” seems to still be carrying that grouchy/mentally ill character with her to this new role. Del is not a sunny personality in the present-day story; she’s more chipper in scenes set in the past.

Leigh is winning as usual and the time travel plot offers promise but the interpersonal bickering — between Kat and her mother, between Alice and Kat — may turn off some Hallmarkies.

Channel surfing

Former WPXI-TV weekend anchor Ryan Houston, who left the station in late November to help care for an aging family member in his hometown of Pine Bluff, Ark., has landed a new job as a weekday morning anchor at KATV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Little Rock, Ark. … Disney will revive animated series “Phineas and Ferb” with a 40-episode order.

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen is attending the Television Critics Association winter press tour. Follow Rob on Twitter or Facebook. You can reach him at rowen@triblive.com or 412-380-8559. Ask TV questions by email or phone. Please include your first name and location.