CBS's trying to become cool - and change the future of digital showbiz
NEW YORK: Kevin Williamson, noted chronicler of Pacey, Joey and the rest of the Capeside gang, recently had an epiphany about his relationship with broadcast television.
“I was doing a lot of network and getting burned out on it,” said Williamson, who two decades ago created the landmark millennial hit ' Dawson's Creek' on the WB and made a half- dozen other broadcast series since. “I wanted something that was streaming and premium.”
The creator got what he wished for - sort of.
Williamson's new show, “Tell Me a Story”, premiered last week on a CBS platform. But it's not on CBS, that massively mainstream network of “CSI and ' The Big Bang Theory'. And it lands far from the conventional bull's- eye of those series.
' Tell me a Story' puts a dark, modern spin on classic fairytales, telling three parallel genre-inflected stories about young people in crisis. Built into the glossy show is a heavily serialized component - and plenty of drugs and sex. Mark Harmon solving naval crimes on “NCIS,” it isn't.
Williamson's new show will play exclusively on a digital service called CBS All Access. The platform is a unique creature, a product of the country's most old- school - and old-skewing - broadcaster, trying to beat Netflix at its own game.
Launched in 2014 but ramping up its original programming in recent months, All Access seeks to walk a slippery line between mainstream network and premium-subscription television. The service offers perhaps the best chance for CBS to target the young viewers who have largely avoided the network. (CBS' median-viewer age is nearly 60, the oldest of any of the broadcast networks.)
It also could turn into a tweener jumble that undercuts CBS' traditional brand without making inroads for a new audience, leaving the company spending lots of money on programming for a streaming service to which nobody subscribes.
This is hardly an idle experiment. At stake in All Access is not just one company's model but also the fate of streaming itself - whether it can be not just for the disrupters but also for the traditionalists, whether the future of television will be with those who've dominated it in the past.
If All Access can build a critical mass of subscribers, it will demonstrate that legacy networks have found their way in the 21st century.
And if not? It could further reinforce the theory of a radical new era in television, one in which major broadcasters have been wholly replaced by upstart entities with direct ties to consumers, with little chance of ever turning back the clock.
Trying to craft a streaming series, what with so many creative avenues and dead ends, is never easy. But it's especially hard for a legacy network like CBS. After all, if you're not a broadcast network but you're also not sister channel Showtime - if you're somehow between them - what are you, really?
All Access programs have tried to steer that narrow course - while coming maybe, just maybe, a little closer to Showtime.
“At a network, you're trying to hit a target you know exists,” said Julie McNamara, executive vice president of original content for All Access. “This is a totally other mandate. People have choices, and we have to think ‘how can we make something special they'll pay for?' It's closer to Netflix than CBS,” she added.
David Stapf, who runs CBS studio operation that feeds many of the All Access shows - and also produces series for CBS and streamers - says finding the right alchemy for an All Access show can be tricky.
“It's very specific to the project. I do think All Access shows are more serialized than CBS shows and, definitely, more expensive,” he said.
But, he added: “The shows also have to be more accessible. They have to be a little bigger and broader than Showtime.”
The service currently has seven original series, including ' Star Trek: Discovery', the 'Good Wife' spinoff ' The Good Fight' and ' Story', as well as rocketry origin tale ' Strange Angel' and a karmic mystery named 'One Dollar'. In development are at least two other ' Trek' series, including one with Patrick Stewart, the original Jean-Luc Picard; the idea is to flog that franchise in the way Disney does Marvel.
“We have three franchises and would like to get to four,” said DeBevoise. “But not everything is a tentpole,” he said, using Hollywood vernacular for franchises. “What we really want is to develop a group of original content that defines our service as premium.” All-Access aims to reach 10 new shows by next year. By contrast, Netflix has produced more than 60 original series, and that doesn't even include animated and foreignlanguage programs.
One of All Access' biggest bets is a Jordan Peele- overseen reboot of the ' Twilight Zone', scheduled for the first half of next year, it hopes will up its cool factor.
For now, though, it's all about ' Story'.
Based on a Mexican series, Williamson's show partly took root at CBS when Moonves watched the foreign-language series at the behest of a producer and gave his seal of approval, according to a person familiar with the show's origin who asked not to be identified so as not to upset any of the participants.
Williamson, who also wrote 'Scream', soon put his own stamp on the material.
“I got jazzed by the idea of deconstructing a fairy tale - if you were writing them today, what would they look like?” the creator said. “Instead of just seeing a wolf, see him emerge, and see how he's not wolf-like.” ( There are actually two wolves: one in a ' Little Red Riding Hood' riff, about a teenage partyer in a complicated relationship with her teacher; and another in a bank-robbery involving three people in pig masks. Hey, All Access likes options.)
The company's creative relationships have not always been tension-free. ' Star Trek: Discovery' creator Bryan Fuller was fired two years ago after clashing with executives. Two of his deputies, Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts, were put in charge, then ousted in June during development of the second season amid reports that writers felt they were being pushed to the point of mistreatment. Promoted to their job was Alex Kurtzman, an executive producer on the show who also wrote two of the modern 'Star Trek' films.
Asked about the incident, Kurtzman said that “both of those were challenging times - those kinds of transitions are never easy.” But he noted that “I was at the ground floor” and “my approach is to empower people.” Neither DeBevoise nor Stapf would comment on the firings. Fuller did not reply to a request for comment.
Generally, though, McNamara and Stapf have established a reputation as artist- friendly, embodying a development ethos that, well, isn't that of a broadcast network.
“Julie is very vocal about what she likes and, when something isn't working, incredibly specific, which is what you want,” said Kurtzman. “She knows how to speak the language of a writer.”
Other creators, including ' Story' director Liz Friedlander, note lots of support for big ambitions. “There are commercials in All Access, but we don't have to write to them,” said Friedlander, a veteran network television director, of the New York- set series. “Visually we went for a strong cinematic look. I don't think that would ever fly on a network.”
Broadcasters face a streaming paradox. Unlike Netflix, they need to protect their golden goose. But they can't rely only on its eggs, because what happens when those eggs - and the baby boomers who snap them up - stop comprising the largest part of the TV audience?
That paradox has been what has kept Comcast Universal, which makes a lot of money from the old-line cable distribution business, largely out of the streaming game. ( It has just a minority stake in Hulu and it will likely be sold to Disney after that company's merger with Fox.)
At a network, you're trying to hit a target you know exists. This is a totally other mandate. People have choices, and we have to think ‘how can we make something special ..... Julie McNamara, executive vice president of original content for All Access