Creative Conversation

AFTER AN U \ EXPECTEDLY HIGH-PROFILE YEAR, ABC E\TERTAINMENT PRESIDENT CHANNING DUNGEY SPEAKS ABOUT DIVERSITY, STREAvI\G, AND KEEPING THE PEACE BETWEEN SHOWRU\NERS AND EXECUTIVES.

ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey on diversity, competing with Netflix, and the reboot of Roseanne.

CHANNING DUNGEY ENTERED THE SPOTLIGHT THIS PAST

May when she abruptly canceled ABC’S wildly successful reboot of Roseanne after its star tweeted an offensive slur about former Obama administration adviser Valerie Jarrett. The incident drew attention to Dungey and the network at a critical juncture: It’s fending off streaming giants like Netflix—which recently poached two of ABC’S top showrunners, Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal) and Kenya Barris (Black-ish)—while attempting to attract new viewers.

You renewed Roseanne earlier this year, canceled it following racist tweets from Roseanne Barr, and then quickly green-lighted a spin-off. Do you have any regrets?

When we first thought about rebooting Roseanne, it was for all the right reasons. We talk a lot about diversity and inclusion [at ABC], and we try to walk that walk both on-screen and behind the cameras. But when I looked at our slate of programming, particularly in the wake of the 2016 election, I realized that one audience that we were really not serving was working-class Americans. [After we canceled the show], the only thing keeping me up at night was thinking about the cast and crew—and the writing staff that had come back to play in that sandbox and tell those great stories—and feeling disappointed that it wasn’t going to be able to continue. So I was really elated that it was able to come back together [with the Roseanne spin-off, The Conners].

Are you more cautious now about vetting talent?

People have a right to express their opinions in a private forum or a public one. It’s not our job to be the police. But at the same time, we try to hold ourselves to certain moral and ethical standards, and we expect the people who work for our company to do the same. I don’t know that anyone has the perfect solution yet. It’s something we’re all trying to work toward. together, whether it’s families watching comedies or friends who watch The Bachelor and drink wine and talk to the screen. I’ve made the decision in this role to look for shows that can be watched together. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to bring American Idol back: It hit that sweet spot of something that you can watch live, you can watch as a family, and that you can [turn into events] with live shows.

How do you keep showrunners from decamping to streaming services?

The advantage we have in broadcast is reach and scale. Showrunners want stories to be heard by the people who need to hear them. I’ve had people come in and say, “This is a story that I want to tell, but I don’t want to do it in an echo chamber.” For a series like last year’s The Good Doctor, we had 18 million viewers. It’s hard to do that in streaming.

Before you became head of ABC entertainment in 2016, you spent most of your career as a development executive, overseeing shows including Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy at a very granular level. What was it like to step into a less hands-on role?

I think of myself as a creative partner. It’s my job to [point out] aspects of a story that aren’t landing for the audience. The best writing comes from the head and the heart. So you have to acknowledge what it took to get those words on the page in the first place. If I do a good job of identifying the problem, then it’s going to spark something new in the writer. I try not to intercede too often. When I do, I want to make it count.

What’s your advice to producers?

It’s important to make sure that the network, which is basically your client, is happy—and at the same time to not compromise. Because that happens: You have a showrunner who doesn’t have a particularly strong point of view, and they’re anxious to be helpful and collaborative, so they try to address all the notes [they get from the network]. It’s like trying to make a stew and putting in every single ingredient in your kitchen. It ends up tasting like nothing. So the question is, Where do you draw the line in terms of making compromises [and] delivering a quality product?