Networks awash in premium or prestige programs
PASADENA, Calif. — With so many networks airing scripted programming, it became clear at last month’s Television Critics Association winter 2018 press tour that networks and streaming services feel the need to come up with new descriptors for their wares.
Now the shows aren’t just scripted, they’re also either “premium” or “prestige” programming. Those two words were used by network/streaming executives and show producers multiple times throughout the TCA press tour. But what do they mean?
Simply put, they mean expensive programs with brandname stars that aim for critical acclaim and awards adulation. We’re talking $5 million per episode for a one-hour drama as opposed to the recent past budget of $2.5 million to $3 million for hourlong dramas.
Variety reports the first season of Starz’s “American Gods” cost $8 million per episode while Netflix’s “The Crown” and HBO’s “Westworld” may cost as much as $10 million per hour with Amazon’s half-hour “The Tick” at $5 million per episode. These expenditures are what network execs see as necessary to break through the clutter of Peak TV.
“We’re looking for things that we are internally calling … ‘prestige popcorn,’ thoughtful genre shows that are truly human but are immersive and fan focused,” said David Madden, president of original programming at AMC.
At newbie Paramount Network, production and development president Keith Cox referred to the “premium casts” of “Waco” (Taylor Kitsch, Michael Shannon) and the upcoming “American Woman” (Alicia Silverstone, Mena Suvari) and “Yellowstone” (Kevin Costner). National Geographic Channels CEO Courteney Monroe talked up her network’s “premium programming strategy,” which includes the return of “Genius” in April, this time starring Antonio Banderas as Pablo Picasso.
Look no further than the last week of February for an abundance of program premieres that fit the premium prestige definition to greater and lesser degrees.
Starting with lesser, NBC’s “Good Girls” (10 p.m. Feb. 26) boasts a stellar cast — Christina Hendricks, Mae Whitman and the especially good Retta in a role that requires both comedy and drama — but the seemingly unsustainable plot cries out to be a one-shot movie rather than an ongoing series. It’s too bad, too, because the show’s themes resonate in this #MeToo moment, but a “no good can come from this” plot gets in the way.
Three Detroit women — housewife Beth (Ms. Hendricks), her single mom sister Annie (Ms. Whitman) and friend Ruby (Retta) — get fed up with men (Beth’s husband is cheating on her), workplace harassment (grocery store clerk Annie has a handsy boss) and the health care system (Ruby’s daughter has an illness that requires expensive drugs) so they attempt what they see as a victimless crime: the robbery of Annie’s grocery store. Naturally things go sideways, and the show’s tone veers from the delight of female friendship/empowerment to the dread of the women getting caught or killed by gangbangers.
Lifetime’s “UnReal” (10 p.m. Feb. 26) tries to come back from a disappointing second season, but that’s hard when many of the plot missteps still hang over season three. Most unrealistically, Rachel (Shiri Appleby) returns from a spiritual retreat to the source of many of her problems, Quinn (Constance Zimmer), to produce a new season of reality dating show “Everlasting,” this time with a smart, tech executive suitress (Caitlin FitzGerald) in place of a suitor. But “UnReal” continues to give short shrift to the meta commentary on reality TV that made-season one such fun.
USA gets into the true crime drama game with “Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G.” (9 p.m. Feb. 27), which is a cut above NBC’s ultimately disappointing “Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders” but not quite on par with FX’s “American Crime Story.”
Told through two investigations in different years (Josh Duhamel plays a cop revisiting the 1997 case in 2006), “Unsolved” gets into the racial politics and potential police corruption involved in the investigation of the murders of the two famous rap stars. What’s unclear in the early going is how satisfying “Unsolved” will turn out to be, particularly given a disclaimer atthe end of each episode that no one has been charged or arrestedfor the crimes.
AMC’s “McMafia” (10 p.m. Feb. 26), despite its genericized title, offers the most promise in its tale of Alex Goodman (James Norton, “Grantchester”), the English-raised son of Russian exiles with a Mafia past.
Alex, who has tried to live a by-the-book life as a businessman, gets pulled into a family crisis in a believable way that doesn’t feel like a ridiculous TV plot twist.
Kept/canceled
NBC renewed “Midnight, Texas” for a second season.
Fox renewed “The Four” for a second season, and Comedy Central ordered three more seasons of “Tosh.0.”
CBS All Access renewed “No Activity” for a second season.
Netflix renewed “Grace and Frankie” for a fifth season.