TV execs face upheavals in the wake of #MeToo
Admired head of FX talks about firing Louis C.K. and upcoming Disney takeover
PASADENA, CALIF.—“It was really hard. It was a loss for me personally and professionally.”
John Landgraf, the powerful CEO of FX Networks, is talking about the decisions that made him fire popular comedian Louis C.K. No other personality is as closely linked to FX, especially since C.K. is involved in no fewer than five shows at the channel, which has a Canadian division in partnership with Rogers Media.
“It was an eight-year relationship. But we did what we had to do,” he told the Star in an interview, revealing the back story about the drama that engulfed the comedy world.
Landgraf said in November, he got the word the day before that a New York Times story would be published the next day about the comic’s sexual impropriety toward women including masturbating while talking to them.
“I was shocked. It was the first time I had heard about it,” says Landgraf, who called the star for confirmation that day. “I heard from Louis that he was going to write a response and he was going to say these allegations were true. And the next day the response came out and we did what we did.”
Landgraf isn’t the only television executive making some tough decisions. The prevailing theme at this years Television Critics Association conference in Los Angeles is holding the powerful to account for what has been widespread industry abuse.
In the wake of Golden Globe Award speeches, where celebrities, including Winfrey, took aim at a historically unbalanced power structure in an industry run mostly by middle-aged white men — Landgraf’s experiences have been emblematic of what executives will have to address head on moving forward into 2018.
The media landscape has seen swift change. Fox News has already fired stars including Bill O’Reilly, and the head of Amazon studios Roy Price resigned after allegations as the industry remains in an uproar over the #MeToo movement.
Landgraf is widely considered the smartest television executive in the business, building a tiny brand into a powerhouse of independent, auteurdriven television that, for the last several years, that has been a perennial winner at the top of critics lists such as the recent Feud: Betty and Joan with Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story starring Cuba Gooding Jr., and making bets on the upcoming The Assassination of Gianni Versace with Penelope Cruz.
Landgraf said after the news broke about C.K., the network investigated the five shows, including the flagship Louie as well as Better Things with Pamela Adlon. He announced on the weekend that he found no evidence of wrongdoing on those shows.
The executive said FX had already “started really hard five years ago doing extensive sexual-harassment training, not just for the staff but all productions of FX and really being assertive not only about training but soliciting input, following up and investigating. We take creating a safe environment very seriously. Ironically, we didn’t have problems on the Louis shows themselves.”
Meanwhile, Nevins says the company is “redoubling” efforts to make sure policies and procedures regarding harassment are followed. Landgraf said the new reality means that networks now have to act “like investigators,” but it was a necessary step.
Landgraf’s role may change over the next year or so now that Walt Disney Company has made a $52.4billion (U.S.) takeover offer for the Rupert Murdoch-owned 21st Century Fox entertainment units, including FX, pending regulatory approval.
This could be a good thing for FX, a lean operation that has punched above its weight in serialized drama. Given that Amazon, HBO and Netflix have spent billions on that sector, Disney will likely see FX as something of a prize.
Landgraf is also the executive that coined the term “peak TV” and revealed this week that there were 487 scripted dramas for 2017, up 7 per cent from 2016 in what is becoming an ever-more-crowded field of topnotch shows vying for eyeballs.
“I’m optimistic. I admire the stewardship Disney has shown to the entities it’s bought including Marvel and Lucasfilm and Pixar,” Landgraf says. “And there is no creative entity I admire more on earth than Pixar. What we do is develop unique talent. And a lot of that is home grown, and they have been good stewards of original cultures.”