Author: Lacey Rose, Marisa Guthrie

ABC

Paul Lee

ABC’s Paul Lee plans to remain largely committed to pilot season – at least for now.

The ABC Entertainment Group president took the stage at the Television Critics Association’s semiannual press tour Friday to address a range of topics, including the merits of pilot season. The latter became the topic du jour when Fox’s Kevin Reilly used the same soapbox earlier in the week to reveal his network would be bypassing the springtime arms race for talent and programming. In the days since, CBS’ Nina Tassler and the CW’s Mark Pedowitz have acknowledged the system’s challenges but noted that they nonetheless will remain in that business.

STORY: Fox’s Kevin Reilly Reveals Plans to ‘Bypass’ Pilot Season

“We’re still in pilot season, and the upfront is still important for us,” Lee said from the stage, adding that it won’t be a one-size-fits-all approach at ABC: “We’re also having lots of fun starting to create shows that we go direct to series on and some of them we do outside of pilot season.” He pointed to upcoming straight-to-series drama The Black Box as an example of a project that was developed outside of the traditional broadcast season, noting the casting advantages that can come with having time and a commitment of longevity.

But Lee is not going the way of Reilly, as evidenced by the collection of projects he’s already picked up — and will continue to pick up — to pilot this season. “I’m a gradualist, for good or ill,” he noted of his approach, acknowledging that the traditional model is not without benefits: “The focus and the deadlines that pilot season brings have been extremely successful for American TV for 50 years,” he said, “and I for one sat in British television and looked up to the American ability to create factories of television that go on for five, six and seven seasons.”

During his half hour before the press, Lee also addressed a host of different topics, from SHIELD‘s ratings disappointment to the quick demise of limited series The Assets. Here are the highlights:

More Marvel

“In these broadcast jobs, you’ve really got to add a couple of assets a year. If you don’t do that, you pay for it the next year,” he said, identifying The Goldberg and SHIELD as this year’s “assets” for ABC. Still, Lee acknowledged that it took them awhile to “get our sea legs” on SHIELD, noting that it was disappointing to see the ratings tumble the Marvel series suffered early on. As for plans for more Marvel series on ABC, he said he’d be looking for big, broad shows, while his studio’s four-series Marvel deal with Netflix will be more focused on Marvel “super-fan” programming.

STORY: CBS’ Nina Tassler Defends Pilot Season: It ‘Works for Us’

A Limited Commitment

Lee was insistent that the network will continue to commission limited-run, gap programming despite ratings failures of The Assets and Killer Women. “In the end, what we need do as we test out different pieces [of programming] is find ones that work both financially and creatively so that we can have programming the whole year round,” he said. (The Assets was yanked after two low-rated episodes filling the Thursday night at 10 p.m. slot while Scandal is on winter hiatus. Reruns of Shark Tank replaced it, doubling The Assets‘ ratings. For its part, Killer Women, which is executive produced by Modern Family star Sofia Vergara, will end its run in the problematic Tuesday 10 p.m. slot. earlier than planned, with mid-season Christian Slater drama Mind Games set bow on Feb. 25.) Lee called The Assets, an Aldrich Ames spy drama that was produced in partnership with ABC News, “a great experiment,” adding that he’s keen “to continue with that experiment even though [The Assets] didn’t work. Being able to work with my partner [ABC News president] Ben Sherwood and build programming that can go in those periods, is something we feel good about.”

Rising Star Conundrum

Lee used the TCA stage to tout June singing competition Rising Star as the “next generation of reality shows.” Still, he admitted that producers are trying to figure out how to adapt the red-hot Israeli entry, which features live voting while contestants are performing, for the East and West Coast time zones. Though he noted that no decisions have been made, Lee said that the show’s U.S. producers are kicking around a few different solutions to the three-hour time zone gap, including allowing West Coast viewers to vote early when the show is airing live on the East Coast and also reserving a couple of finalist slots for West Coast and Mountain Time voters. 

Lead-Ins Still Matter, Just Not as Much 

“The reality is [lead-in] matters, but it does not matter the way it did in the 80s,” Lee noted when asked about his network’s struggles with launching a hit coming out of a Modern Family, adding that sometimes 70 percent of his viewership will be time-shifting his fare. He’ll be giving Mixology, which revolves around ten characters at the same bar and takes place over one night, the enviable post-Modern slot on Wednesday nights beginning Feb. 26, and he’s optimistic about its potential there. “When you have a great show life Mixology, it’s best chance is there,” he said, noting that he’s not daunted by his other 20-something comedy Happy Endings’ struggles in that slot. “We want to make sure [Mixology] has it’s best chance of getting out of the gate and doing very well.” He also noted that he continues to be committed to having two nights of comedy on his schedule, giving a strong vote of confidence for the future of both Trophy Wife and The Goldbergs.

The Hollywood Reporter

David Nevins

Showtime’s David Nevins was prepared for the deluge of Homeland questions.

The network’s entertainment chief used the Television Critics Association press tour platform Thursday to address what many critics have called an uneven season for the Claire Danes CIA drama. In fact, before a single reporter was handed a microphone, Nevins thanked the room for “being so invested” in the series, a tongue-in-cheek nod to the passionate tweets he acknowledges he was tracking throughout the season.

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Showrunner Alex Gansa and his writing team have yet to present a detailed plan for the series’ fourth season, but Nevins noted that the upcoming season likely will bring the Emmy winning drama back to its roots. “This is a show that’s fundamentally about a field operative and we haven’t seen her much out in the field operating,” he noted from stage, adding that the likely plan for the upcoming season is to have her on the ground in a foreign capital doing her job. Later in the panel, he confirmed that Mandy Patinkin’s Saul will be “central” to the fourth season storyline as well.

Though Nevins continually — and perhaps strategically — referred to the series’ fourth season as a “reset,” he was careful to note that he wasn’t put off by the last season in the way critics were – and, for that matter, neither were viewers. Much the opposite, Homeland’s third season became Showtime’s first original series to reach the 7 million mark, he reminded the room, before suggesting the high-profile drama has played a role in expanding the Showtime subscriber base to some 23 million.

“This season was pretty brilliant in its architecture… I thought it was very clever and very audacious what they set out for,” he added of the show’s most recent season, which saw Damian Lewis’ Nicholas Brody die in the finale, “but we always knew we were headed for a major reset.” As he waits to here more about what that will look like, he revealed that Gansa and his staff would be spending a week in Washington, D.C. on the top floor a CIA club hearing more from people immersed in that world.

In addition to announcing two new series, The Affair and Happyish, Nevins also addressed the demise of The Vatican, a delicate relationship with Netflix and his thoughts on TV’s hottest trend. Here are the highlights: 

Vatican No More

The over-arching theme of the winter press tour has been the merits of pilot season, and Nevins noted that Showtime had never had a one-size-fits all approach to development — and he likes it that way. He noted that upcoming horror series Penny Dreadful was ordered straight to series on the strength of creator John Logan‘s scripts. In fact, he was able to see the first and last script before having to make a decision with regard to moving forward. In another moment of candor, he said he was glad he didn’t do the same with now-dead The Vatican, which was to star Kyle Chandler and look at the political machinations of the Catholic Church. As Nevins acknowledged, when Pope Benedict XVI stepped down last year and was replaced by the reformist Pope Francis, the project suddenly lost most of its real-world relevancy. “One of the fundamental issues of The Vatican is the world changed on us,” said Nevins. The project, which also endured behind-the-scenes turmoil, was “conceived in a world that I think now would feel very dated. So I’m glad we had not made 13 episodes of that.” 

About that Miniseries Trend…

Asked about Showtime’s interest in the current it-genre in TV, limited series, Nevins acknowledged that traditional miniseries weren’t as appealing to him as he “fundamentally” believes in “renewable resources.” Still, he isn’t ruling it out, and suggests limited anthology series such as FX’s American Horror Story or HBO’s Woody Harrelson-Matthew McConaughey drama True Detective, which Showtime lost in a multi-network bidding war, holds an appeal. In fact, he noted that Homeland could take on anthological aspects next season, explaining how the series would be different next year with the death of Brody. “You’re going to see a different kind of story with Claire Danes. I don’t know if it’s going to be a one-season story or a two-season story,” he said, adding: “A lot of the narrative forms are morphing. I still think fundamentally the best thing for us are shows that we can get people really in love with and then bring them back a year from now.” 

A Strategic Broadening

Nevins has made good on his promise to broaden Showtime. With series like Homeland, Ray Donovan and Masters of Sex, the premium cable network chief noted that he has been very pleased with his results: Masters was up 10 percent over Homeland’s first season, and Ray became the network’s top-rated freshman season. More promising, he added, is the fact that his newer fare is his highest rated. “These last few years have been good for us,” said Nevins, adding that he’s eager to add horror drama Penny Dreadful, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s personal comedy Happyish and his relationship drama The Affair to the mix in the next year or so. The latter, he noted, will look to counter a premium cable trend to go big in both size and scope by doing one of the things that the television medium can do best: offer an intimate close-up.

The Dance with Netflix

As Nevins reminded the room, Showtime, like its parent company CBS Corporation, has been very protective of content distribution rights. So while SVOD services including Netflix, which has rights to all eight seasons of the recently wrapped Dexter, are important partners, the premium cable network’s policy is not to sell streaming rights until current seasons have concluded. “We think stacking rights are really important,” he said from stage, noting that every season of his series are available on Showtime Anytime. He added: “We decided about three years ago, if you want our first-run programming, you’ve got to subscribe to Showtime.”

Cliff Lipson/CBS

Mark Pedowitz

CW President Mark Pedowitz is committed to pilot season.

Much like his broadcast cousin, CBS’ Nina Tassler, Pedowitz used the Television Critics Association press tour Wednesday to show his commitment to the development model. The merits of pilot season have become the topic du jour ever since Fox’s Kevin Reilly used the soapbox Monday to reveal his network’s plans to abandon the age-old springtime tradition. 

“It’s inefficient in some ways, and it’s efficient in others,” Pedowitz said from stage, noting that the CW has played a slightly different game than his broadcast competitors. With less real estate, he has had to order far fewer pilots and has been able to maintain a particularly high ratio when it comes to series orders. This past year, for instance, five of the younger-skewing network’s seven pilots were ordered to series. (Pedowitz, who touted the potential to “learn things” from pilots, suggested he’ll have the same number of pilots this year.)

STORY: ‘Wonder Woman’ Prequel ‘Amazon’ Dead at CW 

In addition to a buzz-worthy announcement about a Veronica Mars digital spin-off, Pedowitz addressed his increasingly high-concept brand, his plans for Flash and the broadening of his network during his half hour before the press. Here are the highlights:

High-Concept Fare

Recent years have taught Pedowitz a few things about what works and what doesn’t on CW’s schedule. In the latter category are docuseries (summer experiment Breaking Pointe will not return) and traditional procedurals. What does? High-concept, fantasy, serialized programming, as evidenced by the success of CW series such as Arrow and Vampire Diaries. Still, he stressed that those descriptors can be broadly defined, noting that a former CW staple, Gossip Girl, could have fit into all three categories.  

Future of the Flash

Pedowitz pronounced himself “bullish” on the much-discussed The Flash project moving forward. Arrow showrunners Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns already introduced the DC Comics character Barry Allen/The Flash in Arrow‘s two-part winter finale, which ended with a cliffhanger for the character. Pedowitz added that “rather than try to squeeze in a spinoff” he’d like to see a Flash series launch “with a bang like we launched Arrow.”

Series Fate

While Pedowitz suggested the fates of lesser-watched entries, The Carrie Diaries and Hart of Dixie, will not be decided until May, he’s optimistic about a renewal for Julie Plec‘s The Vampire Diaries spin-off The Originals as well as freshman series Reign and veteran Supernatural. (As for the Supernatural spinoff in development, he confirmed that there would be a spinoff episode in the original. “For me, for spinoffs to work they have to stand on their own two legs,” he added. “And you can only organically do crossovers when the time is right.”)

A Broader Reach 

The network’s bread-and-butter of fantasy-adventure dramas is in the sweet spot of the network’s target audience of viewers 18-34, but Pedowitz and his team have made a conscious effort to bring older viewers into the tent with unscripted fare like Whose Line is it Anyway. (Another season of Whose Line will bow March 21 and run through the summer.) “It was our strategy to broaden out,” Pedowitz told reporters, adding: “We are getting a fair amount of viewers who are 35+ and our affiliates are very happy with that.”