The third day of the ATX TV Festival promised another eventful 24 hours for TV campers. Beginning at 10 a.m., the day was capped with the anticipated conversation about the Writer’s Guild of America’s strike, now entering its second month, and the closing night screening of HBO’s hilarious Danny McBride vehicle, The Righteous Gemstones.
The morning began with a conversation regarding the rise of ad-supported streaming alternatives in a panel called “FAST, AVOD, and the Return of Ad-Supported TV.” Led by The Hollywood Reporter’s Chief TV Critic, Daniel Fienberg, campers were enlightened on how two distinct platforms in this realm – Tubi and Pluto TV – operate and their main goals within an ever-changing industry. A decade ago, the business model seemed to be leaning away from traditional ad-supported services in favor of SVOD, or subscription services like Netflix. Now, the once ad-adverse platform has an ad-based tier for customers.
“Most consumers want choice,” Samuel Harowitz, VP of Content Acquisition and Partnerships, Tubi, stated. He saw the current TV landscape as having “room for a lot of players to operate.” Founded nine years ago, Tubi began as AdRise before being acquired by Fox. The platform offers plenty of originals and IP alike for a wealth of different customers – free of charge. Harowtiz also informed the audience Tubi has the lowest duplication rate of content among other similar services, the youngest consumer median age at 39 years old, and a customer base where 50% of users ethnically identify as being multicultural. The service came into larger prominence following its acquisition of former Warner Bros. Discovery titles that were purged from the streaming service formerly known as HBO Max. In reference to that deal, Harowitz highlighted, “We have not purged content. We have added things.”
On the other hand, Pluto TV under the Paramount+ Global umbrella, has a more traditional TV experience with a dash of streaming in the channels it offers. Will Gurman, Pluto TV’s VP of Global Partnerships and Content Strategy, emphasized their audience is a mix of cord nevers – individuals who have never had cable; cord-cutters – those free of the linear model; and, a base that is somewhere in-between. They offer content that is complimentary to the already established IP under the Paramount name – such as Star Trek. Their goal is to present content that would be a gateway for consumers to pursue the fuller library on the proper Paramount+ platform.
Both Harowitz and Gurman agreed that while streaming seemed to be a game changer, the foundation of linear TV will always be present. There is just an array of affordable options now depending on what works for the consumer.
A departure from the business side of things was a half-hour conversation with The Simpsons showrunner, Matt Selman. A writer on the show since 1997, Selman now leads television’s longest-running sitcom. Moderated by CBS Austin’s We Are Austin host, Trevor Scott, Selman detailed the process of how a Simpsons episode is made. And how after 750 episodes, the team remains fresh and creative without sacrificing the soul and heart of the beloved franchise.
Selman jokingly detailed how there are 99 steps to making an episode of The Simpsons, but he was just going to tell the small group the top 60. He said an episode begins with an idea that is “super small, super relatable” and has an “emotional relatability.” He offered the example of an episode that explored Springfield having to go on lockdown. Given we already experienced COVID, they opted for a caterpillar infestation – based on his summers as a kid growing up on the East Coast – pushing everyone inside. From there, they found small nuggets of issues for each character to struggle with that brought up the desperate anxiety people experienced during the pandemic.
After establishing a concept, the writers pen it out, doing their own table reads as part of the editing process. Following the official actor table reads – which are now all remote – there are months of animation to transform the emotional reliability into a visual landscape.
“It’s a shit-ton of work,” Selman said.
After 34 seasons, Scott asked what’s the one secret to The Simpsons’ longevity. Selman responded, “The characters…You can’t change who the characters are.”
The most anticipated event of the festival came in the “WGA on Strike!” panel. Added at the last minute, the panel came to fruition in the wake of the writer’s strike and adjustments the co-creators made in solidarity with the 7,000 WGA members. The panel was led by writer Beau Willimon (Andor) and featured The Vampire Diaries creator Julie Plec, Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Zoanne Clack, and WGA East & Negotiating Committee member, Greg Iwinski (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver).
The packed Stateside Theater listened as Greg, Julie, and Zoanne detailed the perilous state writers are in since the onset of streaming, which they initially fought to establish parameters against in the 2007 WGA strike. Plec described how at that time, writers were more “nebulous” about “new media” and what that meant for them in the future. Today, with the drastic changes, the temperament is much different.
“Now we’re mad,” Plec said incredulously. Since the last strike’s negotiations, which Plec made sure to emphasize are only to meet the minimum requirements as “not great but hard to say no to,” harmful practices have been implemented that reduce writers’ compensation while increasing the amount of work they must do and in a limited amount of time. This has left veteran writers applying for food stamps and accelerating new upcoming writers to leadership positions without proper training or leadership skills. There is also the very real danger around AI technology being introduced to comprise art.
Clack described how she is terrified to leave the safety of network television. She found herself fortunate as “network is a small fraction of TV being made.” For others at streaming, the writer’s rooms have shrunk forcing more work with 30-60% less pay.
Iwinski provided the most harrowing details. As a comedy writer for late-night shows, he described a typical workday in which he and fellow writers compose jokes as early as 8 a.m. After spitballing ideas, they have to pitch the material to producers and the host. Once that is finished, rehearsals are set up in the afternoon. More edits ensue before the studio audience enters for taping by 6 p.m. He then goes home to prep for it all over again. This is for a 5-day series like The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The studios are seeking to reduce the weekly salary to a day-pay format, where the writers do a week’s amount of work on Monday, and only receive Monday pay. Iwinski described how any writer would not be able to sustain a livelihood as the majority of late-nite shows are taped in either New York or Los Angeles.
Iwinksi used the analogy of imagining the Los Angeles Lakers requiring Lebron James and Anthony Davis to only play during an NBA season because they’re all-stars. The studios have the same mentality for writers – expecting them to produce the same quality and quantity with fewer resources. In total, the wages the writers seek amount to $450 million dollars over a 3-year period. This amount would only be 2% of the studios’ total profits after all expenditures.
One positive note Plec mentioned was the difference between striking in 2007 and now. She described “a spirit of grassroots revolution” and the onset of social media to assist in making their voices heard. But she also feared another major difference. Then, she felt “the town was run by people who cared bout artists.”
“I think that’s all but gone,” Plec said about the current TV landscape. “And it’s not good.”
The day ended with a revival as campers swarmed ACL Live for the world premiere of HBO’s third season of The Righteous Gemstones. After a musical introduction by a local musical act, campers enjoyed the first two episodes of the latest season set to premiere on June 18 on Max. The series stars John Goodman (Captive State, The Connors), Danny McBride (Eastbound Down, Vice Principals), Edi Patterson (Violent Night, Partners), and Adam Devine (Workaholics, Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin) as a super-rich and wholly dysfunctional family of a world-renowned evangelical dynasty. In the wake of their father’s retirement, the three siblings battle for the opportunity to lead the church in a different kind of Succession. Following the screening, the main and supporting cast discussed the upcoming season with IndiWire’s Ben Travers. View the trailer below.