Following a long career in some of television’s most vital executive suites, former WarnerMedia, NBC and Showtime topper Bob Greenblatt is enjoying his next act in the industry as he shifts from programming buyer to seller via the first-look producing deal he signed with Lionsgate back in August.
With multiple projects set up across town, including at Disney’s Hulu and his former home at NBCUniversal, Greenblatt is now on the outside looking in as buyers today contend with megamergers (see Warner Bros. Discovery), sprawling content portfolios amid rising budgets, and the continued shift to streaming that leaves the broadcast networks he knows and loves left out in the cold.
In part two of THR’s interview with Greenblatt, the former exec opens up about the state of the industry including the latest round of executive changes, the possibility that NBC will cede programming the 10 p.m. hour and what a “dream job” is in 2022. (Click here for part one of the interview, as Greenblatt discusses his transition from buyer to seller.)
The industry has changed dramatically over the past two years and Warner Bros. is now owned by Discovery, among other megadeals. What do you think of the landscape today?
I think it’s complicated and things keep changing. As somebody trying to set up projects, the land always seems to be moving under your feet to some degree. It’s a very chaotic and tumultuous time. I’m happy that I have so many friends who are still in really great places at these various platforms.
The past month has seen another round of high-level execs on the move, with The CW’s Mark Pedowitz, Fox’s Charlie Collier and Paramount’s David Nevins all leaving their respective longtime homes. Will industry consolidation and that instability continue?
It’s tumultuous and chaotic for producers and writers — and it will probably keep going for another couple years as many companies are going through seismic transitions. It’s not great for the business. But at the same time, I’ve run a couple of these companies, and I know how critical it is to get your company refocused on what the future is. How you go about turning media companies into companies with streaming platforms that are more technologically driven is difficult, and it’s taking more time for some than others. There’s lots of consolidation happening and I understand the need for that, too. It’s probably going to keep happening. Somebody will buy somebody else, and it’ll keep happening again and again. There are some companies that seem to be on track — the Apples of the world — but just when I say that, who knows what’s around the corner. It’s not easy.
Where do you see broadcast TV going, given station group Nexstar’s takeover of The CW and how places like ABC and NBC are overseen as part of larger portfolios rather than having dedicated execs?
It’s hard for me to be critical of the business and where it’s going. I had what I thought was an ideal and wonderful situation at NBC when I was there with the dream team. We were siloed, and everything wasn’t consolidated as it is now [with Susan Rovner and Frances Berwick overseeing a content group that includes cable networks, Peacock and NBC]. We had a cable group, a network group and no streamer. So, the network could still be one of the dominant places in the company. But we all know that viewership is drifting. People are heading more to streaming and on-demand than ever before. It’s hard to keep younger people watching broadcast as they grow into content watchers. Young people don’t go first, second or even third to a broadcast network like they did when I was a kid. On some level, that saddens me. The great, old, powerful networks aren’t what they once were. You see it in the ratings and how there are fewer shows being developed and, of those, fewer new shows are picked up every year. They’re filling the schedules up with reality. It’s a different business than it was four years ago when I left NBC. But kudos to ABC’s Abbott Elementary; some of these shows are still big drivers for networks, like The Voice and The Masked Singer and things like that. It’s a different business than it was and now there are thousands of other shows on other platforms and different kinds of shows that we couldn’t do on broadcast like limited series and anthologies and formats that just didn’t work on a weekly schedule. The broadcast networks are not what they once were.
And amid all the changes on broadcast, the cost of doing scripted continues to climb and NBC is considering cutting programming for the 10 p.m. hour. What do you think of that possibility?
We had that conversation every 18 months when I was at NBC; it was always contemplated. On a business level, that’s most likely the advantage of doing that: You cut losses at the network, local stations benefit by having news longer, The Tonight Show is on earlier and you’re more competitive. There are lots of reasons to do it. But the reasons not to do it is you’re giving up an hour of great primetime real estate that you’ll never get back. There’s always a regret factor to doing that. Some of the greatest TV in history aired at the 10 p.m. hour, and it was appointment TV — The West Wing, Law & Order, Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, ER and Lou Grant — because there was nowhere else to go. When Aaron Sorkin was doing his newest “10 p.m. drama,” The Newsroom, he went to HBO because HBO is a great home for extraordinary television. We can’t just lament the fact that broadcast television is different. It’d be really sad if something else hadn’t come to take its place, but this whole other window opened with premium cable and streaming. It all balances out at the end but the nostalgia in us misses the [conversation], “M*A*S*H is on tonight, can’t wait!” Ninety-six million people watched that finale. Just 10 years ago, we had 18 million people watching The Sound of Music Live on a Thursday night. Those numbers are only reserved for massive national sporting events now or the occasional reality show. When The Voice came along, we were still getting big numbers. But you can’t get that audience anymore on broadcast. And we have no idea what streaming numbers really are.
Showtime, which you used to run before leaving for NBC, was moved to unscripted kingpin Chris McCarthy’s group at Paramount Global after David Nevins left. What do you think of Showtime’s future under an unscripted exec?
It’s impossible for me to answer. I don’t know Chris and have never met him, but I think that Viacom [which changed its name to Paramount Global] is probably smarter than to gut Showtime because it may be financially easy to do that. Showtime has done well financially over the past few years. As they merge into a streaming platform with all the other networks at Viacom and it becomes a different animal? Maybe those questions get harder to answer.
What do you think of Peacock? What would you do there?
Again, not my place to opine on another platform. They have very smart and talented executives running their business.
Can you envision yourself returning to the executive suites in the future?
I would if I found the right situation with people I wanted to work with. It really is exhilarating being a buyer. You get to have a big say in what goes on the air. If right job came along … but who knows what that means today.
What is your dream job in 2022?
I’ve had all of them and I don’t know. It’s an unfair question. When I was at NBC, it was the dream job. Broadcast was important to the company, and I took NBC to No. 1. It was a great job. Would that be dream job now? Probably not. I had the cable dream job [at Showtime] at a point when premium cable was on the rise. I was at Showtime when HBO was the only other game in town with FX. That was a thrill. I don’t know if that’s a dream job anymore, but I’m probably sure it wouldn’t be. And it certainly wasn’t working for a company run by AT&T, but a that’s a whole other kettle of fish. (Laughs.) Casey Bloys may have the dream job today in that he keeps the essence of HBO and now gets to extend it into a larger brand. What happens with Discovery, I don’t know. There are lots of financial challenges, but he is in a great position to put extraordinary TV onto his linear or streaming platform. It’s a better job than when AT&T was there.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
Source: Hollywood
