4.6 • 12 Ratings
🗓️ 29 June 2024
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Producing a hit TV series like The Bear was once a path to serious riches for its cast and creators. But in another massive entertainment shift, developing groundbreaking shows is worth hundreds of millions less than it used to be.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
0:00.0 | Here's daily briefing for Saturday, June 29th. |
0:05.0 | Today on Forbes, Why Hollywood is Bearish on the Future of Television. |
0:11.0 | It wasn't long ago that creating a hit show like The Bear was a TV writer's ticket to lifelong financial security and, in a few rare cases, even a billion dollar fortune. |
0:23.5 | The half-hour drama, which returned to Hulu for its third season this past Wednesday night, |
0:28.0 | is everything a modern TV series aspires to be. |
0:31.0 | In awards juggernaut, a ratings powerhouse, and a cultural touchstone since its debut in June 2022. |
0:38.0 | Even as recently as a decade ago, such success could have meant multiple 22 episode season orders and eventually a |
0:45.1 | syndication deal that would produce a massive financial windfall for the studio and |
0:49.1 | the showrunners. That big payday would have also extended even to the actors who were traditionally given |
0:55.0 | residuals for reruns and in some instances a slice of the profits. |
1:00.8 | But in today's TV and streaming landscape profit participation is all but extinct and in most cases |
1:06.6 | so are the profits themselves. |
1:09.0 | In 2023, Labor Strikes shut down television production for half the year. |
1:13.6 | And in its wake the fear of another economic downturn |
1:16.4 | has caused a significant contraction across the industry |
1:19.4 | with widespread budget cuts, layoffs, |
1:22.0 | lowball offers, and far fewer shows being ordered. |
1:26.2 | With less money to go around, talent representatives and studio executives are left to argue |
1:30.7 | over how to divide up the pieces of a rapidly diminishing pie. |
1:35.0 | With a hit show like The Bear, Forbes estimates that series creator Christopher Storer |
1:39.6 | earns $5 million per year in an overall deal with FX, with his fees for writing, producing, and directing counted against the total. Instead of owning a percentage of the series profits, which TV creators had traditionally maintained for decades, Storer and Co- is on a set of achievements, including season renewals, award nominations, and streaming service rankings. |
2:07.0 | For season 3 of The Bear, which swept the 2023 Emmy Awards winning Best Comedy, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Forbes, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Forbes and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.