AMC Doubles Down on Scripted Series
“We’re playing the Garden!” Charlie Collier, the president of AMC, said on a recent Friday night.
Mr.
Collier was strolling the hallways of Madison Square Garden and kept
repeating different versions of this mantra — “We sold out the Garden”;
“Only the best play the Garden” — as he shook hands with cast members
and producers at the premiere of the sixth season of the hit zombie show
“The Walking Dead.”
As
he spoke, 13,500 ravenous “Walking Dead” fanatics, many dressed in
costume, packed into the arena on Oct. 9. The moment was not about to go
unappreciated.
“The fact that we’re at the Garden, the mecca, is obviously something we never contemplated,” Mr. Collier said.
Two
years ago, AMC was at a crossroad. Two critically acclaimed shows, the
out-of-nowhere hit “Mad Men” and the slow-but-hot “Breaking Bad,” had
helped transform the network into a home for character-driven dramas.
But they were approaching the ends of their runs. With competition from
premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime, and incipient players like
Netflix and Amazon, the network was at risk of getting lost in the
shuffle.
But
even at a jittery time for cable channels, AMC is still delivering.
“The Walking Dead,” its zombie drama that has developed a cult
following, is the highest-rated show on cable and the most-viewed
scripted show on television in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic crucial
to advertisers.
AMC
has found further success this year in two prequels. “Better Call
Saul,” a spinoff of “Breaking Bad,” became the highest-rated freshman
cable series earlier this year. Several months later, “Fear of the
Walking Dead” broke that rookie record. Even “Talking Dead,” a talk show
about “The Walking Dead,” does well.
AMC’s
continued success will rest largely on “The Walking Dead” and whether
it continues to deliver gangbusters ratings. This season’s debut episode
drew strong numbers — 14.6 million viewers watched it on Oct. 11, and
that number jumped by nearly five million after three days of delayed
viewing was factored in — but it was still down from last year’s season
opener, which set records. The second episode brought in 17 million
viewers after three days of delayed viewing, also down three million
from last year.
“The
big question is about the stability of that franchise,” said Rich
Greenfield, a media analyst with BTIG. “Everyone has been surprised that
it’s increased viewers season after season, and any change in the
success of that show is meaningful to investors. This is not a question
about whether it’s going to be successful or profitable. The question is
if it has peaked.”
AMC
also faces questions about whether its new freshman shows represent a
true re-energizing of its creative process. Even though it has a pair of
instant hits, some in the industry claim that those shows are just
riding the fumes of popular franchises. But don’t mention the word
“spinoff” around Mr. Collier; it’s not a term he uses.
“I
think of a spinoff when you pull someone out of the ‘All in the Family’
and put them in ‘The Jeffersons,’” he said. “That is a character
moving, and you spun it off.”
“It’s a series that can stand on its own,” he continued, referring to “Fear of the Walking Dead.”
And, he’s quick to point out, the new shows have performed just fine on their own.
“We
have the No. 1 show on television, the No. 1 launch of all time and the
No. 1 finale of all time, all within a relatively finite television
season,” Mr. Collier said in a recent interview at his office, which is —
where else? — across the street from Madison Square Garden. (The Dolan
family controls both Madison Square Garden and AMC networks, which were
both spun off from Cablevision.) “And I will tell you with confidence no
one knew that they were going to be that before they came.”
The
result has meant, for one thing, more money. Advertising revenue for
the network is estimated to be about $500 million this year, according
to the research firm SNL Kagan. That’s nearly double the $262 million it
brought in five years ago, and far higher than in the pre-“Mad Men”
days. AMC has the 15th-highest ad revenue among basic cable channels,
according to SNL Kagan.
Like
much of the television industry, AMC is doubling down on original
scripted series. By next year, it will have more than 10 scripted shows
on the air, including the returning shows “Turn” and “Halt and Catch
Fire.” One of the shows it has in development is “Preacher,” based on a
popular comic book series, with Seth Rogen serving as an executive
producer.
But
with the number of scripted shows on television predicted to swell to
more than 400 by the end of the year, some networks are changing tack.
HBO executives have said that the network’s decision to feature hosts
like John Oliver and Bill Simmons is an attempt to offer more variety at
a time when television is flooded with dramas.
AMC, however, is more reluctant to switch game plans.
“With
all the changes of the world today — whether it’s technology, volume of
programming, fewer and fewer shows breaking through — what we remain
focused on are many of the things that got us to the dance in the first
place,” Mr. Collier said.
That
strategy, he said, is matching the quality of premium cable on basic
cable, and becoming a home for the industry’s best writers and
showrunners.
AMC
had a small setback in the last few years when it was forced to adjust a
development process that was described by some in the industry as
onerous. The system, dismissively referred to as the “bake-off,”
required producers to sketch out in extensive detail what their
prospective show would look like after the pilot — forecasting what
would happen several seasons down the line. Even then, AMC was not
guaranteed to put the show on the air.
“You’d
never buy a house if you just saw the plans for the basement,” Mr.
Collier said in defense of the process. But at a time when other
networks are ordering shows straight-to-series, and second seasons are
picked up before first-season ratings have even been tracked, AMC’s
system seemed out of sync. It has since changed the process.
“This
is continually evolving, and we made some adjustments early from some
of the criticisms we heard from the creative community,” said Joel
Stillerman, president of original programming and development for the
network.
Both
Mr. Stillerman and Mr. Collier treasure their relationships with
showrunners, including Vince Gilligan, the star creator of “Breaking
Bad” and now “Better Call Saul.”
Mr. Gilligan appreciated how he could help with marketing efforts for both of his shows, even when he “was a nobody,” he said.
“A
lot of places are too big and regimented and they’ve been doing it the
way they’ve been doing it for so long, and they don’t include the
storyteller any more than they have to,” he said. “That’s one of the
reasons I’ve enjoyed AMC. They listen to me.”
But
as much as Mr. Collier treasures AMC’s connection to writers, he knows
how critical it is to also nurture the fragile relationship with fans.
The “Walking Dead” ratings are still a force in all of television, and
Mr. Collier needs to keep them there. That is why thousands of zombie
lovers were given invitations to the Garden.
“It
is very difficult to break through today, but when you do break through
— and very little does — it is such a moment,” he said. “The value of
that breakthrough success — and we’ve been fortunate to have multiple
this year — the value of the relationship with the fans is one you need
to honor and elevate. It’s more elusive, but it’s more rewarding when
you get there.”
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