In Defense of the Networks

[depudor]

In my quest to become a one-woman unpopular opinions thread, I’ve chosen to tackle an issue that’s been bugging me for quite some time, and that is the tendency of fandom (not specifically VM fandom, but any fandom) to blame the network when a show has problems.

The subject came up at The LoVe Shack the other day, on this page, and I couldn’t hold

Comments

[depudor]

We've all been angry at one time or another when a beloved show gets cancelled. But what I'm trying to point out is that cancelling shows is, like, 2% of what a network exec does (and studio execs almost never cancel theri own shows, although it does happen). The execs put most of their time into looking for good ideas, developing those ideas, and nurturing scripts into a good final product. The last thing they want to do is have to cancel shows, because it's admitting they were wrong and that the TV audience doesn't like what the execs thought they would like, and it's admitting that they wasted a lot of time and money.

I understand cancelling shows with low ratings, but it seems like one or two not-so-great rated shows that have good critical buzz could be left on the air.

They do. Arrested Development got three years; Huff got two, despite haing only 500,000 viewers; VM is still on the air. But you can't do that very often, just like Johnson & Johnson aren't going to keep a toothpaste on the market if only three people use it, even if those three people think it's the best thing in the history of the universe. Companies are there to make money; they have shareholders, which means they're required by law to do their best to turn a profit.

It's like how movie studios will produce a huge blockbuster and then an artsy film and let the profits of the blockbuster suck up some of the loss of the other film.

Film is a totally different business model. Movies don't really lose money, not since the invention of the VCR. Even box office disasters eventually turn a profit through cable deals and DVD sales. As for the artsy films, those get made because they have top actors behind them pushing the project, actors who are willing to do it for a fraction of their going rate because they want the street cred.

That doesn't happen in TV. The actors in AD don't get paid any less because the show isn't a hit. Enrico Colantoni didn't offer to take a pay cut because he liked the script for VM. He still gets a quote based on having been a star of a successful NBC sitcom. That's why Enrico gets paid more per episode than the entire rest of the cast combined, including Kristen. If they took him out of the show, they could afford to put everyone else in every episode.

They also fucked with the episode order of Firefly.

They were trying to save that show, because it was costing so much money, and, IMO, they made the right decision. I saw the original pilot for FF, and it was about the worst pilot I have every seen (and I've seen a pilot starring Jessica Simpson as a news reporter, so I know what bad looks like). I couldn't understand what was going on, and that was even after having read the script. It was dark, depressing and pointless, and it ruined the show for me. No matter how many of my friends hailed its genius, I could never get into FF after that. If they had aired that pilot first, without reworking it, they would've had even fewer veiwers than what they ended up with.

[idreamofpeace]

I knew you'd give me some facts to chew on instead of my half-baked notions of running a tv studio.

So how much DOES EC get paid, then? I mean, how much does KB make? Do actors get to renegotiate at a certain season? And what I HATE is how we see the series regulars less than we see some guest stars. I mean, I know there's the whole contract thing, which is good, but Michael was in like 16 eps last season.

[depudor]

Usually you have a five-year contract, but there's wiggle room, particularly if a show is a hot or there's a break-out star. Rob Lowe was supposed to be the star of The West Wing, so he was the highest-paid actor when they shot the pilot. I believe he got $70,000 an episode (this was back in 1999, so that number would be a lot higher now). The rest of the actors (not counting Martin Sheen, who orginally signed on as a guest star) were getting between $25-$40K an episode. But when Rob Lowe turned out to be the least compelling actor on the show, the rest of the cast got together and demanded that their contracts be renegotiated so that they would make what Rob Lowe was making.

As for the VM cast, I don't know what they're making now, and my previous comment was based on Season 1 salaries, where EC was the only one with a pre-existing quote. They must have a bigger cast budget now, because Michael and Chris Lowell have both been series regulars before, so they have quotes, though probably not terribly high ones like Rico's. Michael was in 16 eps last year because he was cheaper as a guest star. As a series regular he'll probably only be in 12, maybe a couple more. Ryan was in 15 eps last year as a regular, more than his contract of 12, because he has almost no previous credits whatsoever; he's the cheapest actor on the show, so they can use him more.

[idreamofpeace]

What does "having a quote" mean?

Unlike you, however, I have nothing but love for Enrico, so I don't begrudge him;)

[depudor]

A quote is like a salary history. You get paid a certain amount based on what you were paid before as a series regular. On my last show, which was an ensemble drama, we had several actors who had been series regulars before. The one who had been on a successful sitcom got $100,000 per ep on our show. The others, who had been regulars on less successful or lower-profile shows, got between $35-$45,000 an episode. The rest got $25-$30,000. But that was on one of the big networks, and budgets/salaries tend to be lower on CW shows. I once heard that you take off 10% for a FOX show and another 15-20% for a WB/UPN show, but that was five years ago, so I don't know if it's still true.

This is actually one of the reasons that the newer networks -- first Fox and then The WB and UPN -- launched so many teen shows. Younger actors are cheaper because they don't have quotes, i.e., high salary demands, and some of them have no acting credits at all and come to the show straight from their Calvin Klein underwear ad. (It's not always a matter of a quote -- Gina Davis was never a series regular before CiC, but you can bet she got top dollar for that show.)

I believe that salaries on CW shows start at around $10,000 an episode. As for what the VM actors make, I don't want to say that here for several reasons: this is an unlocked post; I don't want to start a whole other discussion that has nothing to do with the topic at hand; and I don't know for sure if the figures are accurate, since I've never seen the VM budget. If you want to know more, we'll have to take it to email.

Unlike you, however, I have nothing but love for Enrico, so I don't begrudge him.

I would love Enrico a lot more if he weren't sucking so much money out of the show. I imagine a VM in which Wallace and Lamb are in every episode, and where Logan doesn’t have to live in a dungeon hotel.