FX Chief John Landgraf Predicts ‘Peak TV’ Boom Will End by 2019
TCA 2016: With so many shows, “audiences are having trouble distinguishing the great from the merely competent,” network boss says
Scott Collins | August 9, 2016 @ 10:10 AM
Last Updated: August 9, 2016 @ 12:25 PM
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
The “peak TV” trend of exploding programming options has led to an oversupply that will end by 2019, John Landgraf, CEO of FX Networks and FX Productions, predicted Tuesday.
Landgraf, who won wide attention for sounding a note of alarm about the glut of programs last year, said he was wrong when he forecast that the trend might peak this year.
A continued push by streaming companies, especially Netflix, forced Landgraf to revise his projection. The surge is not a bubble that will suddenly pop, he added, but rather a balloon that will “slowly deflate” no later than 2019.
Meanwhile, viewers and even TV critics are having trouble keeping up with the flood of new original series, Landgraf says.
“We’ve lost much of the tread of collective conversation of which shows are good, which shows are great,” Landgraf told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in Beverly Hills.
Making TV shows is a creative endeavor not comparable to churning out jet engines or other commodities, he said, adding that FX would be hard-pressed to ramp up beyond the 18 or so series it makes per year, including Emmy winners such as the period drama “The Americans,” about Soviet spies posing as a typical U.S. suburban family.
“We’re at our unit capacity of what we can really pay attention to,” he said.
Landgraf’s implication was that aggressively expanding companies like Netflix can’t possibly pay close attention to the quality of every series they are making. He also suggested that Netflix had amassed too much power in the production sphere, even invoking the world “monopoly” as a warning.
But he was making a financial point as well. Landgraf estimated that it costs somewhere between $4 million and $5 million to make and market an hour of TV programming today, and that cost is going up. Meanwhile, the gulf is widening between hit shows and those that practically no one watches.
“It’s a feast or famine business,” Landgraf said. “There have to be a whole lot of television shows being made that are losing money.”
'The Americans': 7 Reasons to Watch the Breakout Emmy Nominee (Photos)
After four seasons, FX's "The Americans," starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as Soviet spies posing as Americans in the 1980s, has finally received Emmy Awards in the major categories. So should you start watching? Yes. Here are reasons why.
1. The Couple
The show is built around the dynamic between Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, who became a real-life couple over the course of the show). Their relationship is complicated by disguises, the sex they have with strangers to steal their secrets, Phillip's marriage to another woman, and the fact that they got married for country, not for love.
2. The Family Drama
Yes, we know the real Americans won the Cold War. What we don't know is whether the Jennings or their two children survive it. That's the central drama of the show.
3. The Spy Drama
These are legit spy stories that would work even without the family dynamic. We have bugs, blueprints, toxic warfare, wigs... without any James Bond theatrics.
4. The 80s
"The Americans" wears it setting lightly, never succumbing to gimmicks. People have bad haircuts and eat frozen French bread pizza -- the kind of '80s foods we ate before carbs were blacklisted. But there are no silly jokes about President Trump or Governor Schwarzenegger or other awkward winks at the modern-day audience. It just feels like you're in the actual '80s, when nuclear apocalypse felt like a viable possibility.
4. Paige
The Jennings' daughter (Holly Taylor) is the show's secret weapon. A born-again Christian, she's torn between her parents (and the KGB's interest in recruiting her) and her belief in American-style social justice.
5. The Neighbor
The Jennings have the misfortune of living across the street from an FBI agent. A smart one. Agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) is a perfect foil to the couple, always perilously close to catching them.
6. The Pace
Season 4 of "The Americans," the most recent, revolved around whether a church youth leader would rat out the Jennnings as Soviet spies. Those kinds of small, interpersonal dramas power the show, and they play out like emdless Iron Curtain chess games. The more closely you pay attention, the more fascinating they are. What's that knight trying to do? And did you catch that pawn before it became a queen?
8. The Realness
Sometimes storylines on "The Americans" just end, hopelessly, with no one learning any lessons. It's devastating.
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After four seasons, FX’s Cold War drama is finally racking up Emmy nominations. Here’s why it deserves them
After four seasons, FX's "The Americans," starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as Soviet spies posing as Americans in the 1980s, has finally received Emmy Awards in the major categories. So should you start watching? Yes. Here are reasons why.
