Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business Varieties weekly podcast featuring conversations with
Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Speaker 1: Cynthia Littleton, business editor for Variety Today. My guest is
Speaker 1: Nicole Clemens, President of Paramount Television Studios. Nicole has expanded
Speaker 1: Paramounts Television activity since she took the reins of the
Speaker 1: division in September two thousand eighteen. The company was gearing
Speaker 1: up for four prominent series launches right as the pandemic
Speaker 1: shutdowns hit in March. Nicole discusses the triage that went
Speaker 1: into getting the series launches squared away and the painful
Speaker 1: process of shutting down series and pilots that were in
Speaker 1: production or about to shoot. She also talks about the
Speaker 1: juggling act of managing a growing portfolio of series at
Speaker 1: a time when dealmaking varies so widely by platform, and
Speaker 1: Nicole reflects on her previous experience as as an executive
Speaker 1: at f X, a producer for anonymous content, and an
Speaker 1: agent at I c M, and how they have all
Speaker 1: coalesced into helping her in her current role at Paramount Television.
Speaker 1: Nicole Clemmens, President of Paramount Television Studios, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us here over Zoom. Thank you for
Speaker 1: having me. It's great to be here. We appreciate you
Speaker 1: taking some some time out. Obviously everybody's working from home,
Speaker 1: but that certainly doesn't mean that you're not busy. And
Speaker 1: you know, as just as as time and circumstance would
Speaker 1: have it, just as the pandemic shutdown started to hit
Speaker 1: in March, you were right in the you know, right,
Speaker 1: you were right in the zone of about to launch
Speaker 1: for you know, really significant new projects for your company, UM.
Speaker 1: And we'll talk about each of those in a little
Speaker 1: more detail, because you are working with an really interesting
Speaker 1: microcosm of you know, of the of all the diversity
Speaker 1: of networks and platforms that is in the industry. But UM,
Speaker 1: tell me kind of just gener really, how and how
Speaker 1: have you and your team adapted to the work from
Speaker 1: home mandate doing so much remotely. What's it been like. Well,
Speaker 1: the first couple of weeks we're just triage to dealing
Speaker 1: with UM putting shows on hiatus, and that was just
Speaker 1: it was, you know, sort of constant nonstuff. And then
Speaker 1: now we've used into development and it's cranking. I can't
Speaker 1: believe how busy we are I mean, I think writers
Speaker 1: are home and they're focused, and they're turning around material
Speaker 1: really quickly, and people are selling. We've been zoom pitching
Speaker 1: to networks. We sold a show. You know, it's it's
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say it's business as usual because in between that,
Speaker 1: I'm washing about a thousand dishes. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: how have you had any situations of you know, um
Speaker 1: content launches that were tied to other events. Where have
Speaker 1: there been any disruptions get disruptions in the rollout plans
Speaker 1: of your series? Well, we had Home Before Dark and
Speaker 1: Defending Jacob both on Apple, all that, all of our
Speaker 1: in person press premiers, everything, you know, Paradise Lost also affected.
Speaker 1: The good news is is that you know, everybody rallied
Speaker 1: and pivoted, and I feel like it ultimately. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, yes, we didn't get to have the actual
Speaker 1: physical party to celebrate, but all of the cast, I
Speaker 1: mean across the industry, everybody has really like jumped into
Speaker 1: to adjust to this new normal, and I feel like
Speaker 1: the show's both gotten great pushes. I mean, Defending Jacob
Speaker 1: launches on Friday, so we'll see. But I feel good
Speaker 1: about everything I'm seeing so far. Mm hmmmm. Um. And
Speaker 1: of course you have, you know, more than a dozen
Speaker 1: other other shows on your roster, so you must have
Speaker 1: had things that were in production that had to shut
Speaker 1: down quickly and unexpectedly. Yes, yeah, we had. Let's see,
Speaker 1: we had three shows that we got put that were
Speaker 1: put on hiatus, that were in the middle of shooting. Um,
Speaker 1: and we have delayed production. We had a pilot that
Speaker 1: was literally we had just been at the table read
Speaker 1: in New Orleans. We're flying home and then that Monday
Speaker 1: we shut down. Um, so that went on. We had
Speaker 1: a pilot at Quimby, or not a pilot, but a
Speaker 1: series at Quimby Varsity Blues that was about to start
Speaker 1: shooting in the next couple of days and that shut down. Um,
Speaker 1: we had it was a little farther out, but we
Speaker 1: had a pilot for USA that was shooting that now
Speaker 1: is delayed. We you know, we should have been shooting Jack,
Speaker 1: Ryan and June. So yeah, right, a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: What is the hardest part from a business from a
Speaker 1: financial standpoint, What is the hardest part about a quick
Speaker 1: unexpected shutdown? Is it just the cost of you know,
Speaker 1: putting everything in storage and having people that are on
Speaker 1: the payroll expecting to get paid all of a sudden
Speaker 1: in limbo. What from a from a like a production
Speaker 1: management standpoint, what do you find as the hardest Well, look,
Speaker 1: I would say my production team did the unbelievable job.
Speaker 1: But you know it's the it's the immediate shutdown costs. UM.
Speaker 1: It's also you have to factor in UM restarting, right,
Speaker 1: and we also don't know how long this is going
Speaker 1: to be, so it's adjusting for every single deal across
Speaker 1: various categories and what that looks like. And I mean
Speaker 1: it was. It was a phenomenal. I mean, we have
Speaker 1: shut down shows before, but we'd never shut down every
Speaker 1: show one week. It was an amazing UM, it was
Speaker 1: an amazing drill and to see all of our teams
Speaker 1: and it brought us really close, but like literally figuring
Speaker 1: it out as we went along, because it affects business affairs,
Speaker 1: It affects physical production as you're right, affects like do
Speaker 1: you fold and hold a stage? Do you are? We?
Speaker 1: You know? And now we are we're all down and
Speaker 1: we're now sitting and waiting and thinking like we don't
Speaker 1: know when we're gonna come up, where we're gonna come
Speaker 1: up well, we need to make a location change. You know,
Speaker 1: various deals across shows for actors will be affected in schedule.
Speaker 1: I gotta believe and schedules, and look, the thing is
Speaker 1: is that unlike a shutdown, when the whole world isn't
Speaker 1: shut down, it's not that someone's taking another job in
Speaker 1: the meantime, right. You hope is that your band wants
Speaker 1: to get back together the second we can get up,
Speaker 1: and our intention is to and our partners have signaled
Speaker 1: the same that everybody as soon as we can wants
Speaker 1: to get going and get back you know, get back
Speaker 1: on on the on the on the schedule. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's there's a weird sort of solace knowing that every
Speaker 1: single person is in the same boat. Nicole, you've been
Speaker 1: You've been at Paramount heading Paramount Television Studios since September
Speaker 1: of two thousand and eighteen. Tell me about the kind
Speaker 1: of the scope of the team that you've put together.
Speaker 1: You know, when I got there, um, they certainly there
Speaker 1: were like a lot of great shows going, but it
Speaker 1: was a much smaller division. And I think my my
Speaker 1: approach and my intent was to scale, to diversify the
Speaker 1: business model. Um, and to you know, look for opportunities
Speaker 1: for for margin and so I um, and in expanding
Speaker 1: the team, UM, you know, I hired a number two
Speaker 1: there had not been a number two in development, um,
Speaker 1: Jenna Santoiani, who was fantastic. And then we hired Cheryl
Speaker 1: Bosnak to run a current department which had not existed
Speaker 1: that date because we had plenty of shows that needed
Speaker 1: to be taken care of on the ongoing side, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, and we've I think it's been in the
Speaker 1: last a lot since well I guess since I've started,
Speaker 1: it's been about thirteen new hires across the exact ranks,
Speaker 1: so it's it's been a pretty decent expansion. And then
Speaker 1: on the show front, you know, we increase the pipeline,
Speaker 1: which we count as show series ordered on air, ordered
Speaker 1: or in production by about and then our development, which
Speaker 1: are you know, which is most of it is scripted
Speaker 1: series kinds of development situation more than doubled in the
Speaker 1: last and so we've had like nine series orders and
Speaker 1: seven series renewals. So it's been it's been really busy,
Speaker 1: really productive. Let's talk about two of your drama series
Speaker 1: that you have launching with Apple TV plus Home Before
Speaker 1: Dark and Defending Jacob, can you talk about the appeal
Speaker 1: for a studio such as yours working with a streamer
Speaker 1: like Apple on series on series of this of the
Speaker 1: genre and type, Well, I mean Apples. The deal structure
Speaker 1: at Apple is a cost plus model, so um, that
Speaker 1: is Look, it's it's fantastic in terms of working with
Speaker 1: Apple at this point in time with them launching, they're
Speaker 1: really putting a lot of attention into each shows. They're
Speaker 1: not in a volume business. They're in a very sort
Speaker 1: of specialized business. So it's you feel like every each
Speaker 1: show is very curated and really important to them. Are
Speaker 1: these in in in these deals with Apple? Are these
Speaker 1: worldwide or are you able to take these all of that?
Speaker 1: Every Apple deal is a worldwide rights deal and they launch, Um,
Speaker 1: they launch day and date all over the world. So
Speaker 1: just pretty exciting in terms of in terms of your
Speaker 1: youth ship. But that's a big part of a part
Speaker 1: of the draw in terms of the exposure. Um. You
Speaker 1: know you mentioned um Paradise Lost, which is a show
Speaker 1: that premiered for US on UH Spectrum Originals, and that's
Speaker 1: show where Charter takes the first window and then Paramount
Speaker 1: Network nine months later, will take the second window, and
Speaker 1: in that case the studio holds some international and so
Speaker 1: we'll sell the international on that. So completely right on
Speaker 1: the other end of the spectrum, we have street lights.
Speaker 1: When the street lights go on. That launched on Quimby
Speaker 1: with their launch and that that's been, um, that's been
Speaker 1: really interesting, you know, in terms of Quimby being designed
Speaker 1: for people on the go and then having you know,
Speaker 1: but we uh, we know, we don't have the streamers
Speaker 1: and Quimby included don't s are specific data, but the
Speaker 1: feedback that we've had has been great on on our
Speaker 1: shows so far. So I was curious if Quimby was
Speaker 1: going to break that mold, but I kind of I
Speaker 1: think I think that mold has probably been said uh huh.
Speaker 1: So in in a way it is interesting. I mean,
Speaker 1: these are in all these situations in in kind of
Speaker 1: a cost plus model, not for Paradise Lost respectrum originals,
Speaker 1: but in a cost plus model, you kind of you know,
Speaker 1: you know what your you know what your upside is
Speaker 1: going in so you manage that within and you know,
Speaker 1: for for you, I mean for you guys, it seems
Speaker 1: like you have you know, you have a fair amount
Speaker 1: of activity in that range. You know, you add things up,
Speaker 1: big big pieces of business like Jack Ryan and you know,
Speaker 1: other profile shows. You add that up and it becomes
Speaker 1: it becomes a nice portfolio. It's good. We've tried to
Speaker 1: I mean streaming. I had said to somebody, were like
Speaker 1: the bonds of the portfolio. There's really no risk, but
Speaker 1: it's capped upside, right, So you definitely want UM and
Speaker 1: they're fantastic and there, and each individual platform has its
Speaker 1: own you know, UM sensibilities and ways of dealing. But
Speaker 1: I think that the you know the idea of being
Speaker 1: able to have some shows with some major upsites so
Speaker 1: you can hit a home run is you know, obviously
Speaker 1: something we'd love to achieve. And so you know, we
Speaker 1: we haven't been our our bread and butter is not
Speaker 1: in broadcast television UM, which isn't to say that we
Speaker 1: don't do some, but our sister company, CBS Studios does
Speaker 1: that to a much larger degree. But this year we
Speaker 1: have a pilot at Fox UM that is you know,
Speaker 1: Melissa Leo starring in and uh Philip Noise is directing,
Speaker 1: and it's fantastic. It's like house, right, It's it's just
Speaker 1: one of those ones. That you think like this one
Speaker 1: could go all the way. So you know, it's totally different.
Speaker 1: That's a deficit. You're deficiting the pilot and you're rolling
Speaker 1: the dice. And you know doing that with Fox with
Speaker 1: fe C in particular, is you know, they're now studio
Speaker 1: lists in terms of your not sitting there like you
Speaker 1: would be at or ABC as an outside studio competing
Speaker 1: against all of these other pod deals or studios that
Speaker 1: have an agenda to fill the pipeline. So you really
Speaker 1: like trying to win, you know, get the winning lottery
Speaker 1: ticket for a half of a slot. Right, So it's
Speaker 1: a much better risk doing a pilot for us with
Speaker 1: FBC in this scenario, right, Yeah, No, I mean it's
Speaker 1: and it seems like, um it is a true like
Speaker 1: people say, it's a true portfolio approach. You have your bonds,
Speaker 1: you have a couple of you know, you have a
Speaker 1: couple of a couple of bets, and um, I would
Speaker 1: imagine also from us, you know, from a standpoint of
Speaker 1: the kind of creative people that you can attract. You know,
Speaker 1: people don't always want to be in one lane. You
Speaker 1: want to have want to have a little more a
Speaker 1: little more diversity there and and it is interest thing
Speaker 1: at this time, you know, whether it's Quimby or if
Speaker 1: you see there are a lot of new or new
Speaker 1: ish entities coming in with different how you've been loving
Speaker 1: HBO Max for example, because they are doing really high
Speaker 1: budget shows and they're giving huge license fees, but you're
Speaker 1: still holding international, so you're sort of getting in that case,
Speaker 1: the best of both worlds in terms of um very low,
Speaker 1: very very low deficit and then huge potential for abside.
Speaker 1: So they came on the scene right as it sort
Speaker 1: of looked as if everything was gonna shut down, and
Speaker 1: then they showed up. So it's, you know it ebbs
Speaker 1: and flows, so you know, look, well who knows? Who
Speaker 1: knows what the landscape is gonna look like? Right right now?
Speaker 1: It is hard. What was it like was it? Did
Speaker 1: you have to adjust it all to produce for Quimby
Speaker 1: on theirs, you know, their specs and standards of ten
Speaker 1: minutes and the whole thing adding up to what there
Speaker 1: was the development process which the writers adapted to really
Speaker 1: easily informed sort of following function into of knowing that
Speaker 1: you needed to have those ten minute kind of cliffhanger
Speaker 1: uh spots and the shows that we have done with
Speaker 1: them have lent themselves really well to that storytelling. Um,
Speaker 1: we did actually have to adapt our shooting style for
Speaker 1: the Quimby you know, for the vertical and horizontal of
Speaker 1: the phone, So our filmmakers actually had put tape on
Speaker 1: the monitors so that they in the frame. But and
Speaker 1: and look, we were making our first Quimby shows as
Speaker 1: Quimby's making their first shows, so we were learning their
Speaker 1: you know, their style together and it was it was
Speaker 1: a great experience. We we're you know, we've got street
Speaker 1: Lights now out where we're doing Varsity Blues and we
Speaker 1: have a couple other things behind that we love. Working
Speaker 1: with them been great. We hope that everything you know,
Speaker 1: I hope it works really well, would be greatful. Do
Speaker 1: you think do you see those shows? Do you see
Speaker 1: a completed Quimby season as a potential pilot for something that,
Speaker 1: you know, something that could go longer term, something in
Speaker 1: a more traditional format. Is that because I've heard that
Speaker 1: that's somewhat of the appeal, but good it could it's
Speaker 1: not so much I have It's not that it couldn't
Speaker 1: happen that way. I think, for instance, street Lights is
Speaker 1: in a complete story and when it comes together that
Speaker 1: could be sold as a TV movie for example. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: there are some ongoing series that um, you know that
Speaker 1: we'll have to see because we haven't done you know,
Speaker 1: we haven't actually produced them yet. UM, that you might
Speaker 1: be able to cut together depending on how many seasons
Speaker 1: they go and selling that format. So UM, I haven't
Speaker 1: looked at it so much as a pilot program for
Speaker 1: um the larger scale places as much as an opportunity
Speaker 1: to have something that you can cut together and see. Look,
Speaker 1: if if this model works like the for you in
Speaker 1: in a few years, you get it back and its
Speaker 1: entirety to assemble and then a period of time after
Speaker 1: that you get it back and you can cut it up.
Speaker 1: So if that's a form that really takes off, you
Speaker 1: can re license it in that form. I see. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the business model was strong, and of that
Speaker 1: that could all be on the come. The long tail
Speaker 1: can be an unknown and if there's Grady there, then fantastic.
Speaker 1: But the upfront model made it worth doing. And it's
Speaker 1: cost plus essentially. Yeah, it's whether that pick. Yeah, he's exactly,
Speaker 1: it's cost less. So so they're very smart. I think
Speaker 1: about how they went out went out about it. It's
Speaker 1: interesting and now with Paradise Loss that's also um Charter,
Speaker 1: the you know, the second largest cable operator in the
Speaker 1: in the country next to Comcast, started a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. They really started putting into their distribution deals,
Speaker 1: you know, a massive distribution packed for cable channels with
Speaker 1: Viacom lead to there was kind of a line and
Speaker 1: a press release. Oh on the sides of you know,
Speaker 1: the companies have agreed to develop a project, you know,
Speaker 1: original content projects together. When I first started to see that,
Speaker 1: I thought, what, you know, I thought that was just,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of a throwaway thing. But obviously it
Speaker 1: has born fruit with with Paramount and by Common and others. Um,
Speaker 1: how did you tell me do you did you work
Speaker 1: out the agreement to have it premiere on the Spectrum
Speaker 1: platform and then go to Paramount the Paramount channel. Was
Speaker 1: that was that anticipated as part of the dealer? Was
Speaker 1: that something you worked out? Now? That was that was
Speaker 1: actually done day one? So it wasn't It wasn't a
Speaker 1: process of doing it with Spectrum and then figuring out
Speaker 1: where to go. It was we have a couple of
Speaker 1: projects with Spectrum and b ET and we have a
Speaker 1: couple of projects right now with that are just spectrum
Speaker 1: and I don't know if they'll have a second window,
Speaker 1: but uh, it's it's a run the gamut. Mm hm
Speaker 1: goa um. Was that being that the spectrum is sort
Speaker 1: of regional and not so new, Was that it all
Speaker 1: hard to attract talent or the fact that you would
Speaker 1: be transitioning to do a more established linear network and
Speaker 1: undoubtedly streaming platforms. I think what we were able to
Speaker 1: explain that, which I really believe is true, is that
Speaker 1: it was great because you get a you get a
Speaker 1: bite at a release where you're not behold into rising
Speaker 1: or falling on ratings. Right, it's all critical and it's
Speaker 1: not such a huge market that it's then taking a
Speaker 1: huge bite out of your your you know, you're you're
Speaker 1: bigger opportunities. So it was sort of like a premier
Speaker 1: and a preview and an opportunity to shine, build some
Speaker 1: buzz and then you can have your your next run.
Speaker 1: Plus there is also the opportunity for international in terms
Speaker 1: of the business model and the and the back end upside.
Speaker 1: So you know, people were great and look it's Katherine
Speaker 1: Pope who leads the charge there. Who oh an NBC
Speaker 1: vetter in a long time NBC in Churnon, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: I think the regional aspect of it really ends up
Speaker 1: affecting the storytelling more than anything, because that those stories
Speaker 1: that Charter is going to get in on are going
Speaker 1: to beat stories that are appealing to their their demographics.
Speaker 1: That makes sense. It is just like from what we've
Speaker 1: discussed almost you know, four different kind of models within
Speaker 1: four different shows. Do you enjoy a part of the job. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I love I This is the job that
Speaker 1: lets me take all of my jobs and roll it
Speaker 1: all together, from having been an agent to being fired
Speaker 1: to be increaser, it's all together. What's interesting is when
Speaker 1: you have a project and you're lucky enough to have
Speaker 1: several bidders, it's not apples to apples, it's complete apple stranges,
Speaker 1: right right. None of the deal you have to you know,
Speaker 1: you have to make to sit and you have to
Speaker 1: make decisions that are multi factoral. You can't necessarily just
Speaker 1: line them all up and the one appear wins. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's a super I find it really really interesting
Speaker 1: and um, you know, I'm glad that there are a
Speaker 1: lot of buyers and we have stuff on thirteen different platforms,
Speaker 1: and I'd be thrilled for more to come into the picture.
Speaker 1: That sounds like HBO Max is going to join the mix.
Speaker 1: Oh we've got yeah, We've got a lot on HBO Max.
Speaker 1: Actually we were love Sarah Aubrey and Kevin and so
Speaker 1: we've got Greece coming out. Um. We just hired our
Speaker 1: writer that's on the fast track there, which is a
Speaker 1: series order. We have Station eleven, which we've already had
Speaker 1: the first two episodes in the can and we had
Speaker 1: a hiatus actually already in place because we're going to
Speaker 1: pick up shooting in the summer. So we'll see now
Speaker 1: if if COVID affects it at all. That's Hero Marai
Speaker 1: directing Patrick Somerville's adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel's novel,
Speaker 1: which is serially, I mean, how could we know it's
Speaker 1: a post pandemic world. It's kind of crazy. The first
Speaker 1: cut came in during the first week of this and
Speaker 1: I was just it was just like so surreal. Nicole.
Speaker 1: You have really have had a really a varied career
Speaker 1: from being you know, a creative executive ed f X
Speaker 1: to an agent that I see mum earlier and recently
Speaker 1: manager and producer for Anonymous Content, which is definitely a
Speaker 1: purveyor of fine content. They truly do. They were very
Speaker 1: much ahead of the curve in assembling these very high
Speaker 1: end uh a lot of unlimited series projects. Um, what
Speaker 1: would you say earlier in the start of your career?
Speaker 1: What what were some of the either key experiences or
Speaker 1: jobs or shows that you worked on that kind of
Speaker 1: allowed you to to climb the ladder. What would you
Speaker 1: say was really formative experiences for you as an executive
Speaker 1: or as an industry professional? Wow? Um, well, in this incarnation,
Speaker 1: I would say at FX, just being a part of
Speaker 1: that company, which obviously so much of that is attributed
Speaker 1: to John Managraph and the culture that he creates. And
Speaker 1: first pilot I ever worked on, the executive for that
Speaker 1: show was John mind Graph, who was the VP at NBC.
Speaker 1: And so go flash forward all these years and then
Speaker 1: you know we're working together. So um, I think, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously agenting for your sixteen years, it's like
Speaker 1: in your blood, you're never not an agent. But the
Speaker 1: the experience of really sitting at like Johnsney and watching
Speaker 1: how he thought about television and the way he cultivated
Speaker 1: relationships with artists and really pushed them. You know, you
Speaker 1: never felt like you were ever dictating or writing a
Speaker 1: show for somebody, and that a trap you can fall
Speaker 1: into in development. And what what I think that we
Speaker 1: were about there was finding really nailing what somebody's authentic
Speaker 1: voice was, what it was they were trying to say,
Speaker 1: and then pushing them further and supporting him in that.
Speaker 1: And so I think, you know, every show go, whether
Speaker 1: it was You're the Worst with Stephen Falk, which was
Speaker 1: one of the first things that I bought to Atlanta
Speaker 1: to you know, um uh Snowfall, to you know, anything
Speaker 1: that that we did over the course of that period
Speaker 1: of time was people are like, wow, the shows. I
Speaker 1: love those shows, And really you kind of want to say,
Speaker 1: we didn't do anything except not screw them up. We
Speaker 1: just gave them the room to do great work, you know,
Speaker 1: And so I try to as a studio, you have
Speaker 1: more responsibility to deliver the show, but in the development
Speaker 1: process we really try to emulate that in terms of
Speaker 1: you know, really making bespoke shows. People ask us what
Speaker 1: the brand is and it's sort of like, well, we're studios,
Speaker 1: we're selling what people are buying. But I want the
Speaker 1: brand to be an amazing experience, and whether a show
Speaker 1: is the size of Boomerang on b Et with Lena
Speaker 1: Ways or Jack Ryan, I want the quality to be superior.
Speaker 1: I want every interaction with every department to feel like
Speaker 1: they you know, they just love working with us and
Speaker 1: they trust us to deliver the show that we're making together.
Speaker 1: So it's you know, I think that I think just
Speaker 1: my time at f X really impacted the way I
Speaker 1: view TV and also the possibilities earlier in your career.
Speaker 1: Worked for one of my favorite people that I got
Speaker 1: to know early on in my career, Aaron Spelling. That
Speaker 1: you worked at Spelling Television. Tell me something that you
Speaker 1: remember about or that you learned from your time at Spelling, Well,
Speaker 1: we would call him the mister. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: it was this surreal thing to have that be your
Speaker 1: first job as an executive because it was its own
Speaker 1: bubble and you had a butler with white gloves, like
Speaker 1: walking through the kitchen, like there was a very specific
Speaker 1: way that a Spelling show was. There was a formula
Speaker 1: and like season four, I think of of nine O
Speaker 1: two and No I was in Currents. So those are
Speaker 1: the shows that are on the air, and I was
Speaker 1: sitting in his office watching dailies with him with a
Speaker 1: carpet that was like four inches long and a giant
Speaker 1: fish tank if you remembering, you know, and uh, and
Speaker 1: we were watching and we cut interior peach Pit Jason
Speaker 1: Priestley and uh, you know, I can't remember who, like
Speaker 1: Luke Perry, and they're talking at the bar and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, here, stop, stop, turn on the lots
Speaker 1: and they stopped the projector because it was a projector
Speaker 1: projecting the feeling like where are we? Where are we?
Speaker 1: We didn't get establishing shot and so it's like it
Speaker 1: always had to be like establishing shot, wide shot, two shot,
Speaker 1: over the shoulder, over the shoulder, close up. So it
Speaker 1: was just, you know, it was mathematical. But it works.
Speaker 1: It works, it works, you know, it works. It works well.
Speaker 1: John Lynn Grab and Aaron Spelling. Those are two good
Speaker 1: Those are two good chapters in your memoir. And now
Speaker 1: I have Ginnopolis, So honestly, I like win. I win
Speaker 1: the lottery of best bosses ever. Yeah, some pretty good ones. Nicole,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time in talking with this.
Speaker 1: I really I really appreciate you taking your time out
Speaker 1: of your work from home schedule and and look forward
Speaker 1: to seeing what you know, what you guys come up with,
Speaker 1: and how you how you guys, can you know, get
Speaker 1: through the second half of the year. It's I'm sure
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a scramble, but here's hoping that we
Speaker 1: can all get get on it soon. Thank you, it's
Speaker 1: my pleasure. It's good to see you. Thanks tee bye bye,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening. Be sure to tune in next week
Speaker 1: for another episode of Strictly Business.