Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of the Variety podcast Strictly Business,
Speaker 1: where we talk shop with some of the brightest minds
Speaker 1: working in media today. I'm Variety co editor in chief
Speaker 1: Andrew Wallenstate when The People's Choice Awards returns to TV
Speaker 1: on November eleven for its fourth year, we'll have a
Speaker 1: new home on the E Network. How this award show
Speaker 1: made the move after all those years is what we'll
Speaker 1: talk about with my next guest, E President Adam Stotsky.
Speaker 1: It's well as a number of the latest developments at
Speaker 1: the Comcast owned brand. Thanks for coming in out, Thanks
Speaker 1: for having me, brightest mind that is, that's a that's
Speaker 1: that's a stretch, but it's a lot to live up
Speaker 1: to it. You're gonna be just fine. Um. So, when
Speaker 1: I saw the headline about you getting People's Choice about
Speaker 1: a year ago, I understood it to some degree. It's entertainment,
Speaker 1: People's Choice E. On the other hand, awards shows. Live
Speaker 1: programming certainly has its value, but awards shows are tough,
Speaker 1: tough roads. Sometimes ratings could be tough, cluttered atmosphere. What
Speaker 1: did you see in this particular franchise? Sure, well, for us,
Speaker 1: it was a it was a bang on opportunity for
Speaker 1: us UM. I was sitting in my office about sixteen
Speaker 1: seventeen months ago, and I took a call from one
Speaker 1: of our AUNT sales colleagues in New York who said
Speaker 1: to me, I just took an even stranger call from
Speaker 1: a lawyer deep inside Procter and Gamble. Do you have
Speaker 1: any interest in acquiring the People's Choice Awards? How does
Speaker 1: Proctor and Gamble even come to own an awards show?
Speaker 1: Procter and Gamble actually created the People's Choice Awards forty
Speaker 1: three years ago as a media property to sell their brands.
Speaker 1: You know, they have had UM a long and very
Speaker 1: successful history of UM media development and production. Soap operas
Speaker 1: are called soap operas because of Procter and Gamble. They
Speaker 1: created the format to sell soap and UM in addition
Speaker 1: to soaps and Movies of the Week. Forty plus years ago,
Speaker 1: they created their own award show event. They partnered with
Speaker 1: CBS and UM for the past four decades have built
Speaker 1: the franchise into a a legitimate reflection of what audiences
Speaker 1: and fans are are really excited about in the pop
Speaker 1: culture landscape. And so for US as a brand, we're
Speaker 1: focused on entertaining and exciting the pop culture fan and
Speaker 1: all of us. That's our mission statement. That's you know,
Speaker 1: emblazoned on our T shirts and in the halls of
Speaker 1: the But were you in the marketplace looking for award shows?
Speaker 1: Because when I think of the I think red carpet,
Speaker 1: your companioned the awardship. That's true, you know, our our
Speaker 1: head of communications, Sarah Sarah Goldstein likes to say, you know,
Speaker 1: for the past two decades, we've we've built a business
Speaker 1: off of filming people walking through a parking lot and UM.
Speaker 1: And that's true. That's a that's a great UM legacy
Speaker 1: for us. UM. It's part of our brand, UM, it's
Speaker 1: part of our identity. It's a great it's a great
Speaker 1: part of our business. But we have always had these
Speaker 1: ambitions of getting into UM, into the building UM as
Speaker 1: it were, and UM and so over the course of
Speaker 1: the past several years, we had had UM discussions about
Speaker 1: acquiring some of the smaller shows that would come up
Speaker 1: for UM come up for discussion. We had talked about
Speaker 1: starting one from scratch, which feels like it feels like
Speaker 1: a very very tough lift. And so when this call
Speaker 1: came into me, I sat back and thought, she's well
Speaker 1: that that couldn't be any more perfect for us. He
Speaker 1: is an egalitarian brand where a populist brand, and I
Speaker 1: mean that with a small p. In today's political climate,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, we are all about reflecting the
Speaker 1: current tastes and interests and and and and passions of
Speaker 1: our audience and the People's Choice awards for forty three years,
Speaker 1: UM has always been about that. I get it. On
Speaker 1: the other hand, award show there's just so many of them,
Speaker 1: and People's Choice I agree as a brand, but I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily I wouldn't say I saw it coming off
Speaker 1: sort of a peak. So what did you see in
Speaker 1: it that you thought you could take it to the
Speaker 1: next level? Well, we saw, we saw forty years of equity,
Speaker 1: we saw forty years of history, UM. And we saw
Speaker 1: an idea, a concept, this idea of for the people
Speaker 1: by the people that felt really decidedly and so UM.
Speaker 1: When we sat down with the Procinant Gamble team who
Speaker 1: had done it, just a great job. And you know,
Speaker 1: their business, like all of our businesses, changing and so
Speaker 1: they were looking to to exit broadcast production. UM, we
Speaker 1: thought this is a relatively modest investment for us, to
Speaker 1: take a swing into UM an ownership position. Whereas historically,
Speaker 1: if you think about our red carpet business, which is
Speaker 1: you know, we do eight to ten of these red
Speaker 1: carpet events a year. Uh, you know, we're more of
Speaker 1: a renter or in some cases of squatter. We sort
Speaker 1: of show up on the show, up on the red
Speaker 1: carpet with our with with our cameras and UM and
Speaker 1: we build that into you know, into a great story
Speaker 1: for E. This is an opportunity for us to take
Speaker 1: that experience, that exposure, UM, that expertise UM and and
Speaker 1: really drive it all the way from the red carpet
Speaker 1: into the main awards show in a in a relatively
Speaker 1: UM cost efficient way. And so UM strategically made a
Speaker 1: lot of sense for us. Live viewership is something that
Speaker 1: you know, many of us in the AD supported linear
Speaker 1: TV space, covet and UM. You know, even even in
Speaker 1: the face of a challenging competitive dynamic for award shows,
Speaker 1: felt like a smart, strategic UM and and really focused
Speaker 1: investment for us. But how do you spruce it up
Speaker 1: and make it your own? Because I think there's expectations
Speaker 1: when you move from say CBSDE we're going to see
Speaker 1: a slightly different better property hopefully will be will be better.
Speaker 1: It will certainly be different. UM. We've spent Jen Neal,
Speaker 1: who's our chief marketing officer and also the executive producer
Speaker 1: of our live events business. UM will share Studios, which
Speaker 1: is our in house unscripted producing facility have long history
Speaker 1: producing our red carpet business. UM and Den of Thieves,
Speaker 1: who's our external producing partner. UM, most famous for producing
Speaker 1: the MTV v m as for the past decade or so,
Speaker 1: have spent the better part of the last year kind
Speaker 1: of stripping the franchise down to the studs as it
Speaker 1: were UM and reimagining it through the lens of E. UM,
Speaker 1: reimagining it for UM where we think award shows are going,
Speaker 1: and and reimagining it for global audience. Uh. You know.
Speaker 1: This will be the first time that the franchise has
Speaker 1: been broadcast globally. UM E distributes our Channel two D
Speaker 1: and sixty countries around the world, so this would be
Speaker 1: a global broadcast. It's also going to be a UM
Speaker 1: A multi platform UM production for US, so not only
Speaker 1: will E broadcast, it will also be simulcast across the
Speaker 1: USA network, Sci Fi Network, Bravo Roadblock as they say
Speaker 1: the road the roadblock across the entire portfolio. And so
Speaker 1: you know, we we spent the better part of a
Speaker 1: year just looking at the category as a whole um
Speaker 1: and really trying to take the best of what's performed
Speaker 1: in um the category and and really bringing it to bear,
Speaker 1: to reimagine it, reimagining the people's choice for for e
Speaker 1: and for a new audience. And that's what you'll see
Speaker 1: on November eleven. It seems to me that what works
Speaker 1: for award shows is when and I think of how
Speaker 1: MTV does this. This is I think analogous because they're
Speaker 1: a cable network. It's their own show that they own.
Speaker 1: It's really about concocting these viral moments, things that people
Speaker 1: are gonna be talking about minutes after they occur on
Speaker 1: social media. We is People's Choice, gonna maybe unbuttoned the
Speaker 1: top collar and get crazy because that's my only way
Speaker 1: of seeing viral happen. Yeah, I think, you know, we'll
Speaker 1: do We'll do a lot of things that will be different,
Speaker 1: certainly from the show's history and different from other award shows.
Speaker 1: I think, first and foremost, I'm given our two decades
Speaker 1: worth of red carpet expertise. We're gonna take that experience
Speaker 1: red carpet for two hours and drive it right into
Speaker 1: the main show. So they're gonna it's gonna feel like
Speaker 1: a connected hole between the red carpet show, which is
Speaker 1: our legacy UM, and this new expression of the People's
Speaker 1: Choice Awards. So historically, if you think about the way
Speaker 1: UM other award shows UM exist visa vi their red
Speaker 1: carpet experience, they feel like too two very separate and
Speaker 1: discrete things. This is going to feel like a connected whole, UM.
Speaker 1: And right out of the gate, we know that our
Speaker 1: main job is to connect with our audiences and to
Speaker 1: drive those um, those those those moments UM that will
Speaker 1: get people talking. And so we've got a lot of
Speaker 1: things planned UM, a lot of things that I'll wait
Speaker 1: to surprise your viewers with on November eleven. But we
Speaker 1: understand what it is we're up against and have planned accordingly.
Speaker 1: And I'm curious about the Procter and gamble of all this.
Speaker 1: What was that acquisition sess like, were they looking for
Speaker 1: you know, tough, very competitive bids. Were there are other
Speaker 1: people in there? We do know there were other people involved, UM,
Speaker 1: some household names to your viewers to your listeners, UM,
Speaker 1: they'll remain nameless. But you know, I think, I think
Speaker 1: what we proposed to UH, to Procter and Gamble was
Speaker 1: an environment that would would would care and nurture this
Speaker 1: baby that they had birth and developed and had grown
Speaker 1: into a sizeable franchise across Barty three years. UM. It
Speaker 1: wasn't just simply the acquisition of an asset UM. We
Speaker 1: really made a pitch to them for UM strategically, why
Speaker 1: the brand and the franchise made sense at E how
Speaker 1: it could be an outgrowth of our entertainment news offering
Speaker 1: and our live events offering UM, and so I think
Speaker 1: for them, UM it made financial sense. We put together
Speaker 1: a financial package that that that was UM that solid
Speaker 1: and obviously UM good for them, but it was also
Speaker 1: a strategic presentation that that we wanted them to understand
Speaker 1: how we were going to use what they had built,
Speaker 1: because you know, in addition to marketing scope and and
Speaker 1: and Crest and oil of l A and lots of
Speaker 1: other products, this was this was one of their brands
Speaker 1: and and and something that they cared for and nurtured
Speaker 1: over you know, over the course of decades, and so
Speaker 1: UM articulating that their baby would have a comfortable home
Speaker 1: at E. U was also part of the pitch in
Speaker 1: addition to the financials. And there's a lot going on
Speaker 1: at e and we'll we'll get into that. But I'm
Speaker 1: curious what this means in terms of the brand identity
Speaker 1: of EID as it tell us something new your brand.
Speaker 1: It's been how long now has it been years? And
Speaker 1: it's never there's there's never a time, it seems, even
Speaker 1: for networks that are a lot older. Uh, you can't
Speaker 1: rest on your laurels. There's always this constant read definition
Speaker 1: of going on. So what does this addition tell us
Speaker 1: about the brand? Yeah, yeah, it's a great question. You
Speaker 1: know what, We're focused on three things at e We
Speaker 1: create pop culture, uh in the form of the franchises
Speaker 1: that we built, Kardashians obviously being noteworthy, some of our
Speaker 1: scripted efforts, Royals Arrangement, Christian Cavalary, Uh, you know, new
Speaker 1: sort of runaway hit for us. We report pop culture
Speaker 1: um in the form of the news, and we do
Speaker 1: that multi platform. I know you and I have spoken
Speaker 1: about that in the past. UM. And then we celebrate
Speaker 1: pop culture, and we celebrate pop culture at these sort
Speaker 1: of seminal pop culture moments throughout the year, whether it's
Speaker 1: the Oscars, the Grammys, the Golden Globes, UM, what have you,
Speaker 1: and the People's Choice Awards. Is really sort of bridging
Speaker 1: those two, those two strategic pillars for us of reporting
Speaker 1: pop culture at the seminal moments of the year and
Speaker 1: the and the events of of pop culture and so UM.
Speaker 1: You know, it says to us that if you're interested
Speaker 1: in what's happening UM inside the pop culture landscape, E
Speaker 1: is the brand UM for you. You know. Actually, just uh,
Speaker 1: just this week, we've taken a dive back into topical
Speaker 1: talk in a fairly sizeable way. You know. UM. Joan
Speaker 1: Rivers is, you may recall, passed away about four years ago,
Speaker 1: UM and UM with Joan passing away with Chelsea Handler
Speaker 1: leaving us for for her her efforts elsewhere, and we
Speaker 1: had gotten out of the topical talk space in UM
Speaker 1: in any significant way and UM on Monday part of me.
Speaker 1: On Sunday night, we launched Busy Tonight, which is hosted
Speaker 1: by Busy Phillips, produced by Tina Fey, which is a
Speaker 1: four night a week topical talk show. UM. Really bringing
Speaker 1: Busy Phillips unique perspective and only on the world, but
Speaker 1: on Los Angeles and the the Hollywood ecosystem. Um uh
Speaker 1: at its uh you know, in its fullest um. But
Speaker 1: which interesting about Busy is sure she's an actress, but
Speaker 1: I think more people know her nowadays from She's got
Speaker 1: a pretty robust in Degram president. She does, she does,
Speaker 1: she's she's done a great job of cultivating a really authentic,
Speaker 1: unique point of view through her Instagram stories. And that's
Speaker 1: really what caught us. I mean, we had been familiar,
Speaker 1: we had known Busy for quite some time. She'd show
Speaker 1: up on the Red carpet with Michelle Williams um and
Speaker 1: you know, sure, certainly she's a she's an actor in
Speaker 1: her own regard Cougar Town to to e r tow
Speaker 1: to Dawson's Creek and so um, you know, for us
Speaker 1: to have, um, you know, a real sort of working
Speaker 1: member of the Hollywood community who also has a real
Speaker 1: strong point of view on the world and um an
Speaker 1: authentic voice that has done a great job of connecting
Speaker 1: with millions of followers via Instagram, we thought that that
Speaker 1: that needs to come to come to eat. So in
Speaker 1: addition to Busy tonight, also on Sunday we launched Lady Gang.
Speaker 1: Lady Gang is a podcast uh topical um pop culture podcast.
Speaker 1: Entertainment Weekly called it the podcast of the Year. It
Speaker 1: was actually nominated for People's Choice Award. UM we had
Speaker 1: nothing to do with that. That was all fan driven. UM.
Speaker 1: And then last night we actually launched a third topical
Speaker 1: talker UM called Nightly Pop. We have a daytime strip
Speaker 1: um talk show called Daily Pop, which is uh nine
Speaker 1: am here on the West coast, noon on the East coast,
Speaker 1: and it's a it's a topical um sort of gossip show.
Speaker 1: And Nightly pops the sort of edge your version, edge
Speaker 1: your sister to two. Daily Pop so a fairly significant
Speaker 1: return into topical talk. And so for us People's Choice Awards.
Speaker 1: Along with with Busy Tonight with Lady Gang, Nightly Pop
Speaker 1: just works to reinforce UM, you know, our point of
Speaker 1: view that pop culture matters, and it matters significantly to
Speaker 1: our audience, and UM, we want to make sure that anywhere,
Speaker 1: um and anytime pop culture is happening, uh, anything's happening
Speaker 1: inside that space. This this brand needs to be there.
Speaker 1: In addition to those sort of um big sort of
Speaker 1: seminal moments which will capture in into People's Choice Awards
Speaker 1: this year. But talk shows are just as challenging a
Speaker 1: place to play as awards shows. I think, particularly we're
Speaker 1: talking about Busy and Late Night. I guess there's a
Speaker 1: two part question, what makes you think late night needs
Speaker 1: another voice? And number two? You know, I think there's
Speaker 1: a special challenge, a challenge that I think he has
Speaker 1: dealt with in the past about taking a digital I
Speaker 1: don't want to call her a digital native star digital
Speaker 1: native ish maybe she might appreciate that and transplant that
Speaker 1: into TV. So how do you make these things work? Yeah? Well, look,
Speaker 1: the entire business is challenging. That's what makes it, That's
Speaker 1: what makes it interesting, and that is what really works. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, challenges us to raise our game each and
Speaker 1: every time out. Um. You know, I think we didn't
Speaker 1: really set out to get back into back into late
Speaker 1: night per se. Um. We were introduced to Busy and
Speaker 1: just kind of fell in love with her. Um. We
Speaker 1: love her voice, we love her authenticity. She's so fun.
Speaker 1: She's like that friend that every girl wants to have
Speaker 1: and wants to hang out with with a with a
Speaker 1: margharita and uh, you know, a pair of comfortable pants.
Speaker 1: I think she calls him. Um. Actually, she's got this
Speaker 1: thing on her show. She calls it Mr. Knightgown. Um.
Speaker 1: She gets into Mr. Knightgown to close every show because
Speaker 1: she knows that our audience is sort of settling into
Speaker 1: bed for the night, and so she wants to be
Speaker 1: that sort of last last moment um for our for
Speaker 1: our audience before they before they kick off for the night. UM.
Speaker 1: And so you know, I think we follow the talent
Speaker 1: and we follow the um. We follow the opportunity more
Speaker 1: so than we look at the competitive dynamic. UM. Busies
Speaker 1: on at ten o'clock. Um, So it's late night adjacent,
Speaker 1: we'll call it. Maybe it's late night for some folks,
Speaker 1: actually late night for me the father to probably late
Speaker 1: night for you as a father one. UM so UM.
Speaker 1: A little bit of a zig against the against the
Speaker 1: pure late night zag of eleven thirty and twelve thirty
Speaker 1: across the rest of the linear ad supported networks. UM.
Speaker 1: But I think it's it's really about out. Anytime you
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to find um and collaborate with a
Speaker 1: unique voice, whether it's Busy Lady Gang, the team at
Speaker 1: Nightly Pop. You know you have to find a venue
Speaker 1: for it. UM. Uh competition be damned and UM we
Speaker 1: feel really bullish about UM our dive back into topical
Speaker 1: talk with these these three franchises, and UM, you know
Speaker 1: we know from experience with Chelsea, UH, my experience at
Speaker 1: NBC with Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon. Uh, these kinds
Speaker 1: of shows are marathons. They're not sprints. UM. The first
Speaker 1: shows bear very little resemblance to the tenth show or
Speaker 1: the thirtieth show. And UM, you know, we've got to
Speaker 1: create an environment where UM, a voice like Busy, UM,
Speaker 1: a voice like the Lady Gang can can can play
Speaker 1: and can really innovate and try some new things and
Speaker 1: UM not be worried about about performance. And so we'll
Speaker 1: look at certainly, we'll look at ratings performance that that
Speaker 1: is a key driver for us. We'll also look at
Speaker 1: engagement um both uh linearly UM and socially and digitally, UM,
Speaker 1: we'll look at retention, you know, week to week, episode episode,
Speaker 1: We'll look at flow vertically horizontally across across the east.
Speaker 1: So lots of metrics that we can um evaluate our
Speaker 1: success UM through. It sounds like you're really drawing on
Speaker 1: as you eluded your days at NBC when you were there.
Speaker 1: Talk about what you were doing when I first got
Speaker 1: to know you were running marketing then, But are what
Speaker 1: you is? What you did then it was just ten
Speaker 1: fifteen years ago applicable to today's environment. Sure, Uh, it
Speaker 1: was just about ten years ago. So I spent I
Speaker 1: spent three years at NBC as the as the president
Speaker 1: of marketing. UM. You know. During that during that tenure,
Speaker 1: we UM had some terrific late night successes. UM, we
Speaker 1: had some some challenges migrating at late night franchise and
Speaker 1: Jay Land know to uh to ten o'clock, which was
Speaker 1: very disruptive, very challenging and ultimately and ultimately um uh
Speaker 1: not something we look back on all that, all that
Speaker 1: fondly from a ratings perspective. For me, UM, it was
Speaker 1: a great opportunity to learn how to how to how
Speaker 1: to deal with really interesting, strong talent voices like Jay Leno,
Speaker 1: like Jimmy Fallon Um, like Conan O'Brien. You know, we
Speaker 1: launched Conan at thirty to take over the tonight show. UM.
Speaker 1: And so a great opportunity for uh, for someone like
Speaker 1: me to see a new category. I grown up in
Speaker 1: the cable space, Sci Fi and Discovery. Prior to that
Speaker 1: had never spent any time in the broadcast ecosystem. So
Speaker 1: that was that was learning. UM. But I think most importantly,
Speaker 1: these are incredibly strong voices with very very strong executive
Speaker 1: producing partners behind them, and UM, our job really is
Speaker 1: to create an environment within which they can they can flourish,
Speaker 1: and their voices can thrive, UM, and they can tell
Speaker 1: stories and they can connect with an audience. And I think, UM,
Speaker 1: you know, creating uh some some some guardrails within which
Speaker 1: that exploration, that innovation, that creativity can happen is really
Speaker 1: the job of the network. And that's something that UM
Speaker 1: that I learned with uh some exposure to the folks
Speaker 1: who were running Late Night at the time. Rick Ludwin
Speaker 1: actually was this the head of Late Night um at
Speaker 1: an NBC really legend in the industry, UM. And just
Speaker 1: watching the way that he dealt with talent like Conan,
Speaker 1: like Jimmy, like Jay Leno was UM, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of worth its weight in gold and just a great
Speaker 1: experience for me that I draw on really on a
Speaker 1: on a daily basis, UM. And now more than ever
Speaker 1: as we sort of dive back into it, now that
Speaker 1: I've asked you this deep in the weeds TV question,
Speaker 1: I want to go in the other direction. Really the
Speaker 1: most macro question I could ask you of all, which
Speaker 1: is how much day to day are you thinking of
Speaker 1: the beyond just being a programmer of a linear network,
Speaker 1: but of really a multimedia brand. And I actually think
Speaker 1: there are a very few cable networks that could really
Speaker 1: claim to have the history as a multimedia brand. E
Speaker 1: being pretty robust as a website for quite some time. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So four years ago, uh, when when I, along with
Speaker 1: Francis Barrett came into came into E, we made a
Speaker 1: fairly sizeable UM investment in UM, growing our digital business.
Speaker 1: We had a as you mentioned, UM, a fairly sizeable website,
Speaker 1: you online dot com UM, and it's content set mirrored
Speaker 1: what we were producing on a daily basis for our
Speaker 1: E News linear show at seven o'clock. The content looked
Speaker 1: shockingly similar, but they were run as two separate operations.
Speaker 1: Understanding that news and information was increasingly becoming mobile first
Speaker 1: UM and social first, in particular especially for ease audience
Speaker 1: of young women, we made the decision to collapse the
Speaker 1: two organizations into one, and in some ways actually in
Speaker 1: the focus. So for young women UM getting their news
Speaker 1: and information in our case about pop culture and entertainment,
Speaker 1: UM is really a mobile first kind of experience. And
Speaker 1: so what we produce, what we publish, as it were
Speaker 1: two platforms like Snapchat, platforms like Instagram stories, UM, is
Speaker 1: it as important, if not more so UM in terms
Speaker 1: of engagement than UM what we produced nightly to our
Speaker 1: linear platform at seven o'clock UM. And so you know,
Speaker 1: when we think about the brand on a on a
Speaker 1: macro level, we think about engagement, and we think about
Speaker 1: total engagement. UM on a monthly basis, he will do
Speaker 1: about a about about a billion digital engagements and that's
Speaker 1: a a post, a tweet, a comment, a like, a view,
Speaker 1: about a billion engagements across all of our platforms. And
Speaker 1: so when you think about that whole ecosystem in that
Speaker 1: broad away, it really kind of opens up new storytelling opportunities.
Speaker 1: We're talking earlier about Snapchat snaps, a great platform that
Speaker 1: has done a terrific job of engaging millions and tens
Speaker 1: of millions of of young people on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: We felt it was important to a partner with them
Speaker 1: and really learn how to tell stories on that platform, UM,
Speaker 1: and so you know, it's it's a it's a it's
Speaker 1: a great opportunity not only to tell stories on all
Speaker 1: these new platforms, but also to connect all these various
Speaker 1: experiences in terms of delivering value to our advertisers. And
Speaker 1: so when we think about partnering with brands, UH, we
Speaker 1: think about not only the value of a thirty second
Speaker 1: spot on our linear feed, but also how do we
Speaker 1: take their messaging UM or their objective or their initiative
Speaker 1: really across all these touch points that we have with
Speaker 1: our audience, across all these platforms. Your parent company has
Speaker 1: a pretty sizable investment in snap Uh, you have a
Speaker 1: pretty sizable investment in UH being part of snaps, Snapchat
Speaker 1: shows plat form. How's that going for you? You are
Speaker 1: probably the single most prominent TV brand there. There's got
Speaker 1: to be some early lessons. Yeah, we were early in
Speaker 1: on on Snapchat. UM. JOHNA. Jerry And who runs our
Speaker 1: e news business across all of its all of its manifestations,
Speaker 1: brought the platform up to me I think three and
Speaker 1: a half years ago. I was not familiar with Snapchat,
Speaker 1: was not a user UM, and he said, you know,
Speaker 1: we we need to figure out how to how to
Speaker 1: tell an E news story on this on this platform,
Speaker 1: because they're doing an amazing job of connecting with, UH
Speaker 1: with twelve to twenty four year olds, which is a
Speaker 1: very elusive audience for linear television, and so very early
Speaker 1: on we said, okay, let's let's figure out how to
Speaker 1: use our infrastructure are E news infrastructure of broadcast, video production, distribution,
Speaker 1: our news gathering organization, let's create something bespoke for the platform.
Speaker 1: And out of that process, together with Nick Bell, who
Speaker 1: I know you've spent some time with snapchats head programmer,
Speaker 1: YEP created a show called The Rundown, which is E
Speaker 1: news for snapchatters, and um, you know, over the course
Speaker 1: of the last couple of years since it's launched, I
Speaker 1: think it's maybe eighteen twenty four months old, it does
Speaker 1: about three and a half million viewers and episode three
Speaker 1: times a week. That's incredible audience engagement and UM you know,
Speaker 1: for us, it just trains us to learn a new language, UM,
Speaker 1: tell stories in a in a vertical format, UM, and
Speaker 1: I think most importantly, understand how to connect with with
Speaker 1: young people who may not be coming to the linear
Speaker 1: platform UM as as frequently as they once were, well,
Speaker 1: looking ahead, what are some of the things that you have,
Speaker 1: whether it's on TV or SNAP or anywhere, that you think,
Speaker 1: UH will be big. I heard a a certain classic
Speaker 1: E franchise, for instance, will be returning to TV. The
Speaker 1: E True Hollywood Story will be returning in ten to
Speaker 1: E were incredibly excited about it. Every why, every everything.
Speaker 1: I guess this is reboot culture and everything. Of course, everything,
Speaker 1: every every everything had its time and everything will have
Speaker 1: its time once again. I think, UH, I think is
Speaker 1: is the adage. UM. You know, for us, anytime we
Speaker 1: go out and we talk to our audience, UM, a
Speaker 1: couple of a couple of franchises always crop up in
Speaker 1: the conversation. UM. Each of Hollywood Story is one of them.
Speaker 1: It was a seminal UH brand definitional franchise for E
Speaker 1: UM in its heyday. UM, and that brand still is
Speaker 1: resonant inside our current and prospective audiences hearts and minds.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think we've also seen Netflix has
Speaker 1: done a terrific job with this. UM. We've seen UM.
Speaker 1: You know, audiences get really passionate about documentaries, UM and
Speaker 1: about documentary storytelling, and so UM our aim with the
Speaker 1: True Hollywood Story is to bring a documentarians lens to
Speaker 1: a franchise that you know, had applied a little bit
Speaker 1: on the sellasius, maybe a little bit on the uh.
Speaker 1: I call it like the you know, the overdose of
Speaker 1: the week, um and um, and really tell those definitive
Speaker 1: Hollywood stories, those true definitive Hollywood stories in a unique,
Speaker 1: fresh and and hopefully very high quality way. Well, I've
Speaker 1: always thought that this kind of storytelling that we saw
Speaker 1: from each true Hollywood story. And also I would say
Speaker 1: vach Ones behind the music, which how they have not
Speaker 1: rebooted that ten more times? I don't understand. Wait for it.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's coming. I mean these things I think
Speaker 1: would resonate also even on digital platforms. I mean, is
Speaker 1: there any thought to a franchise like that being more
Speaker 1: than just a show? Yeah? Anytime we uh we developed
Speaker 1: content today, we're thinking about it through a multi platform lens.
Speaker 1: UM not only because that's where audiences are consuming content,
Speaker 1: not just on linear platforms but on um actually they're
Speaker 1: no longer new and emergent, but on all these other
Speaker 1: platform platforms, be at Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and and the like.
Speaker 1: And so we've got to figure out how we build
Speaker 1: our principal quote unquote legacy business, which is still a
Speaker 1: sizeable and very vibrant business. But also, how do we
Speaker 1: take those franchises and those stories, just as we do
Speaker 1: with the news UM and tell them a cross platform
Speaker 1: UM in a in a unique and fresh way. And
Speaker 1: so you know, our goal ultimately with our stories UM
Speaker 1: is to create a deep and meaningful and rich relationship
Speaker 1: with our audience. And it's it would be naive of
Speaker 1: us and certainly limiting for us to think solely about
Speaker 1: the linear platform is the only way to do that.
Speaker 1: And so everything that we're doing back at the Amy
Speaker 1: and Turcaso Davis, who's our head of head of original content,
Speaker 1: she and her team were thinking about linear stories certainly,
Speaker 1: but also thinking about how do we how do we
Speaker 1: take those concepts, those ideas, those characters, those stories and
Speaker 1: utilize the rest of the ecosystem to to build them
Speaker 1: out into their fullest. Certainly can't let an interview with
Speaker 1: the president of EGO by without throwing out the K
Speaker 1: word Kardashian, Oh that Y word you've heard of her
Speaker 1: or the family. I should say, I'm just actually kind
Speaker 1: of want to status update. I mean, I would think
Speaker 1: that this show. This franchise has been so central to
Speaker 1: E for so long, which I think may even be
Speaker 1: a bit of a double edged sword. But do you
Speaker 1: see it as sort of primary and the E identity.
Speaker 1: As Ever, when we think about E and when we
Speaker 1: talk to audiences about E, they're they're really kind of
Speaker 1: three things that that crop up immediately top of mind.
Speaker 1: They think live from the Red Carpet, they think the News, UM,
Speaker 1: and they think Kardashians and UM, you know that kind
Speaker 1: of instant brand clarity, especially given the UM the size
Speaker 1: of the Kardashian ecosystem. UM, I think is a real
Speaker 1: we think it's a real strategic benefit. UM. We've had
Speaker 1: an eleven year partnership with them that's been incredibly successful
Speaker 1: and a very wild ride. UM. Chris Jenner says more
Speaker 1: often than I do, she certainly couldn't have scripted the
Speaker 1: stories that we've been able to tell together inside keeping
Speaker 1: up at the Kardashians. It's really kind of an amazing franchise.
Speaker 1: I happened to be the current custodian. I didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't originate the idea. I'm just the sort of
Speaker 1: current brand manager. UM. You know, they've got They've got
Speaker 1: incredible social social influence UM and social power as well
Speaker 1: as social reach over a billion followers across Facebook, Instagram, uh, YouTube,
Speaker 1: and Twitter. And that doesn't even count Snapchat. Kylie Jenner
Speaker 1: is really the queen of Snapchat. UM. And so that
Speaker 1: is an an invaluable marketing and promotional tool for us
Speaker 1: that the family has been incredibly gracious and gracious enough
Speaker 1: to deploy to the show's the show's benefit, um, And
Speaker 1: I think more than anything, they as a family have
Speaker 1: been incredibly open um with their with their story. UM.
Speaker 1: We seen you know, hilarity, We've seen challenging times, divorces, births, um,
Speaker 1: gender identity shifts, um, and and you know everything in between.
Speaker 1: And that kind of authentic storytelling, that kind of open
Speaker 1: and honest, documentarian kind of kind of story is really
Speaker 1: rare and so UM, we're we're ready willing and able
Speaker 1: to tell that story as long as they're ready willing
Speaker 1: and able to be open for it. And as an executive,
Speaker 1: as the brand manager, though in the Procter and Gamble
Speaker 1: sense of the word, how on earth do you maintain
Speaker 1: a sense of control over what seems maybe isn't but
Speaker 1: seems so uncontrollable, a lot of pepto bismol. I wonder
Speaker 1: for you, certainly, not for the faint of heart that
Speaker 1: that that's for sure. I think that you know, the
Speaker 1: good news is UM, from Chris Jenner to Kim all
Speaker 1: the all the way through the entire family. UM, they've
Speaker 1: been incredibly UM, collaborative partners really across the board. UM.
Speaker 1: And when there are sensitive issues that UM that the
Speaker 1: cameras capture because there's always on you know, we have
Speaker 1: those conversations about, UM, how we want to tell these stories.
Speaker 1: They're not only participants in the show, their executive producers
Speaker 1: and so they have a they have a say, and
Speaker 1: they have some influence. UM. But it isn't a one
Speaker 1: way street. UM. You know, they they they seek our perspective,
Speaker 1: they seek our opinion. UM. And I think that we
Speaker 1: collectively have had just a great partnership across the eleven
Speaker 1: year history. And UM, you know it's it's it's um,
Speaker 1: it's delivered so so far, so good. Well, I have
Speaker 1: but never never doll sure, well, I have no doubt
Speaker 1: they am a whole lot more going to keep things
Speaker 1: interesting that you for you, Aggie, for quite some time,
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming in and talking about thanks for having
Speaker 1: me any This has been another episode of Strictly Business.
Speaker 1: Tune in next we for another helping of scintillating conversation
Speaker 1: with media movers and shakers, and please make sure you
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