Shonda Rhimes’ ShondaLand

28 Pages·2019·2.373 MB·English

by  Anita Elberse, Henry McGee

9-516-026
REV: JUNE 6, 2019
ANITA ELBERSE
HENRY MCGEE
Shonda Rhimes’ ShondaLand
In late January 2015, Shonda Rhimes, by many accounts the most powerful woman in American
television, was in the midst of yet another thirteen-hour working day. Rhimes—who favored the job
title of ‘television creator’ over the more conventional label of ‘showrunner’—was the force behind the
hit shows Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder (hereafter ‘Murder’), which were
all produced under the banner of Rhimes’ production company ShondaLand.
In the fall of 2014, major broadcast network ABC had famously handed Rhimes the reins to what
was traditionally television’s most competitive—and most lucrative—night. Every Thursday, viewers
could feast on ShondaLand shows for three hours straight: the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy (Rhimes’
first television series, now in its eleventh season) at 8 PM, the political thriller Scandal (in its fourth
season) at 9 PM, and the debut series Murder at 10 PM (see Exhibit 1). Rhimes was the creator, head
writer and an executive producer of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, and an executive producer of Murder.
ABC’s unprecedented move to give an entire night to ShondaLand was a remarkable success for
Rhimes and her producing partner Betsy Beers, who worked in adjoining offices at Hollywood’s Sunset
Gower Studios. In a time when broadcast networks were struggling to hold on to audiences and
advertisers alike, the ABC network’s parent company Disney was making a significant bet on Rhimes,
who stood out for often casting women and minorities in key roles. (“I wish it wasn’t so unusual that I
want television to look like America,” she remarked.) Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal alone pulled in an
estimated $300 million in advertising annually for the ABC network. Moreover, ShondaLand had an
ongoing production deal with ABC Studios, Disney’s television production arm.
Although not all ShondaLand shows were successful—the last ShondaLand series not written by
Rhimes, the 2011 medical drama Off the Map, lasted only a season—Murder had so far lived up to the
hype. Since making its debut in September 2014, the show had drawn ten million viewers weekly,
placing it squarely in the top 25 of most-watched shows, where it was vying with Scandal for the title
of top drama on broadcast television.
Yet, on the eve of Scandal and Murder’s winter premieres, Rhimes was not resting on her laurels.
“As far as I am concerned, I’m just getting started,” she said. As she plotted the future, one challenge
she faced was to, as she put it, “solve the problem of writing and producing serialized dramas for
broadcast network television.” Pointing to the grueling schedule that fueled inefficiencies and could
hurt the quality of shows, she added: “I am in this odd position of having an entire night of television,
so I am probably one of the few people who could march to the network and say, ‘Here’s what we are
going to do.’” What changes, she wondered, could she propose to ABC to make the creative process
more manageable?
Professor Anita Elberse and Senior Lecturer Henry McGee prepared this case. D’Joy Falaye and Adia Matthews (HBS Class of 2015) provided
valuable research assistance. The case was reviewed and approved before publication by a company designate. Funding for the development of
this case was provided by Harvard Business School and not by the company. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases
are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management.
Copyright © 2015, 2016, 2019 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-
545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to www.hbsp.harvard.edu. This publication may not be digitized,
photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School.
516-026 Shonda Rhimes’ ShondaLand
A second challenge was figuring out how to further expand ShondaLand. “I’d love to help our best
writers eventually land their own shows,” she said, adding, “We keep pitching other ideas to ABC, and
they are keen to hear them. But we could also think about other destinations for our series.” How could
Rhimes and Beers best build their portfolio and, drawing on Rhimes’ talent and growing star status,
further cement ShondaLand’s place in television history?
The Television Industry
Overview
By 2015, the television industry generated revenues well over $170 billion annually.1 Watching
television was a popular activity: the average American adult watched around five hours of (live and
time-shifted) television a day.2 Of the more than 115 million U.S. households3 with television sets, the
lion’s share received television programming through either a cable or satellite provider, which in
return for a monthly payment gave these households access to dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of
broadcast and cable television networks. Increasingly, people also watched programming via the
Internet, through online video services. A small set of major television studios (which were all owned
by major media conglomerates) as well as a larger group of smaller, independent production
companies in turn supplied these programs to the networks and online services.
Television Networks and Online Services
There were three types of television networks in the U.S.: broadcast networks such as ABC and CBS
which primarily relied on advertising sales, basic cable networks such as TNT and USA Network which
depended on a combination of advertising sales and fees paid by the cable operators, and premium cable
networks such as HBO and Showtime which generated income through license fees paid by cable
operators as well as monthly subscription fees paid by viewers.
Four English-language national television networks dominated the broadcast segment, which
generated close to $40 billion in revenues: ABC (owned by The Walt Disney Company), CBS (owned
by CBS Corporation), FOX (owned by 21st Century Fox), and NBC (owned by Comcast Corporation)
(see Exhibit 2 for viewership information). The broadcast networks traditionally relied on television
stations (e.g., WCVB in Boston, which carried the ABC network) to reach viewers in local markets.
Some were owned by the networks with which they were associated, while most were ‘affiliated’
stations that were owned by another party. While the networks relied on the sales of national
advertising spots, the stations kept the revenues from local spots.
ABC, CBS, and NBC provided their stations three prime-time hours of programming (from 8 PM to
11 PM) each weekday and Sunday, while FOX programmed one hour less each weekday. During the
day, the stations showed ‘syndicated’ programs, which were either original ‘first-run’ shows or ‘off-
network’ programs that had previously aired on another network. Affiliates typically aired their local
news shows immediately after the network programming ended. “Our affiliates are very dependent
on the lead-in that we give them at 11 PM,” explained ABC Entertainment Group’s president Paul Lee.
Syndicated content also formed a large share of the programming on cable networks—the cable
channel Lifetime, for instance, frequently aired reruns of Grey’s Anatomy.
Advertising rates, measured by the ‘cost per thousand’ viewers (‘CPM’), primarily reflected a
station’s audience size, but also depended on factors such as the demographic characteristics of the
audience (as younger audiences were more sought after) and other competitive considerations. In 2014,
one hour of broadcast television saw around 16 minutes of advertisements. Each year in May, the
networks sold the lion’s share of their advertising time in the days and weeks after presenting their
primetime schedules at a market called the ‘upfronts’—in 2014, the broadcast networks together sold
$10 billion of advertising at this market for the 2014-2015 season.4 Advertisers paid around $220,000
2
Shonda Rhimes’ ShondaLand 516-026
for a 30-second spot on Scandal (making it one of the ten costliest shows), and closer to $150,000 for
both Grey’s Anatomy and Murder. (Advertisers paid most for time during National Football League
games: each 30-second spot cost over $600,000 during NBC’s Sunday Night Football, and close to
$500,000 during CBS’s Thursday Night Football).5 Any remaining advertising time was sold throughout
the year in the ‘scatter market.’
Technological advances had brought many changes to the television sector. One was the rising
popularity of digital video recorders (DVRs), which gave viewers the option to delay viewing and skip
advertisements. Another was the rapid ascent of online video services such as Amazon and Netflix,
which gave subscribers a wealth of on-demand programming, triggering a phenomenon called ‘binge
viewing’ whereby viewers watched a large number of episodes in one go. With close to 60 million
subscribers worldwide,6 Netflix was in a position to make significant investments in both original
content (introducing series such as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black) and content that had
previously aired on network television. Hulu, a service co-owned by ABC, FOX and NBC, also
competed for online video subscribers—it, too, showed both original and second-run content.
ABC the network. Ranked third in overall viewership in the 2013-2014 season behind CBS and
NBC, ABC was one of America’s major broadcast networks (also see Exhibit 2). For the current season,
it had placed its bets on a mix of non-scripted content (most notably Dancing with the Stars on Monday
and Shark Tank on Friday), half-hour comedy shows (where it had particularly high hopes for Modern
Family, now in its sixth season, and the new series Black-ish, both on Wednesday)—and one-hour
dramas such as Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and Murder, especially on Thursday (see Exhibit 3 for ABC’s
Fall 2014 schedule).
“Over the last five years we have been buildings nights,” said Lee. “And we have an overall brand,
which we articulate as ‘smart with heart.’ That coincides very clearly with Shonda’s brand.” Thursday
night programming, now entirely dominated by ShondaLand shows, was marketed with the ‘Thank
God It’s Thursday’ slogan. “It has become a big cultural phenomenon,” said Lee, pointing among other
things to how viewers had made the term their own on social media. “We really created a conversation,
and built ‘appointment television’ at a time when that hardly exists anymore.”
Television Studios
The television networks licensed most of their programming from the major television studios, such
as ABC Studios (owned by Disney), CBS Television Studios (owned by CBS Corp.), and NBCUniversal
Television (owned by Comcast). The networks typically acquired content both from the studio that
belonged to the same parent company (e.g., ABC licensed Grey’s Anatomy from ABC Studios) and from
rival studios (e.g., ABC licensed Modern Family from 20th Century Fox Television, a subsidiary of 21st
Century Fox).
Studios and networks often made deals under a ‘deficit financing’ model, whereby the network
paid the studio a license fee in exchange for the right to air a series that covered only part—usually
between 60% and 80%—of the cost to produce the series. Such financing deals gave the network the
rights to the ‘first window’ for a limited amount of time in the domestic market, while the studio
retained ownership of the series and could sell the rights for subsequent revenue ‘windows’ (such as
video on demand, home video, and syndication) and foreign territories. Because scripted series could
take several millions of dollars per episode to produce, studios faced strong pressure to recoup the
deficit quickly. Yet a series often did not go into syndication—potentially the most lucrative window—
until it had accumulated a hundred episodes, a milestone which only a small number of shows ever
reached. Moreover, home video revenues (e.g., from DVD sales) were not what they once were.
Fortunately, digital streaming revenues generated by services such as Amazon and Netflix had grown
significantly in recent years.
3
516-026 Shonda Rhimes’ ShondaLand
ABC Studios. Disney’s television studio, ABC Studios, had close to twenty productions on air
as of January 2015 (see Exhibit 4). Channing Dungey, now ABC network’s executive vice president of
programming but previously a senior vice president at ABC Studios, estimated the average production
costs of ABC Studios’ one-hour dramas to be “around $3 million per episode.” Sometimes, the studio
collaborated with other large studios: the CBS network’s hit Criminal Minds, for instance, was a co-
production between ABC Studios and CBS Television Studios. But many more productions were the
result of collaborations with independent production companies. “ABC Studios has eight to ten bigger
deals with writers such as Shonda who have their own company,” said Dungey. “And the studio has
a dozen smaller deals with individual writers. That’s pretty typical.”
Independent Production Companies
Quite a few of television’s biggest hits were created by small companies with at most a few dozen
employees that were led by a ‘showrunner’ or executive producer who was responsible for the day-to-
day operation of a television series. Rather than being owned by a large media conglomerate, such
independent production companies usually had ‘first-look deals’ with television studios that gave
those studios the right to make an offer on new material before competing studios would get to see it.
“The success of any studio is dependent on the base of showrunners it has deals with,” said Dungey.
“When you have an overall deal with a studio, they are agreeing to pay for your office space, your
staff, and a number of other things,” she noted. “And then there is an unspoken commitment that they
will buy a certain amount of projects for you to develop over the course of your contract with them.
The bigger producers will develop anywhere between six and twelve projects every year. Shondaland
brings us three to six projects each season.” Once ideas were picked up by a network and taken into
production, the studio paid the ongoing production costs. All expenses were recoupable against any
revenues generated by the show, which the studio in turn shared with its production partner based on
an agreed-upon split.
In addition to Rhimes, several showrunners had carved out an elite status in the business in 2015
by creating multiple hit shows (see Exhibit 5 for selected examples). Among those hit makers were JJ
Abrams with successes such as Felicity, Alias, and Lost; Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer behind the
juggernaut CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and various spin-offs such as CSI: Miami and CSI: NY; the duo
Brian Grazer and Ron Howard with Arrested Development and 24; and Chuck Lorre, with the hit
comedies Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. Some specialized in certain formats, be they
procedurals (in which every episode was a self-contained story), serialized dramas or sitcoms, whereas
others were generalists. Some (like Rhimes and Lorre) were writers, whereas others (like Bruckheimer
and Grazer) were producers who recruited writers. And some (such as Abrams and Bruckheimer)
regularly produced films whereas others focused almost entirely on television.
ShondaLand
Born in 1970 in the suburbs of Chicago, Rhimes studied English and creative writing at Dartmouth
College.7 “I wanted to be Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison. That was my dream,” she stated.8
Rhimes subsequently worked at an advertising agency before enrolling in the screenwriting master’s
program at the University of California’s School of Cinematic Arts.9
She completed a series of assistant jobs at various production companies before writing and selling
a script called Human Seeking Same.10 Although it was never made into a film, the script led to a string
of writing jobs for Rhimes, including the biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, which told the story of
the singer and actress Dorothy Dandridge, the first African American woman to receive an Academy
Award nomination. Starring Halle Berry and made for nearly $10 million, the movie aired on HBO in
1999. Another of Rhimes’ early writing credits was the comedy Crossroads, a story about three girls
embarking on a cross-country road trip after graduating from high school. Featuring pop singer Britney
4
Shonda Rhimes’ ShondaLand 516-026
Spears in one of the main roles and made on a $12 million budget, the 2002 film garnered mixed critical
reviews but grossed more than $60 million at the box office globally.11 Rhimes also wrote the screenplay
for the sequel in a popular Disney franchise, The Princess Diaries, starring Anne Hathaway as a young
princess looking for a husband. Produced for $40 million, the movie grossed $135 million in revenues
worldwide.12
It was not until 2002 that Rhimes developed an interest in writing television series. She soon teamed
up with Beers, who was then working with Mark Gordon at his production company. Gordon shared
an agency with Rhimes. “We all decided we wanted to get into television, and we both independently
made deals at ABC studios—we as producers and she as a writer,” recalled Beers. “An ABC executive
encouraged us to meet. And as soon as we did, we really connected—we had a similar sensibility. We
decided pretty rapidly that it would be fun to try to develop a television show together. So when ABC
was looking to assign Shonda to a producer, she said ‘I want Mark and Betsy.’”
A First Hit in 2005 with Grey’s Anatomy
For their first project together, the duo pitched an idea for a show about female war correspondents.
The network decided not to take it into production. “[Then president of the ABC network] Bob Iger did
not like it,” said Rhimes, who did not wait long to try again. “I thought, ‘What does Iger want?’ I asked
that question specifically and somebody said that Iger wanted a medical show. I thought, ‘Well then
I’m going to write a medical show.’” Beers added: “Every year everybody is interested in a medical
show—this is not like it was big news.” Nevertheless, the duo took up the challenge, and Grey’s
Anatomy was born. “My show on war correspondents was about women who drank a lot and had a lot
of fun and a lot of sex while they cover the wars,” Rhimes said. “And so I decided to write a medical
show about women who had a lot of fun and drank a lot and had a lot of sex while they do surgery.”
“Shonda had almost gone to medical school, and was really interested in the idea of surgeons. I had
no idea how medicine works, and was really interested in the idea that somebody could explain to me
what the hell is going on,” said Beers. “And so she said, ‘Well, what if we told it from the point of view
of interns?’” Beers continued: “We spent a fair amount of time talking about characters and situations.
The things we loved, and the things we didn’t love. We both knew that we wanted to tell a story about
us—create a show that reflected the world we lived in, where women could be friends and competitors.
Two weeks later, she handed me this pitch and it was perfect.” Beers and Rhimes sold their pitch to
ABC Studios, which then sold it to ABC network. Rhimes set about writing the script for the first
episode (‘the pilot’), which the network subsequently picked up to shoot.
Starring Ellen Pompeo and Sandra Oh, Grey’s Anatomy told the story of Meredith Grey, her best
friend Christina Yang, and a small group of other surgical interns trying to manage their careers and
personal lives, confronting countless obstacles and dramatic plot twists along the way. The show stood
out for its racially diverse cast and strong female leads (see Exhibit 6 for impressions).13 “Our lives are
filled with different people, and we approached casting in the same way,” stated Beers.
At ABC, reactions to the pilot were mixed, recalled Rhimes: “All the junior network executives
loved the show, and all the older executives were not so sure. They didn’t think it made any sense.”
The network tested the pilot among a small group of potential viewers. ”Betsy and I had never made
television before, so we were new to this. You sit on one side of the glass and the viewers sit on the
other side, and there is a television in between. As they are watching what is on the television, you are
watching how they respond to it. There is a dial screen that goes up or down depending on how much
they like what they see,” said Rhimes. “Well, the dials just went up and up. And we were like, ‘Is that
good?’ The studio and network executives were completely silent—they had never seen a show test so
well before.”
ABC’s executives picked up the show for the 2004-2005 season, but selected a mid-season airdate
that was generally reserved for less promising shows. “Grey’s began in March because we were the
5
516-026 Shonda Rhimes’ ShondaLand
show they thought nobody was going to watch,” said Rhimes. Once those dates were set, Rhimes was
faced with the task of creating eight more episodes. “I went from writing movies by myself in my
pajamas to working with hundreds of people who were now looking at me saying, ‘What do we do?
How do we do it?’ Every week I had a budget of several million dollars.” But Rhimes rose to the
challenge. “I think the single thing that saved me was that I behaved like someone who couldn’t be
fired. I thought, ‘I’m the only person who knows what happens. So I was fearless.”
The show quickly found an audience. By the end of its first season, Grey’s Anatomy was ranked ninth
among the year’s most viewed programs, boasting an average of 18.5 million viewers. It did even better
among the coveted demographic of 18-to-49-year olds, ranking fifth (see Exhibit 7). In the ensuing
years, it remained one of ABC’s biggest hit shows. By season ten, Grey’s Anatomy was again ranked
fifth among younger audiences—and in fact the top-ranked one-hour show among that age group—
and remained in the top fifteen overall. “The advertising dollars that Grey’s earns in its eleventh season
are higher than some of ABC’s other nights all together,” said Rhimes. “The show could run forever as
far as the network is concerned.” The show also had an undeniable impact on popular culture. It
introduced terms such as ‘McDreamy’ and ‘McSteamy,’ nicknames for two especially handsome
surgeons, as well as ‘vajayjay,’ a word coined because ‘vagina’ could not be used on broadcast network
television. The show further triggered the launch of a Grey’s Anatomy line of medical scrubs, a video
game, and even a Colombian version entitled A Corazón Abierto.
A Spin-Off in 2007: Private Practice
A spin-off from Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice revolved around the life and career of Addison
Montgomery, a character played by Kate Walsh who left Grey’s Anatomy’s Seattle Grace Hospital to
work at a private wellness center in Los Angeles. “The network kept asking me for a spin-off,” said
Rhimes. “And Private Practice was essentially reverse engineered. I got to choose one of the actors from
Grey’s I really liked and pick all of these other actors who were some of the most acclaimed actors on
television, and then figure out what the show was going to be about.”
The series premiered on September 26, 2007 with a nine-episode season. While Private Practice could
not match Grey’s Anatomy’s ratings, the new series delivered solid ratings, averaging nearly eleven
million viewers per episode and ranking 36th overall. That same year, the Writers Guild of America,
seeking higher compensation for media writers, called for a strike among the laborers in its union.14 “It
was terrible for the industry, but the strike was one of the greatest things that ever happened to me. I
was so tired, and making the shows was incredibly difficult. Now I was given a huge break. I got to
rest for four months and think,” explained Rhimes. “By the time we came back, I knew exactly what
was going to happen on the show. I had a plan. I was invested in the characters and I was in love with
the show.”
The series ran for six seasons and well over a hundred episodes, before it finally ended in January
2013. “By season six, I knew it was time,” Rhimes stated. “It had reached a certain point, and Kate
Walsh had played this character for so long. We were ready to move on.”
Going Off the Map in 2011
When Private Practice was still on the air, Jenna Bans, one of the writers on Grey’s Anatomy, set out
to create her own series, Off the Map. It followed a group of seven doctors at a medical clinic in the
South American jungle. While Rhimes and Beers served as executive producers, the series marked the
first time in ShondaLand’s history in which Rhimes was not a creator or writer herself. “We call it a
ShondaLand show but not a Shonda show,” she said. “This was Jenna’s show.”
Off the Map averaged 6.4 million viewers per episode, which was a ratings improvement for ABC,
as the network had been struggling with the Wednesday 10 PM timeslot.15 (The previous season, it
only averaged 4.4 million viewers at that time.) Yet, ABC canceled Off the Map after its first year. “Jenna,
6
Shonda Rhimes’ ShondaLand 516-026
who continues to write for us, will probably forever remain bitter about it. The show was rated higher
than most of the shows that surrounded it,” said Rhimes. “But the network felt they had another show
that was going to be even better.”
A New Hit with Scandal in 2012
ShondaLand’s next big hit started with a meeting with Judy Smith, a former White House aide and
crisis manager. “I found her through my agent,” said Beers. “After I did some research, I thought ‘This
is a show, and it is totally Shonda.’ So I went to her and said ‘You’ve got to meet this woman.” Rhimes
remembered: “I was like, ‘I don’t have time.’ But I met with her, and even though it was only supposed
to be for fifteen minutes, we ended up talking for three to four hours. She is this real-life Washington
fixer. Our conversation sparked amazing ideas, and I could see a hundred episodes.” Rhimes added:
“It was in the back of my head for a year—I just didn’t have the time because I was doing Grey’s and
Private Practice. But once I could get away for a weekend to Mexico, I wrote the pilot for Scandal in two
days, turned it in, and ABC picked it up the next day.”
The result was a show that told the story of Olivia Pope, a crisis manager who handled serious
political scandals all while having an affair with the married President of the United States, Fitzgerald
Grant. The series, full of kidnappings, assassinations, and oval-office love scenes, starred Kerry
Washington as Pope and Tony Goldwyn as Grant. “What was lovely about making Scandal was that I
got to bring all of my experience to this show, in terms of casting, writing, picking the crew, producing,
and everything else,” Rhimes said. “It was just a much more fun experience because I knew what I was
doing.” The creative concept itself was new, noted Lee: “Grey’s and Scandal are very different portrayals
of empowered, complex women and the worlds they live in. They reflect very different Shondas.”
Launched in April 2012 with seven episodes, Scandal started out with modest ratings. But by season
three, the series was ranked 16th overall, pulling in twelve million viewers each week, and ranked
eighth among audiences aged between 18 and 49 years. The show stood out for its popularity on social
networks. By late 2014, for instance, Scandal averaged around 350,000 tweets per episode, more than
any other show.16 Borrowing a term frequently used on the show, fans referred to themselves as
‘gladiators.’ Rhimes and her cast members were very active on Twitter even during shows, sharing
memorable moments and interacting with fans. “Serialized shows have become much hotter in a world
of social media and binge viewing,” said Lee. Scandal merchandising—ranging from a clothing line
based on Pope’s wardrobe to the wine glasses she used—also was very popular.17 “We never set out
to create a pop culture phenomenon,” said Rhimes. “It’s a large part of the show’s success but it’s never
the goal. We just started the concept of live-tweeting our shows because we wanted to get people
excited about watching our show.”
Launching How to Get Away with Murder in 2014
The most recent ShondaLand show to make it on the air, How to Get Away with Murder, was created
by Pete Nowalk. “Pete came to ShondaLand in 2007 and he started out as a writer on Grey’s and
Scandal,” said Beers. “After working with us for so many years, we knew he was ready.” Rhimes
chimed in: “When it is time, we ask our writers whether they want to develop. If they say ‘yes,’ we can
give them a little extra time out of the writers’ room.” She added: “He had earlier had an idea for a
show about an FBI agent. I thought it was incredible, and the NBC network bought the idea but they
ultimately felt it was too dark so they passed on shooting a pilot. When he came with the idea for
[Murder], we said ‘This is so amazing. We’re going to ABC.’”
Murder focused on Annalise Keating, a criminal defense lawyer and law professor at a prestigious
university, who enlists her best students to work at her law firm. Those same students find themselves
accidentally involved in a murder scheme of their own. “Pete pitched the idea to us, and he is a really
good storyteller—we knew him from his work on Grey’s and Scandal,” recalled Dungey. “We were all
leaning in. By the time he got to the end, we all wondered what happened with the dead body. All he
7
516-026 Shonda Rhimes’ ShondaLand
said was ‘You have to buy the project, and then we’ll tell you.’” The ABC network bought the pitch,
liked his script, and agreed to produce a pilot. “Pete comes from the ShondaLand family. You will see
similarities between Shonda and his writing, but he definitely has a vision of his own,” said Beers, who
along with Rhimes served as executive producer on Murder. “When the show was in development, I
tried to sit as silently as possible because Pete is the one that has to do it. Creatively, it has to be his
show,” Rhimes explained. “But he knew he could always ask me for help.”
“Things got really interesting when we started casting, because whoever played Keating was going
to determine how the show played out,” Rhimes recalled. “We all really loved Viola Davis. She is
incredible. But I heard that she was not doing television. And why would she? She had done the movie
The Help [for which she received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination] and was on everyone’s
list in Hollywood. Pete kept saying that he loved her, and so we decided to just ask Viola. She read the
script, loved it, and said ‘Let’s talk.’ Two days later, she was ready to take on the role.”
When Nowalk and his colleagues were busy preparing the first season of shows, ABC executives
assigned Murder the 10 PM slot on Thursday, moving Grey’s Anatomy from 9 PM to 8 PM, and Scandal
from 10 PM to 9 PM. “We had no idea that would happen when we pitched the show,” said Beers. “We
were just hoping for a pilot order.” Billed in the show’s marketing materials as being “From the
Executive Producers of Scandal,” the series debuted on September 25, 2014 with 14 million viewers—
more than Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, which were also starting new seasons that day (see Exhibit 7).
By the end of the fall season, the series continued to pull in close to 10 million viewers, making it one
of the top performers that season.
ShondaLand in 2015
By early 2015, ShondaLand was producing over 60 episodes each season (see Exhibit 8). The
production budget for one episode of Grey’s Anatomy had risen to $4.8 million. “It’s a behemoth,” said
Rhimes. “It has a bigger budget than almost any show in town.” The budget for one episode of Scandal
or Murder was closer to $3.2 million.
ShondaLand itself had fewer than a dozen employees. “Shonda and I each have two assistants,”
said Beers. “And we have two development executives, one person who manages social media and
ancillary marketing, and one other assistant.” But a total of 550 people, employed by ABC Studios,
worked as cast and crew on the company’s three shows on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis. “Every
show has a line producer and an executive producer. They report to Shonda and me, and the cast and
crew report to them.”
Describing the division of labor between Beers and herself, Rhimes said: “I do all the creative stuff.
I deal with the writers, directors, actors, and editors. Betsy deals with the agents, executives, and line
producers. She also works a lot on development with our writers, finds new writers, and does network
and studio meetings.” Beers added: “I basically do anything the showrunner does not have the time,
capacity, or interest to do.” Rhimes gave one example of how their roles could overlap: “We both love
music, so Betsy does music on some of the shows and I do them on the others.”
Rhimes and ShondaLand had a first-look deal with ABC Studios. Renegotiated in May 2014 after
Rhimes and Beers also engaged in conversations with other studios, the agreement gave Rhimes the
freedom to choose what networks she wanted to pitch her ideas to. “I am tied to ABC Studios, whatever
I do. Right now, the ABC network buys everything that I write, but I am not tied to them,” she
explained. “I wanted to make sure I had the opportunity to say to the network, ‘this is not for you,’ and
go someplace else—perhaps HBO or Netflix.”
8
Shonda Rhimes’ ShondaLand 516-026
Making ‘Thank God It’s Thursday’ Television
Managing the Calendar
The process of bringing new series to broadcast television was highly structured. “At ABC and the
other broadcast networks, the year is divided into four periods,” explained Dungey.
“The pitching season runs from July to the end of October. During that period my staff and I might
hear five hundred ideas from show creators and read lots of scripts. We buy an average of sixty ideas.”
The next step was developing those ideas, which took place from November until January. Here, show
creators were typically first asked to produce what Dungey called a “story document,” and described
as “a two-to-three-pages-long document that described the principal characters and the broad strokes
of the story idea,” then a more detailed outline that provided a scene-by-scene description of the pilot
episode, and eventually a full script for that first episode. Throughout the process, both the network
and studio provided feedback (or, in industry jargon, ‘gave notes’) to the writers. “My notes become
more detailed with each subsequent phase,” said Dungey. Of the sixty projects selected for script
development, ABC’s executives typically ordered twelve to be produced into pilot episodes, paying a
license fee to the studio.
The networks ordered pilots in January, and saw the studios shoot and deliver those pilots by late
April. “We make our selections in time for our presentations at the upfront market in May, where we
reveal our upcoming season to advertisers,” said Dungey, who indicated that in a typical year they
selected roughly half of the pilots to be turned into series and air on the network. “My boss jokingly
calls me the ‘train conductor’ because I am always reminding him that the upfront date is coming up,”
said Dungey. “Like it or not, we have to have series to show the advertisers, and we are not going to
have shows if we don’t get them ordered.” Next, staffing became the main focus for the studio. “It is
about putting together the team of writers, directors, actors, and other crew members on the shows
that have been ordered” said Dungey. ABC and other networks debuted the majority of new (and
returning) series on the air in late September. “The only reason that happens is because General Motors
used to launch new cars in that period, and they paid the most money for advertisements,” noted
Rhimes.
Dungey and her team of development executives stayed on board to support the showrunner for a
new show’s first seven episodes. “We work on episodes two through seven with the ‘current
programming’ division, who take over after that,” she said. “The analogy I often use is that we build
the boat, meaning we make the pilot, and then we put it in the water to see if it floats, which is
equivalent to screening it. If it does, we spend some time getting the boat out of the harbor and into the
open ocean. Once it is there, the current-programming team sails away with it, while we go back to
build more boats.”
The goal for the main broadcast networks was to have enough programming to fill 35 weeks from
late September to late May, a period they saw as the main television season. (The networks approached
summer and holiday programming quite differently, and for instance heard pitches for those shows
year-round). “Back in the day, showrunners would deliver 32 or more episodes of a series to us each
season,” said Lee, who had the ultimate responsibility for the ABC network’s schedule. “Now, most
series consist of 22 to 24 episodes a year. Our ability to sustain viewership numbers throughout the
year with our serialized dramas is very important, particularly in a fragmented marketplace.” Dungey
agreed: “We are beholden to the calendar. In a perfect world we would have new programming 35
times out of the 35 weeks.” Comparing broadcast and cable networks, she noted, “ABC, CBS and NBC
need shows from 8 PM to 11 PM every night. Cable networks program far fewer hours. AMC, for
example, only has new shows on Sunday nights.”
9
516-026 Shonda Rhimes’ ShondaLand
Writing, Shooting, and Editing Episodes
At ShondaLand, writing duties were divided among teams of a dozen or more writers per show.
Each writer typically was responsible for one or two episodes in a season (also see Exhibit 8), but they
closely collaborated throughout the year. “Because our shows are serialized dramas, everybody in the
writers’ room has to know what the other person is doing. They are building on each other’s work,”
said Rhimes. She wrote one or more episodes herself and, as the show’s creator, also gave general
direction on story lines and scripts. “Nobody’s writing anything without her approving it,” said
Dungey, “But she’s not the person putting pen to paper for all those episodes.”
The production of ShondaLand shows followed a tight schedule, explained Rhimes: “Eight days
before an episode starts shooting, our crew begins to prep it. This means that the director of the episode
arrives, and the production team decides on locations, they build whatever sets they need, they settle
on costumes, and they figure out how they are going to shoot the episode. Hopefully we have the final
script by then—that makes it all much easier. On the last day of prep, we have a ‘table read,’ where we
sit with the actors and read the script, and where the writers can make any last changes they want to
make.” She continued: “And then there are eight days of shooting. The day the crew wrap shooting,
they start prepping the next episode. And that same day, post-production begins. The editors will have
been editing the footage they get during those eight days of shooting, and so on the last day of shooting,
the director sits with the editor and they put the show together. Then it goes on the air.”
Overruns were costly. “For every extra day you are shooting, you have to overlap on activities,
which means you have to bring in a whole second crew to start shooting the next episode while you
are still shooting the current one. If you do weekend shootings, you have to pay overtime. And if you
shoot longer, the post-production people have less time to do their job, which means you are pushing
them into overtime, for which you also have to pay a penalty,” explained Rhimes. “The studio and the
network might ask, ‘Can’t we just throw money at the problem?,’ but you can reach a point where you
are so far behind that throwing money is not going to help—it just is not going to get on the air on time.
It is time—not money—that we need.”
The Problem of Serialized Dramas on Broadcast Networks
Describing the pace for the writers’ room as “brutal,” Rhimes explained the problem: “Every eight
days, a new script has to hit someone’s desk so we can keep going. It is like a train that keeps coming.
The writers are laying the track, and they cannot stop doing so, because there is no way to stop the
train. But it’s almost impossible to have that amount of scripts coming at that pace and still be effective.”
She continued: “If I had fifteen days to write a script instead of eight, I had the time to make it perfect
and I would be very efficient.”
“Take the Scandal episode that is going to air on January 29: I had a break to write it during the
hiatus, and we ended up using each of the 45 scenes we shot when we got into the editing room. It’s
exactly what it is supposed to be,” she said. “But for the next episode we were back to the usual tight
schedule, and we ended up shooting 63 scenes over twelve days, and doing a number of reshoots.”
Rhimes rued the consequences: “It’s a waste. When you’re moving at such a swift pace, you don’t have
time to think. So you say to yourself, ‘I’m going to put it all in there, just in case.’”
The tempo was particularly grueling for Rhimes herself, noted Dungey. “She could be involved in
casting on episode seven, in pre-production on episode five, in production on episode four, editing
episode three—all at the same time. And hundreds of people are waiting on what is coming from her
so they can do their jobs. Everyone, from the line producer to the production and costume designer, is
waiting for the showrunner to tell them what to do.”
10