BREAKING: ABC Chief Paul Lee Forced Out, Channing Dungey Named Entertaiment President

[TVSCREEN2015]

LOS ANGELES — ABC’s entertainment president, Paul Lee, who found hits like “How to Get Away With Murder” and led an industry push toward more diverse casting, resigned on Wednesday after losing a struggle over the network’s direction with a higher-ranking executive.

Mr. Lee’s departure was orchestrated by Ben Sherwood, chairman of the Disney-ABC Television Group, who became Mr. Lee’s boss early last year. Mr. Sherwood, who disagreed with Mr. Lee over programming choices and future strategy, has used ABC’s soft standing in the overall ratings race to make a case inside Disney for a management shake-up at the network.

ABC announced that Mr. Lee would be replaced by Channing Dungey, who becomes the first black president of a major broadcast network. Ms. Dungey has been the network’s executive vice president for drama development, movies and mini-series, where she was closely involved with shows like “Scandal” and “American Crime.”

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In addition to overseeing ABC’s prime-time schedule, Mr. Lee was also in charge of the network’s sister production studio, ABC Studios. Patrick Moran, an ABC executive vice president, will now step into that role and report to Mr. Sherwood, the network announced.

“Leading ABC has been a fantastic experience,” Mr. Lee said in a statement. “I’m especially proud of the incredible team I built and the strategic, creative vision we established and successfully executed for both the network and studio.”

Mr. Lee and Mr. Sherwood have repeatedly clashed over control of ABC’s creative pipeline. Mr. Sherwood, whose background is in television news, wanted to be more involved in ABC’s affairs than Mr. Lee allowed. Mr. Sherwood also wanted ABC to focus more on CBS-style procedural crime series like “N.C.I.S.,” while Mr. Lee continued to back serialized dramas like “Scandal” and “American Crime.”

While the Oxford-educated Mr. Lee consistently found new hits, including the comedy “Black-ish” and the drama “Quantico,” he had a difficult time finding a ratings success of the caliber of Fox’s “Empire,” one with the power to drastically improve the network’s overall standing.

Among the big four broadcast networks, ABC ranks third among total viewers and last among adults ages 18 to 49 — a demographic that advertisers pay a premium to reach — for the season that started in September, according to Nielsen data.

For the most recent quarter, Disney’s broadcasting division, which includes ABC and a chain of eight local television stations, had operating income of $223 million, a 7 percent decline from a year earlier, as higher programming costs and a loss related to Hulu offset higher advertising sales.

Mr. Lee’s departure comes as ABC prepares to introduce several new series, including “The Catch,” another drama from Shonda Rhimes, who is responsible for “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder,” as well as a promising comedy called “The Real O’Neals,” about a Catholic family that stops pretending to be perfect and embraces its uniqueness.

ABC is also hurtling toward the television industry’s traditional pilot season, when starter episodes of potential new series are made.

Mr. Lee became president of the ABC Entertainment Group in July 2010 after a successful tenure as the overseer of ABC Family, a cable channel that was recently renamed Freeform. Born in Britain, Mr. Lee previously served in top jobs at the BBC.

http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/paul...od-1201708371/

[TMC]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bas...ra-ends-866937

Dungey, who today became the first black president of a major network, steps into a “no-win job,” says Tim Goodman. He adds: "That’s because it’s almost impossible in this Peak TV environment where an excess of (often very good) scripted material from an excess of outlets has watered down the overall viewing numbers in a way that makes almost no financial sense for big-tent broadcast networks.” PLUS: What went wrong for ousted ABC Entertainment president Paul Lee?, and is this a sign that creative TV is bad business?

[Cyrax]

Wonder if the bridge shows/long breaks concept is going to end now.

Plus is she going to clean house by cancelling Castle, The Muppets, Agent Carter, Nashville & Galavant?

[ILuvCarolBurnett]

I will have tremendous respect for her if the first thing she does is cancel "Black-ish" what an offensive show.

[bh7812]

I'm really not surprised at all with this news. If anything about it surprises me it's that it didn't happen a year or two ago. When Mr. Lee got the job he was making lots of good decisions during the first part of his time there. Then it all just went....down the toilet honestly. Some of the decisions in the last few years had me questioning and trying to understand how and why those choices were made. The two decisions I will always be happy he made though were picking up Last Man Standing and The Muppets. LMS is the best multi cam sitcom on tv right now and it's very much a good old '90s sitcom at heart. He took a chance on the show and it has been a success for them. Well, modest anyway. The muppets were long long overdue to return to TV and has done well enough to earn a full season order at least. So those two choices I'll be forever thankful to him for.

Some of the decisions he's made in the last few years bother me more than those two successes though. The big thing that bugged me was he kept saying he wanted to fully reboot TGIF and have a full 2 hour block for it again then he flip flopped saying he didn't want to skew too young or too old so he had to reconsider it. I've always said that block was aimed at "everybody" and didn't really skew either way. It would be really good for the network and either gain them goodwill or get a lot of it back depending on how you look at it. Then, he passed on both Girl Meets World and Fuller House. Yes, both were pitched to him first so they could be on ABC just like the original shows from everything I've read. I'm still shaking my head at that and genuinely trying to understand why he'd pass. If you're wanting to reboot TGIF, those would have been the perfect anchor shows for the revived block. He couldn't have asked for better luck and it really was a 1 in a billion lightning strike. Everything lined up juuuust right for that to happen and would have pretty well guaranteed success for the revived block. Finding 2 more compatible shows to round out the block would have been very easy. But he passed. For someone wanting to revive it as much as he did that truly baffles me. GMW has been a literal smash hit like the original BMW was and Fuller House has a LOT of buzz right now...looks like that's gonna pay off big time for Netflix next week! God knows I'm gonna be watching it! Both passes were huge fumbles on Paul's part IMO.

I hope the new president won't be worried about skewing too young or too old and she will do the full TGIF revival Paul couldn't quite commit to. I hope to God she will go to Michael Jacobs and Miller/Boyett and do whatever it takes to mice those two shows to ABC where they damn well should have been from the beginning. I hope she'll chat with Patrick Duffy about the Step By Step revival he wants. Hell call in Bronson Pinchot and Reginald VelJohnson while you're at it. They want back in too. I also hope she'll have enough faith in Last Man Standing to give it at least one final year so they can end it respectably and that she'll renew The Muppets. We'll have to wait and see in a few months though. Paul was a huge advocate for both shows. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about both now with the shake up because I am worried for both.

I wish her luck...May will be extra interesting this year for sure.

[ILuvCarolBurnett]

I can't imagine being a network programmer in today's world. It would be easier to be a nuclear scientist than to try and gauge what is going to be a hit with such a diverse audience as we have in this country now, and an audience whose attention span is three minutes tops.

What baffles me are shows that are paraded as hits when the ratings are in the toilet. I've heard so many people rave about "Parks and Recreation". I saw an article praising it as one of the greatest sitcoms in recent history. But by what standards? The show was consistently at the bottom of the ratings for its entire 7-year run. If no one watches, is it a hit? I guess it is like if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?

My guess is there is tremendous pressure to make profit at every turn. So, when a network has a hit show, it is used to help salvage other shows the networks and/or critics seem to favor, but the audience doesn't seem to much care for. So, you take that hit show and move it all over the schedule to save other shows or an entire evening lineup that is tanking. Sometimes it helps, and other times, it hurts the ratings of that hit show.

I don't agree with the notion of trying to revive shows that were hits 10, 20 or 30 years ago. This has,for the most part, proved to be disastrous. NBC tried to revive "The Munsters" a few years ago (that was a God-awful mistake) and even CBS toyed with the notion of reviving "The Beverly Hillbillies" as a reality show. Can't we think of something new?

The biggest problem with TV today is the lack of creativity and novelty, and the shows that are indeed that, seem to disappear after a few episodes. As Carl Reiner said in an interview not long ago, a show like "The Dick Van Dyke Show" probably wouldn't see the light of day today. Every year, we are hit with the recycled ideas for cop shows, medical dramas, CSI-type fare and sitcoms that are about as ill-conceived as they can get.

Being a network programmer to me is a lot like buying lotto numbers. You have no clue if any of those numbers are the winner. You have to buy a certain number of tickets and hope to goodness one is a winner. It is a total crap shoot, and along the way, some really good shows get lost in the mix, if they even make it to a pilot.

Whenever I am in the mood to watch TV, I sit and scroll through dozens if not hundreds of cable channels to find one thing worth watching. It seems it becomes harder and harder. By the time I scroll through a sea of repeat programming, shows that seemed to be geared towards people under 30 (I am forty-eight) or some lame reality show, I am not in the mood to watch anymore. Perhaps that is why TV has such dismal ratings. If the average TV watcher is like myself, we are just tired of the same thing always on. No wonder Barnes & Noble is crowded every time I go in.....

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https://www.yahoo.com/tv/abc-cancela...122538306.html

While the exact details behind Lee’s departure remain unknown, sources have indicated that Lee’s departure came as the result of ABC’s struggling ratings. The 2015-16 season has been relatively hard on ABC with several veteran series, including Castle and Once Upon a Time, hovering around series lows throughout the season thus far and numerous high profile new series failing to capture viewers’ attention.

With Lee no longer around to show favor to the network’s modest-performing series, one has to wonder which series will fall victim to the cancellation axe this spring. While no one can predict where incoming president Channing Dungey will take ABC in the coming months, it seems highly likely that several of ABC’s struggling series could soon receive their marching orders – including a few of the network’s low-rated critical darlings.

After looking over ABC’s entire line-up, five series in particular jumped out as potential victims of the network’s leadership change. Join Hidden Remote now as we look at the five series most likely to find themselves in danger this spring as ABC Cancellation Watch 2016 officially begins!

[Cyrax]

ILuvCarolBurnett: Great points I agree it is a tough job and that novelty has passed and there are no new ideas.

Parks & Recreation did well when it was behind The Office in 2011 but otherwise it's been quite an underperformer indeed.

I'm also glad for Lee picking up Last Man Standing and sticking by it for so many years, one of the best shows on tv now. Same goes for Once Upon A Time & American Crime. I would also mention Scandal & How To Get Away With Murder but their comeback last week was sooooo weak. Plus I really loved The Neighbors & Suburgatory.

[TMC]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...219-story.html

"It's hard to see it in a big-picture way when you're sort of at the center of the storm,” says Dungey. "For people to say the things that they've said, I'm grateful for this opportunity; I'm humbled by the great things that people have said. In terms of looking at this as maybe being a role model, I've always been very focused on being a role model for my daughter. And if I can inspire young women to pursue a career path in entertainment because of this, that would be a wonderful thing.”

[EmoJoe]

Network TV is dying. Everyone's just trying to cash in as much as they can until it inevitably crashes. It's still very profitable, but the industry is changing rapidly and every year the old network system feels a little less relevant. For now network heads will keep trying to find the next Empire or throwing together cheap live events that garner huge numbers but ultimately, everyone knows that streaming is on the horizon and things are going to change drastically pretty soon.

Ultimately, ratings are seeming more and more meaningless. Some of the most popular shows of today are Netflix originals, which don't even release ratings because they're completely irrelevant to Netflix's business model. So trying to define what's making an impact through the outdated Nielsen system seems wildly off-the-mark at this point. Parks & Rec may have been low-rated on NBC but it's made a cultural impact through its popularity on streaming services. Orange is the New Black is one of the most talked about and important shows of the decade, and yet no one has any idea how many people are watching it. So it's almost ridiculous that network TV still has to use this antiquated system for their profit when less and less people are still watching TV live. That's why, eventually, all of this is going to come totally crashing down, and the process seems to be speeding up every single year.

Anyway, as for Paul Lee himself, he has actually done a lot of pretty good work for ABC...he built up their comedy brand, and they arguably have the strongest comedy slate of any network right now. And last season was actually pretty great for ABC, he picked up some buzzy new hits (Black-ish, How to Get Away with Murder, Fresh Off the Boat) and put together the TGIT line-up which has been fairly dominant. Unfortunately for him, ABC had a rough development season and completely collapsed this year - combine that with his apparent meddling with The Muppets (which will go down in history as one of TV's biggest failures) and his questionable "bridge series" idea which involved renewing a lot of low-rated shows and then watching them sink the entire line-up, and it looks pretty bad. So, on the sinking ship that is network TV, he gets the blame and the boot, and ABC is going to try to move in a direction that will allow it to copy both CBS's prodcedurals and FOX's splashy smash Empire.

But that won't work either! CBS themselves have had a somewhat rough year where very little of what they're launching has worked and their once-sturdy procedural/multi-cam empire is slowly crumbling. (Remember when 2 Broke Girls was supposed to be the next giant sitcom? Now it's a bubble show that can't even outrate the already cancelled Mike & Molly). And expecting anything like the insane outlier that is Empire is setting some ridiculous expectations. So, yeah! It all adds up to the same idea: no one knows what the hell they're doing on network TV anymore.

[70s show watcher]

Originally Posted by EmoJoe

Network TV is dying. Everyone's just trying to cash in as much as they can until it inevitably crashes. It's still very profitable, but the industry is changing rapidly and every year the old network system feels a little less relevant. For now network heads will keep trying to find the next Empire or throwing together cheap live events that garner huge numbers but ultimately, everyone knows that streaming is on the horizon and things are going to change drastically pretty soon.

Ultimately, ratings are seeming more and more meaningless. Some of the most popular shows of today are Netflix originals, which don't even release ratings because they're completely irrelevant to Netflix's business model. So trying to define what's making an impact through the outdated Nielsen system seems wildly off-the-mark at this point. Parks & Rec may have been low-rated on NBC but it's made a cultural impact through its popularity on streaming services. Orange is the New Black is one of the most talked about and important shows of the decade, and yet no one has any idea how many people are watching it. So it's almost ridiculous that network TV still has to use this antiquated system for their profit when less and less people are still watching TV live. That's why, eventually, all of this is going to come totally crashing down, and the process seems to be speeding up every single year.

Anyway, as for Paul Lee himself, he has actually done a lot of pretty good work for ABC...he built up their comedy brand, and they arguably have the strongest comedy slate of any network right now. And last season was actually pretty great for ABC, he picked up some buzzy new hits (Black-ish, How to Get Away with Murder, Fresh Off the Boat) and put together the TGIT line-up which has been fairly dominant. Unfortunately for him, ABC had a rough development season and completely collapsed this year - combine that with his apparent meddling with The Muppets (which will go down in history as one of TV's biggest failures) and his questionable "bridge series" idea which involved renewing a lot of low-rated shows and then watching them sink the entire line-up, and it looks pretty bad. So, on the sinking ship that is network TV, he gets the blame and the boot, and ABC is going to try to move in a direction that will allow it to copy both CBS's prodcedurals and FOX's splashy smash Empire.

But that won't work either! CBS themselves have had a somewhat rough year where very little of what they're launching has worked and their once-sturdy procedural/multi-cam empire is slowly crumbling. (Remember when 2 Broke Girls was supposed to be the next giant sitcom? Now it's a bubble show that can't even outrate the already cancelled Mike & Molly). And expecting anything like the insane outlier that is Empire is setting some ridiculous expectations. So, yeah! It all adds up to the same idea: no one knows what the hell they're doing on network TV anymore.

very well said

[Mr. Television]

I pretty much stopped watching all network TV. I have a few shows on my DVR but haven't watched them in months. I don't know if I will or not.

[UMFaninMD]

I only watch ABC for Once Upon a Time, and the first half of the new season was considerably weak compared to past ones. The second half begins next Sunday and I wonder if it will be the final one. It's one of the rare shows that can be dark without going full adult and brings in a diverse viewership---perhaps that's what these networks need, as opposed to brainless reality shows and comedies that are either too obscure or too raunchy for a lot of people to follow.

[Cyrax]

Definitely not going to be the final season, ABC has way too many problems now to cancel Once Upon A Time!

[HarryWild]

Originally Posted by Cyrax

Wonder if the bridge shows/long breaks concept is going to end now.

Plus is she going to clean house by cancelling Castle, The Muppets, Agent Carter, Nashville & Galavant?

I don't know why Castle after the 6 season started accelerating the personal lives of Beckett and then Castle himself and then in the 8th season both! It made it impossible to watch if you were a fan of the show!

I like to know who gave the okay to have such twists in the plot from normal Castle episodes. The viewership has been cut in half since season 6!