Yesterday was a wild day all over the Internet as news about Mad Men's renewal and delay hit. Fans were thrilled that the show would return, but disappointed that they'd have to wait for it. TVO's Mark O. Estes broke down what was at the heart of the negotiations between showrunner Matthew Weiner and AMC:
Despite possibly becoming the highest paid showrunner on basic cable with a salary of $30 million for the next two years, Weiner balked at AMC's three "deal points" that must be in place for the negotiations to move forward. These points are 1) insert product placement into the show, 2) shaving two minutes off episodes to air more commercials, and 3) the roles of two series regulars must be either reduced or eliminated to save money.
Fans hungry for more Don Draper and Co. immediately took sides, and it became clear that many were on Team Weiner while many others were on Team AMC. Unfortunately for all, Mad Men won't be back until early 2012, about a year from now. Other showrunners took to Twitter and expressed their thoughts just as fans did.
LOST co-creator Damon Lindelof had this to say: "Not that I'm sour grapes, but TEN MILLION DOLLARS a year for 13 episodes of a single show seems pretty fair, no? #SOURGRAPES."
Josh Friedman, executive producer of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles replied to Damon with "it's the 5 million per year for a writer's assistant that I find a little strange."
Kurt Sutter, the man who created Sons of Anarchy, tweeted the following: "You can't ask a network for 10 million, then bitch when they want to expand their ad revenue source. Whore or saint, pick one." Hart Hanson (Bones creator) retweeted it.
Are you Team AMC or Team Weiner? Let us know in the comments, where you won't be restricted to 140 characters!
It's insane. Seriously. I'm surprised AMC went for it, and even more surprised Weiner would demand a salary beyond the point that it began to compromise his story. This situation does very little for his creative integrity imho.
He hasn't asked for more money. And newer reports state that not only are they asking him to lose to castmembers this next season, but two more the season after, and two more after that. When Mad Men is the show that finally made AMC some real money, and it is doing phenomenal both critically and in the ratings, why would you try and shave off time and force the creator to kill off castmembers? That is how a show gets ruined. The product placement one, I would let that one go, it should not hurt the story at all, and will help make some more revenue.
Save Mad Men from the Ad Men!
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I agree, but I find the whole "AMC is insisting on paying me a huge salary" thing a bit difficult to believe. It seems like AMC is saying "we need to save 1.5million a season, and here is one way you could do it" might be the beginning of hardball negotiations to get him to cut his salary. It doesn't make sense that they would accept him sacrificing that dough from his own paycheck to do the story he wants to do.
And yeah, product placement has been a part of Mad Men from the beginning. Being that they are ad men, it's a uniquely fluid thing with the show. You don't have to have say "Now make sure Hamm puts his Pepsi can down facing the label to the camera!" – you just make pepsi a client
Because the man asked for 30 mil. Its a ludicrous asking price. Did Winter or Chase ask for that with Sopranos? No Weiner shouldn't have asked for that much. Its gonna bite him in the ass. Also product placement isn't neccesarily a bad thing. If its done right (contextually) it could benefit them tremendously since it would add more authenticity
it's the "ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS", they need to make money to keep the show on the air, they suggested he cut two cast members, and you're saying that would kill the series, FYI, if he wants to keep those cast members, Mr. Weiner could always work for "LESS", and take more on the backend deal say DVD sales, syndication and overseas broadcast revenue.
I don't know what business you're employed, but I would assume you don't work for free, but that in order for you and your fellow employees if you have any to receive a raise the company would need to be profitable or raise it's prices to pay the employees these raises.
Artists are not always the best business minded people, and some people don't seem to understand that in order for a series to stay on television, it needs to be able to make a profit for whoever airs it.
Cable shows do not pay the same to producers, actors and the production of a series as the broadcast networks, who can afford to pay someone like Charlie Sheen a lot of money, cable networks don't bring in that kind of advertising revenue. If you look at a network series that gets canceled for instance it usually has about 5 to 6 million viewers, on a cable outlet a series with that kind of viewership would be a hit.
Most of the number one cable shows get viewership numbers that are the same as a daytime soap opera on a broadcast network. The series "Pretty Little Liars" averages 2.4 to 3.64 million viewers "Mad Men" averages about 2 to 2.9 a network daytime soap opera gets anywhere from 2 to 5 million viewers again this is during the day.
I think asking for more money, and then crying about product placement and AMC having to "ADD" more commercials to cover Mr. Weiner's raise is a justifiable request on AMC's part, like I stated earlier he could keep everything the way it is with the show by not asking for 30 million dollars, keeping the salary he's already getting or take a pay cut.
Kurt Sutter is the coolest show runner on the planet. His show is so much better than "Mad Men"; stronger cast – especially the actresses, better stories, and so much more of an original idea. Keep preaching the truth Mr. Sutter. If Weiner's talent or audience ever reached the size of his massive ego than maybe he'd be worth 10 million a season.
I think Kurt Sutter should mind his own business as lately he's taken to being a "spokesman" for FX on his Twitter Page….It's easy to criticize others, especially when you have a network (FX) that is basically bowing down as you pass because you gave them a hit show but noone knows what really goes on as far as negotiations UNLESS YOU YOURSELF ARE IN THEM! Mr. Sutter should concentrate on his own show and he should also be thanking GOD that SOA wasn't launching it's first season in this reality show crazed environment or he may have suffered the same fate as 'Terriers' and 'Lights Out' did. And on that note, I must say, I have lost much respect for FX as a whole, but when Mr. Sutter defends FX for the cancellation of Lights Out yet was OH SO QUIET when his buddy Shawn Ryan's Terriers was axed, yeah I see some conflict there. I fully expected Lights Out would not get renewed due to the ratings, BUT the way FX handled it is why I won't be returning to ANY FX show after April 5..Little do they care I'm sure and I never thought I would have this what may be called "immature" reaction, but when you announce the cancellation of a struggling show PRIOR to airing the last 2 eps because of the date of your freakin UPFONTS PARTY, you announce the "any day" renewal of Justified and Archer THE SAME DAY YOU CANCEL (Lights Out) and other such disrespectful actions too numerous too go on about here, then what otherwise would have saddened me as a huge fan of Lights Out, has now downright ANGERED ME!! So good luck to everyone at FX, and if I were advising any of the NEW folks going for these NEW pilots in the future with that network I'd say DON'T AGREE TO ANYTHING WITHOUT A TWO SEASON COMMITMENT, they won't stand behind you and you may find yourself being thrown under that same bus if your not a "money cow" RIGHT AWAY!! So I end with this: keep your nose out of rival networks controversies because things have a funny way of turning bad when you least expect, and you might be "sitting pretty" today but tommorrow?? you just NEVER know now do ya….
Wow, the 80s were just cool like that.
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