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September 1, 2015
At a time when Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu are stealing niche audiences from broadcast and cable TV networks, what makes a show a hit? According to Stephanie Masarsky-Sloves, AS’91, an executive producer for Embassy Row Productions, “There is no formula.”
In March, Sloves, a 24-year veteran of both TV and online entertainment, joined a Northeastern panel discussion of an evolving industry. She described the 2009 launch of Watch What Happens Live, a Bravo channel talk show that today attracts Hollywood’s A-list stars. She also discussed a new “show-after-the-show” program genre in which guests deconstruct just-aired episodes of favorite shows, citing her work on A&E’s Bates Motel: After Hours and BBC America’s Doctor Who: After Who Live. A pioneer of “branded content,” Sloves has created specials for Pepsi and Macy’s, and a Super Bowl commercial for NBC Sports Men in Blazers featuring the Mini car—“my toughest assignments,” she said, because they must blend entertainment and advertising messages.
“Online, today’s viewers are more fickle than ever—they click off at any moment,” Sloves said. Thanks to social media, “we see their reactions instantly.” Even so, a show’s staying power is hard to predict, since “there’s no correlation between the volume of feedback about a show on Twitter and the number of loyal fans it has.”