{"id":573809,"date":"2023-05-10T01:59:43","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T22:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/inside-the-negotiations-as-cbs-and-sony-battled-over-swat\/"},"modified":"2023-05-10T01:59:43","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T22:59:43","slug":"inside-the-negotiations-as-cbs-and-sony-battled-over-swat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/inside-the-negotiations-as-cbs-and-sony-battled-over-swat\/","title":{"rendered":"#Inside the Negotiations as CBS and Sony Battled Over \u2018SWAT\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n In May 2017, Sony Pictures Television gave NBC a 50 percent ownership share of Timeless <\/em>to get the Shawn Ryan-produced drama a second season after the broadcast network\u2019s surprise decision to cancel the time-travel<\/a> series<\/a>. Flash forward six years and Sony \u2014 the independent studio where Ryan has been based with an overall deal since 2011 \u2014 and the prolific showrunner returned to the battlefield to save another show: CBS\u2019 SWAT<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n Unlike with Timeless<\/em>, the negotiations over SWAT <\/em>were a bit different. To start, Sony fully owned Timeless<\/em> when NBC decided to cancel the series after a single season. The studio, which at the time was overseen by executives Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, sacrificed the lion\u2019s share of the profits in order to keep Timeless <\/em>on the air when it brought in NBC\u2019s studio counterpart, Universal Television, as a co-producer.<\/p>\n

\n With SWAT<\/em>, sources say the renewal discussions began a few months ago when Sony TV chief Katherine Pope \u2014 who took over the studio last summer after departing Charter Communications \u2014 called CBS and co-producers at CBS Studios to inform them that Sony could not reduce its licensing fee below its current level for season six. Since SWAT <\/em>was already a co-production between CBS Studios and Sony, that meant CBS had to increase its payment to Sony to keep the Shemar Moore-led reboot of the 1975 series of the same name on the air for a seventh season.<\/p>\n

\n CBS, in the meantime, has focused on reducing overhead on its script<\/a>ed programs amid broadcast\u2019s continued declines. The cast and creatives on the CBS Studios-produced Blue Bloods <\/em>accepted a 25 percent salary reduction to get a renewal for its 14th season and keep the hundreds of staffers employed on the Tom Selleck-led procedural employed. The Warner Bros. TV-produced Bob Hearts Abishola <\/em>reduced its series regular cast recurring for all but its two leads, helping to trim the budget and fees CBS pays to Warner Bros. TV to air the Chuck Lorre comedy. Fox, too, also turned its nose up at the $9 million per episode licensing fee for the Ryan Murphy-produced 911. <\/em>Instead, ABC \u2014 whose 20th Television studio produces the show \u2014 picked up the drama. (Fox instead renewed 911: Lone Star <\/em>because it costs an estimated $3 million per episode less than the flagship series.)<\/p>\n

\n Sources say Sony\u2019s Pope wanted to stop Sony from bleeding money on SWAT <\/em>after CBS had successfully negotiated for a reduced licensing fee for the past few seasons.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThen it became a game<\/a> of chicken,\u201d one source with knowledge of the negotiations surrounding SWAT <\/em>told The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n Sources say CBS Studios wanted the time slot that SWAT <\/em>occupied for one of its scripted originals, which put pressure on both Sony and CBS to make a decision. Instead, execs at Paramount Global \u2014 which owns both the broadcast network and CBS Studios \u2014 wanted to let Sony attempt to shop SWAT <\/em>to other outlets with the expectation that there would be no takers for the series and the indie studio would accept CBS\u2019 flat licensing fee offer.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s not the same place; the economics are completely different,\u201d Ryan told The Hollywood Reporter <\/em>podcast TV\u2019s Top 5 <\/em>in late March when asked if broadcast TV is still the same place where the prolific showrunner first cut his teeth on shows like CBS\u2019 Nash Bridges<\/em>. \u201cRight now, it\u2019s up in the air whether\u00a0SWAT<\/em>\u00a0will get picked up for a seventh season, and that has nothing to do with ratings. You would never see that situation 15 years ago.\u00a0SWAT<\/em>\u00a0is third in the demo at CBS; there\u2019s no reason why the show shouldn\u2019t be picked up other than the economics of the business are changing. CBS and Sony will or will not figure out a way to economically make a season seven work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n After a few weeks went by, CBS execs reached out to Sony with an offer to increase the show\u2019s licensing fee for the first time in years but only for an abbreviated 13-episode seasons and Sony execs, sources say, ultimately decided that the network\u2019s offer wasn\u2019t good enough. \u201cIt was an improvement, but it wasn\u2019t enough of an improvement,\u201d the source says.<\/p>\n

\n CBS ultimately then told Sony it was going to announce that SWAT <\/em>had been canceled after six seasons, making sure the studio had ample time to inform cast and creatives. After the May 5 cancellation news<\/a> broke, Moore blasted the decision on social media<\/a> and sources say Ryan, who learned of the cancellation from the press, also hit the roof. \u201cShawn didn\u2019t know that there was an offer [from CBS] and nobody on the Sony side went to the producers to ask if they could do 13 episodes for the number CBS was proposing,\u201d the source says.<\/p>\n

\n An angry Ryan then went directly to CBS executives, at which point he learned that Sony rejected CBS\u2019 offer for an abbreviated season without so much as a call to discuss it with him. <\/p>\n

\n \u201cShawn Ryan is one of the best showrunners on the planet and he knows how to squeeze a budget better than anybody,\u201d another source says. The presumption was that Sony declined CBS\u2019 offer after consulting with Ryan, who also delivered Netflix\u2019s The Night Agent <\/em>via his Sony deal. That didn\u2019t happen, sources say. Ryan ultimately informed CBS that he, in fact, could<\/em> deliver a 13-episode season of SWAT<\/em> for the number CBS proposed and a deal was made to renew <\/em>it <\/em>for an abbreviated seventh and final season.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen a big change in my time at Sony from when Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht wooed me over to Sony. They said, \u2018We want you to do anything you want to do; we would love to get one broadcast hit out of you,\u2019\u201d Ryan shared on TV\u2019s Top 5.<\/em> \u201cThey targeted CBS because in 2011, if you had a\u00a0CSI<\/em>,\u00a0NCIS<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0Criminal Minds<\/em>, it was a goldmine. We tried with\u00a0Last Resort<\/em>,\u00a0Beverly Hills Cop<\/em>\u00a0and then gave them their hit with\u00a0SWAT<\/em>, which now is not the gold mine that it would have been 15 years earlier for a show that ran 120 episodes on CBS. Now [Sony] really wants to be in the streaming space. The incentives in my contract are much more to sell to the streamers than to broadcast. So, it\u2019s always been a challenge to be at an independent studio, but it\u2019s been a challenge that I\u2019ve relished. It is harder to sell to these places from an outside studio; it\u2019s harder to get there and become the show that they want to get behind. Having said that, you\u2019ve got to be better than what they could make in-house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n While SWAT <\/em>will get the opportunity to close out its story on its own terms, CBS\u2019 decision to bring back the show had a direct impact on rookie procedural East New York. <\/em>After CBS initially canceled SWAT<\/em>, sources say the network went out to East New York <\/em>producers Warner Bros. TV with a similar offer of a 13-episode season that would have featured a reduced licensing fee. Ultimately, CBS went with SWAT <\/em>as it remains unclear if Warners was willing to accept a reduced fee for the since-canceled East New York.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n As for the rest of the 2023-24 lineup, CBS just handed out series orders for a new take on Matlock <\/em>starring Kathy Bates and a third show in Robert and Michelle King\u2019s Good <\/em>franchise, Elsbeth<\/em>, starring Carrie Preston. Comedy Poppa\u2019s House <\/em>and the Justin Hartley-led drama Tracker. <\/em>(The latter of which was developed during Pilot Season 2022.) The three dramas and single comedy will fill the voids on CBS\u2019 schedule that came from the conclusion of NCIS: Los Angeles, <\/em>and the East New York <\/em>and True Lies <\/em>cancellations.<\/p>\n

\n And in a sign of how much ownership continues to matter, CBS owns or co-produces all but two shows on its schedule for next season as Warner Bros. TV does not do co-productions on shows from comedy kingpin Lorre (Young Sheldon, Bob Hearts Abishola<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\n Reps for CBS and Sony Pictures Television declined comment. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n