BH: But I think in the end, it’s turned out great.
JS: I think if we can continue to do well in the ratings, anecdotally, it continues to do well. And if we are lucky enough to get nominated or shake out a few Emmys, then I think they have to cry, “Uncle.” That’s my hope.
BH: Me too.
BH: Where the people who didn’t want this to be seen bottled you up was in the distribution process because -sure, there may be 300 channels out there, but they’re all owned by a dozen people. But now with Netflix and iTunes you have all these avenues you can go to, and these guys, they can’t bottle this stuff up like they used to.
JS: You now have the world of cable and talk radio. All that has opened up and it gives voice to a lot of people who couldn’t have slipped through the cracks previously.
BH: The gatekeepers’ gates are coming down.
JS: It’s great.
BH: So you were told History wouldn’t air it and shopped it around afterwards –
JS: The History Channel did, AETN did. They owned the domestic distribution; we owned everything else.
BH: So you weren’t the ones saying, “Can you take this off our hands?”
JS: No. The History Channel owns the five-year domestic distribution rights, and they were looking to get compensated by selling it off. And we helped them. You know, when it went to Showtime, I called David Nevins [President of Entertainment at Showtime], who I know, my partners and I networked a little bit. But it was mostly Abbe Raven [President and CEO of AETN], who was doing the selling of the show.
BH: Did they take it to everyone?
JS: I don’t know. It never went to HBO, for instance, because HBO has a Kennedy miniseries in development with Tom Hanks, so that was never going to fly. I think there were a few contenders in the mix with Reelz, who just stepped up and made a bigger offer. There were other people who wanted it, but they were out-bid, I believe, by Reelz.
But I don’t know the full roster of where it went. I know a couple of places where it went.
BH: Do you think some places turned it down for political reasons?
JS: I’d say, probably – there might have been a variety of reasons. Some people find it didn’t fit into their programming. Some people may have felt like, “Oh God, this is a political hot potao. We don’t have any upside for that.” I can’t tell you what’s in the head of people who bought it or didn’t buy it.
I do know that Matt Blank [Chariman and CEO of Showtime], who didn’t buy it, is the one that called Stan Hubbard at Reelz, and said, “I just saw this thing. It’s amazing. You should get it for your network. It’s just not going to work for our network.” And he’s right; it wasn’t a Showtime show.
BH: Yeah, I agree with that as well. It’s difficult see it there.
JS: They’re also a network that got a lot of attention here because they were the first ones that weighed in on it. They used to be in the business of picking up other people’s shows and distributing them. Now, they’ve worked very hard to establish their own brand. If we had done The Kennedys for Showtime, it would have been a completely different show.
BH: The media made it sound, at least to me, like you guys were running around town a step ahead of the Kennedy family trying to get somebody to bite. But that sounded counter-intuitive, and I have to say that I was impressed when i read that an exec at Showtime helped out with the call to Reelz.
JS: Well, he just said, “This thing is great. It’s not for us. I think this would be fantastic for your network.”