Page 117 - Harvard Business Review (November-December, 2017)

CASE STUDY

SPREAD TOO THIN

A TV PRODUCER STRUGGLES TO BALANCE

THE DEMANDS OF THREE HIT SHOWS—AND
DREAMS OF A NEW ONE. BY ALISON BEARD

Carla was killing off her

leading man. And it felt

good—but not perfect.

She drummed her fingers

on the editing desk and squinted at the monitors in front of her as she ALISON BEARD is a senior
editor at HBR. HBR’s
scrolled through footage from the season finale of Dope, her production fictionalized case studies
company’s long-running drama series about DEA agents. present problems faced by
“What’s wrong?” asked Melanie, who had written and directed leaders in real companies
the episode. and offer solutions from
“In that last scene, we need quicker cuts between the fire at the lab experts. This one is
and the flashbacks. And the song isn’t right. Viewers should be sad, yes, inspired by the HBS Case
Study “Shonda Rhimes’
but mostly shocked. This is their hero dying—without any warning.” ShondaLand” (case no.
Melanie looked upset, and Carla felt a pang of guilt. Dope was 516026-PDF-ENG), by
supposed to be Melanie’s now. Carla had handed over showrunner Anita Elberse and Henry
CASE STUDY responsibilities to her protégé last year so that she’d have more time McGee, which is available
at HBR.org. Elberse
CLASSROOM NOTES to spend on the other two series that C3 Productions had on the same teaches this case in
“Showrunner” is an network, RBN. But this scene—capping Dope’s 10th season with the her MBA and executive
industry term for the surprise death of a main character—was too important to Carla. She’d education course “The
person who oversees pushed Melanie to go for a blockbuster finale and helped her write the Business of Media,
day-to-day operations script. She had to make sure the execution was right, too. Entertainment, and Sports”
of a show, including “The network wants a final cut by midnight,” Melanie said tensely. at Harvard Business School.
script writing, directing,
and editing. Carla looked at the time: 3 pm. She’d been on the set of 911, her police
drama now in its second year, since early morning and was scheduled
to do a script read-through with the cast of Forty Stories, her newest
series, about the residents of a Manhattan high-rise, from afternoon
into evening. She’d intended to stop by the Dope set only briefly, to
give Melanie’s work a final sign-off. But now she’d have to come back,
sacrificing the 9-to-midnight window she’d hoped to spend working
on a new idea: a sitcom-length “dramedy” about aging that would be
something totally new—and exciting—for C3. She’d been trying to write

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