So far this year, the studio has landed 12 new series orders — and another 12 renewals, while securing new pacts with talent like John Wells and Matt Reeves Warner Bros. TV Group isn’t acting like a studio with an uncertain future. Even as the fate of Warner Bros.
Discovery remains up in the air — given the uncertain timeline of a Paramount Skydance acquisition — the studio has been on a development and production spree in recent months. This summer the division, under chairman Channing Dungey, reupped its megadeal with John Wells — whose hit juggernaut for HBO Max, “The Pitt,” already won four Emmys last weekend and is expected to dominate the drama category at Monday night’s main ceremony. Also, Variety can exclusively reveal that Matt Reeves and his 6th & Idaho production shingle (“The Penguin”) have reupped their overall deal with Warner Bros.
Reeves and company first signed on in 2020 to produce all TV projects with the studio. (“Matt has a true knack for getting into the psyche of his characters and he and his team have delivered some of the most compelling, thought-provoking stories over the years,” Dungey says.) Other overall deals housed at the company include prolific creators like Greg Berlanti, Bill Lawrence, Chuck Lorre, Mindy Kaling, Lucia Aniello/Paul W. Meanwhile, since January, the studio has landed 12 new series orders — most recently, the long-awaited revival of the “Manifest” franchise at Netflix, “Arrivals: A New Manifest Mystery.” Warner Bros. also lined up pickups for scripted series such as the DC-themed true-crime mockumentary “The People v. Gorilla Grodd” at HBO Max; the Brett Goldstein romantic comedy “Escorted” and horror drama “Stillwater” at Prime Video; the reimagined comic “Afterlife With Archie” at Disney+; and sitcom “I Suck at Girls” at Netflix.
Then there are the dozen series that have been renewed in recent months: “The Pitt,” “It: Welcome to Derry,” “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe” and “Rooster” at HBO Max, “Leanne,” “Untamed” and “Running Point” at Netflix, “Shrinking” and “Bad Monkey” at Apple TV, and broadcast hits “Memories of a Killer” (Fox) and “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” (CBS). At ABC, “Abbott Elementary,” the No. 1 broadcast comedy in multiplatform among adults 18-49, returns for Season 6 next month. And if that’s not enough, the studio is also spending big on the upcoming “Harry Potter” series it’s producing for sibling HBO Max; and it’s behind one of the most anticipated new series on Netflix in the coming year, “Scooby-Doo: Origins.” Dungey’s studio domain also includes unscripted fare (including new seasons of “The Real Housewives: New York City,” “The Real Housewives: Salt Lake City” and Season 30 of “The Voice”), syndication (“Extra” and “The Jennifer Hudson Show”) and animation (including recent orders for Genndy Tartakovsky’s “Heist Brothers” and Tubi’s “Yokoso Scooby-Doo”).
As head of WBD U.S. networks, her oversight includes top 10 networks TBS, TNT, TLC and Food Network, and launched the No. 1 new unscripted series with TLC’s “Suddenly Amish.” Also this year, Discovery’s “Shark Week” had its best ratings since 2019, while “Puppy Bowl” scored its best audience in eight years across multiple platforms. What we’ve discovered with “The Pitt” is two things: audiences really love the weekly drop. We drop “Ted Lasso” weekly, for example.
I think that there is something about the event. I think you appreciate them more when you watch them one at a time as opposed to binge. But the other really significant thing is the idea that you have it on an annual cadence.
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