Lionsgate's Kevin Beggs on the Indie Playbook for TV’s Post-Peak Era
SCOOPS: The Shohei Ohtani series has sold, 'The Studio' could franchise. From tariffs to recovery to Ted Sarandos' cameo, the longest-tenured TV chief tells all
I write about TV development from L.A. I wrote about how to get staffed in a writers room now and the mess at Amazon TV. Email me at lesley.goldberg@theankler.com. As a paid subscriber to Series Business, you’ll receive dispatches from Lesley, Elaine Low and Manori Ravindran on the TV business. This is a standalone subscription separate from The Ankler. For access to Series Business and everything The Ankler publishes, including The Wakeup and Richard Rushfield, subscribe here.
“We’ve got to find different ways to do things and find alternative or emerging buyers.”
No, that’s not a line from Seth Rogen’s Matt Remick on The Studio, but rather a pitch for the future of the television business from the studio guy who developed Apple’s Hollywood send-up from Rogen and his Point Grey partner, Evan Goldberg.
Kevin Beggs, a California native and UC Santa Cruz grad who’s been with Lionsgate Television for more than a quarter century, has weathered numerous sea changes in the business and come out on top thanks to his independent studio’s approach to playing, in baseball terms, small ball. When Lionsgate TV couldn’t afford the costs of making a show for broadcast, the studio delivered Mad Men to AMC. When Netflix was rolling the dice on entering the scripted fray, Lionsgate TV embraced the new business model with Orange Is the New Black.
Beggs, whose official title is Lionsgate TV Group chair and chief creative officer, hopes that the industry can weather the current era of contraction by harkening back to how he helped turn Lionsgate TV into a leading indie studio that has produced and/or distributed more than 100 scripted and unscripted shows including critical darling The Studio (which wraps its breakout first season this week), the Power franchise and offshoots of John Wick and Twilight, among others.
In my wide-ranging interview, edited and condensed here, Beggs speaks with me about his hopes to grow The Studio into a larger franchise, whether the retreat in scripted programming will be permanent and what it means to film in Los Angeles.
From our exclusive sitdown, I’ll tell you:
My scoop about the Shohei Ohtani interpreter gambling scandal series and Lionsgate’s move into sports programming
Why he thinks The Studio is working with audiences outside of L.A.’s entertainment industry
The texts between Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos about Sarandos’ cameo on The Studio, and Ted’s “demands”
What’s in store for season 2 and whether there could be spinoffs
His unvarnished take on the industry’s challenges and why it’s “gradually moving toward a recovery”
Lionsgate’s ideal mix of scripted and alternative series
His view on the Skydance-Paramount deal and a possible Warner Bros. split from Discovery
Why The Studio shot in L.A. despite not even qualifying for the California tax credit
His skepticism about Trump tariffs or a fin-syn revival
The future of the Power universe, P-Valley, John Wick spinoffs and more: “We’re all about franchises and building in this market right now.”
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