TV Has Changed, But My Passion for Covering the Industry Never Will
Hi! I'm now part of the Series Business team to dig into the nitty-gritty of creating, developing, staffing, marketing and celebrating new shows
Lesley Goldberg has joined the Series Business team to report on TV with a laser focus on the ins and outs of development, encompassing agencies, staffing and lots of scoops. 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 together with everything The Ankler publishes, including Sean McNulty's The Wakeup and Richard Rushfield, subscribe here.
Hello, it’s me again!
I’ve returned to reporting, following a seven-month period of funemployment, and diving back in to where I’ve been collecting my mail for the past two decades: the trenches of the television industry. It’s a ZIP code that I’ve been lucky enough to work in since Janice Min promoted me in what feels like a few lifetimes ago.
When I first started covering the TV business, I was single, Peak TV wasn’t a thing and Netflix was still delivering DVDs by mail. In the years that followed, my career became a sort of wish fulfillment. I kept my cool interviewing Henry Winkler after falling in love with television thanks in large part to Fonzie on Happy Days. I was there — and hugged him — the night he won his first Emmy.
I met my TV writer-wife (I’ll tell you who she is below) while waiting for my first-ever red carpet to open after arriving at a Showtime pre-Emmys party hours ahead of the action. I was able to interview nearly the entire cast of my favorite comedy series, Friends. (I’m missing only David Schwimmer and Courteney Cox.) I was on the set of Grey’s Anatomy for Callie and Arizona’s wedding and was lucky enough to interview the late and great Bob Newhart multiple times, once in the days when he was still donning Jedi robes on the set of Big Bang Theory.
I spent days combining my love of collectibles and television for an award-winning story about the business of fan conventions that, to this day, remains one of my favorite assignments. I broke the exclusive news that the cast of Friends was reuniting for a Max special as well as that a Harry Potter TV series was in the works. I spent much of 2023 meeting and interviewing scores of writers on the picket lines at Disney during the WGA strike. I slogged through Upfronts one rainy year in New York and realized it’s easier to cover them from the comfort of my L.A. home. (The same goes for San Diego Comic-Con). I’ve been to so many Television Critics Association press tours that I’m friendly with the security guards.
I now find myself re-entering a space that is still reeling from the demise of Peak TV, navigating industry-wide consolidation as well as the lingering smoke from the devastating fires that will change the landscape of L.A. as we knew it.
Most of the writers I know are still looking for jobs after the WGA strike brought the film and TV sector to a halt. Between challenges coming out of the pandemic and the stark realities that have emerged as the volume of scripted programs continues to decline, the TV industry has, as one showrunner recently told me, “been kicked in the shins.”
Who and What’s Working in TV
That’s where I hope to come in. While I can’t personally get you a job, my contributions to Series Business — alongside my excellent colleagues Elaine Low and Manori Ravindran — will at least help inform your decisions and illuminate opportunities. Writers, this space is especially for you. Help me help you. What do you want to read here? If you have a story idea, please send me an email. Staffing a writers room? Tip me off so I can share that with The Ankler’s industry audience. How did you “Survive ’til ’25”? Are you doing free work? Why? Agents, have a hot project? Hearing about a new business model? Picking up on a new trend? I’m all ears. Executives, I want to talk to you, too. What are you buying? What’s the biggest trend you’re seeing? How is Trump 2.0 impacting your business?
The drama of the TV business has its own amazing characters, leading and supporting. Who should I be calling? Who’s in the wings of the industry and ready for the spotlight? As I’ve done throughout my career, I want to interview new and established showrunners, executives of all sorts as well as agents. (And hopefully get in a podcast appearance or two!) I’m looking to break news, including but not limited to development deals, as well as offer the industry analysis that I consider to be my bread and butter.
I have loved television since the moment I first saw Fonzie pop the collar of his leather jacket. I consider myself extremely lucky to have the opportunity to talk again with the people responsible for making my favorite shows. If you ever listened to me on TV’s Top 5, you know that my wife, Natalie Abrams, is a writer (she created The CW’s Gotham Knights, now streaming on Max!).
I’m also an L.A. native, and if you cut me, I will bleed Dodger Blue. So while I will do my best to keep this space free of politics, I can’t guarantee that I won’t take a jab at the Giants, Padres or the Asstros (typo intentional).
All of this is to say that I’m hoping you’ll join me as I embark on this next chapter in my career, covering an industry that has already given me so much. In a nutshell, if you have burning questions, fresh ideas or strong opinions about our industry, I want to hear them. Hit me up on email at lesley.goldberg@theankler.com or on Signal at 818-400-8060 or via this QR code:
I’ll also be sharing each week what I’m reading, watching and hearing about the industry (and beyond), whatever’s making me curious or inspired. To wit . . .
What I’m Enjoying: Groundhog Day was Feb. 2 so that called for our annual viewing of Palm Springs (Hulu) after my 80-year-old mother rejected Happy Death Day 20 minutes in . . . I loved the first season of Bookie on Max, and season two has been amusing so far. (Speaking of Chuck Lorre shows, this vanity card dedication to the L.A. firefighters moved me to tears. And color me very curious about his next Netflix series, a comedy co-created by and starring Leanne Morgan.)
Oh, and I still haven’t stopped listening to the Wicked soundtrack. (Get it on vinyl!)
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So excited to see Lesley here! Please give her a podcast -- I miss hearing her voice so much.