What CBS, Paramount+ & Showtime are Buying Right Now
Plus: Why was a ‘Gladiator II’ script revised during the strike? I have the answer
Elaine covers TV from L.A. and just won best online columnist in the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. This is the latest in her series exploring what every studio and streamer wants to buy now, including HBO and Max, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, NBCU and Peacock, Disney’s brands, ABC, Disney+, Hulu and FX, and Apple TV+. She also recently revealed the fallout from a massive cache of scripts used to train AI. As a paid subscriber to Series Business, you’ll receive richly reported dispatches from both Elaine and Manori Ravindran for a global perspective on the TV business. This is a standalone subscription separate from The Ankler. For access to Series Business and everything The Ankler publishes, including Sean McNulty's The Wakeup and columns from Richard Rushfield, you can subscribe here.
Good Tuesday, Series Business readers — I’ve got a Paramount two-fer for you today. I was on my merry way this week talking to agents and creatives about the state of development at Paramount Global when a showrunner texted me about a different Paramount-related question.
It was a screengrab of the cover sheet of the script to Paramount Pictures’ Gladiator II, which had been posted in full over on Deadline as part of its FYC Screenplay Series. The draft dates immediately raised eyebrows: The shooting draft was dated May 29, 2023, while the revisions were dated June 15, 2023. That seemed to indicate that additional drafts had been filed during the first month or so of the Writers Guild of America strike, which officially began on May 2 last year, when scribes had declared pencils down.
The datelines caused a minor stir in some writers’ circles, so I went on a side quest to learn more about who could’ve made changes to a script amid the strike, and what kind of changes they might have made. Lo and behold, I got an answer. Read on for more.
But back on the topic of development: It’s probably no surprise to learn that both Paramount employees and the creatives who talk to Paramount are in wait-and-see mode ahead of the company’s upcoming acquisition by Skydance, which will bring the combined conglomerate under the oversight of David Ellison and former NBCU CEO Jeff Shell.
CBS, of all the linear broadcasters, has the sturdiest reputation in scripted television. Like NBC, it too hosts a trio of Dick Wolf-produced series with its long-running FBI franchise. But Paramount+, known for its Taylor Sheridan and Star Trek series, was a real question mark, even among TV lit agents.
So in this Series Business, you’ll learn:
The most reliable format to try to sell CBS
The proven exec working on Paramount’s streaming strategy that agents are watching closely
What kind of shows have been working for CBS and Paramount+
How agents feel about CBS Studios head David Stapf and drama development head Bryan Seabury
Why Paramount+ hasn’t traditionally taken many outside pitches — and why that may change
What agents say they’ve been hearing from Paramount+
How the pending Skydance acquisition is affecting Paramount’s streamer
Why agents are excited about David Ellison taking over
The debate over whether Showtime is a “zombie network” or actively seeking to revive its brand
The answer to the Gladiator II mystery
