Making Television Great Again: A “ShondaLand” Specialty
I was supposed to write this post over a week ago, but I couldn’t get started because I was hooked on binge-watching the TV series Scandal, whose head writer and executive producer is the very subject of this post: the one and only Shonda Rhimes. I reluctantly paused and decided to cure my writer’s block by writing just about that. I am going to explore why, I, along with millions of viewers are so intrigued and fascinated with the works of “ShondaLand” such as “Scandal”, “Grey’s Anatomy” and “How to Get Away With Murder”.
How has Television Creator/ Show Runner Shonda Rhimes been able to create/ facilitate the creation of great television, weathering massive cultural and technological transformations for over a decade? What are the knots tying her great shows together?
Before delving into the details, the short video below will demonstrate the scale of Shonda Rhimes’s success by the numbers:
A Love Affair with Broadcast Television and Social Media:
One of the main pillars of ShondaLand’s success was its lucrative deal with ABC studios: an entire night devoted to its three of the company’s biggest productions; Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and HTGAWM, for three hours straight, back-to-back every Thursday. (Elberse and Mcgee, 2016 p.1)
“Thursday night programming, now entirely dominated by ShondaLand shows, was marketed with the ‘Thank God It’s Thursday’ slogan” (Elberse and Mcgee, 2016 p.3).
Moreover, ShondaLand took broadcast television to the heart of where youngsters are, turning TV viewing from a lean-back into an active experience. To achieve that Rhimes along with the cast, creators and official accounts of her hit shows, took the social media networks by storm by live-tweeting, teasing, promoting and cross-promoting for the entire Thursday night package and for each show and character individually.
For example and according to a CIO article, Kerry Washington, also known as Olivia Pope from “Scandal” took to Twitter on the night of the show’s fourth season premiere posting over 109 tweets, retweets, and replies throughout the day.
The silver lining? #TGIT: Thank God it’s Thursday!
Why? Because it’s Shonda Rhimes night, and if you aren’t watching live on ABC you cannot take part in the conversation along with your favorite characters, who may tweet or retweet you if you’re lucky!
The below graph is a vivid demonstration, obtained through CIO and based on Twitter’s research, of the impact of cast members live-tweeting on a TV show’s popularity.
A Drama A Lot Like Life, a Life A Lot Like Drama:
“I grew up at a time when it was an anomaly to see people who looked like me on TV. Rhimes gets us — all of us! Everybody gets a seat at Shonda’s table” Oprah Winfrey (Winfrey, 2013).
If you’ve seen any of ShondaLand’s shows you will notice a racially, sexually and politically diverse cast, mimicking to a great extent the American society it’s targeting. This phenomenon traveled far beyond the company’s own shows, resulting in a number of more inclusive dramas produced by different studios. One example is “The Leftovers” co-created by Damon Lindelof. According to an NYT article, Lindelof noted how “Rhimes made shows that were not entirely about race yet found organic ways to remind the audience, “But these are black people, just so you know”.
“We sit with you in your homes, you spend hours with many of my characters than you do with members of your own family, that comes with an enormous responsibility, and I take it very seriously. Words have power. TV has power. My pen has power”- Shonda Rhimes.
Additionally, and while art has been imitating life in ShondaLand’s dramas, the opposite holds true as well, especially when it comes to pop-culture. Taking “Grey’s Anatomy” as an example “it introduced terms such as ‘McDreamy’ and ‘McSteamy,’ nicknames for two especially handsome surgeons, as well as ‘vajayjay,’ a word coined because ‘vagina’ could not be used on broadcast network television” (Elberse and Mcgee, 2016 p. 6).
Personal Notes on the Future:
When creativity meets broadcast television, things can get ugly, or at best, a lot less creative. I believe ShondaLand’s greatest power lies in two things: Rhimes’s legacy as an exceptional story-teller, and the power of the actors she casts to do the lead roles. Rhimes has turned into one of the most influential television creators of our time, and her ability to make captivating dramas has given her immense leverage to negotiate the terms on which she along with her team can operate to keep producing quality television to the masses. Most importantly, Shonda should never cease to share her knowledge with aspiring screen-writers and producers either through ShondaLand or through initiatives like her MasterClass.com program, where she shares her knowledge and success secrets with aspiring writers around the world.
“We are very interested in supporting writers, and creating an environment..in which we can both protect writers and help them achieve their best work, while staying within what we see as the brand ShondaLand” Betsy Beers- Rhimes producing partner (Elberse and Mcgee, 2016 p.12).
This is how, ladies and gentlemen, TV drama can be made great again!
References:
Elberse, A. and Mcgee, H. (2016). Shonda Rhimes’ ShondaLand. Harvard Business School.
Kapko, M. (2014). How Live Tweeting Is Changing Broadcast Media. [online] CIO. Available at: https://www.cio.com/article/2689318/social-media/how-live-tweeting-is-changing-broadcast-media.html [Accessed 14 Apr. 2018].
Morris, W. and Poniewozik, J. (2016). Why ‘Diverse TV’ Matters: It’s Better TV. Discuss.. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/arts/television/smaller-screens-truer-colors.html [Accessed 14 Apr. 2018].
Winfrey, O. (2013). Shonda Rhimes: The World’s 100 Most Influential People | TIME.com. [online] TIME.com. Available at: http://time100.time.com/2013/04/18/time-100/slide/shonda-rhimes/ [Accessed 13 Apr. 2018].
Gajanan, M. (2016). ‘Words Have Power’: Shonda Rhimes Urges for Diversity on TV Under Donald Trump. [online] Time. Available at: http://time.com/4580000/shonda-rhimes-tv-diversity-trump/ [Accessed 14 Apr. 2018].
