NYC TV Week: Scripted Content Good for TV Landscape

New York — In this age of “Peak TV” and abundant scripted content, Donny Deutsch is not worried about viewers not finding Donny!, his upcoming comedy series on USA Network, or any other quality show.

“I can’t think of any compelling piece of creative where the reason it didn’t work is people didn’t have (enough) time,” Deutsch said Wednesday at The Content Show, part of NYC Television Week. “Like everything else, the good stuff will find a way... The audience finds them. It’s great news for content providers — if you build it they will come.”

During his conversation at the Park Central Hotel, the former CNBC talk show host and advertising exec talked about the getting into the scripted game, producing the show and the coming up with its feminist backbone and advertising strategy.

Deutsch said he was looking for a new challenge in the years following the end of Big Idea With Donny Deutsch’s run on CNBC. It dawned on him that people have one persona on camera, and another off. He made a pilot and USA bought it.

“They really wanted what they bought,” Deutsch said. “This is their big fourth quarter push. They’re really behind it.”

He likens Donny!, which premieres Nov. 10, to Donald Trump, as an amalgam of scripted, reality, politics and news. “The lines are blurred,” he said.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.