There’s been an awful lot of drama emerging from this fair city this week. All the better, since it’s becoming increasingly apparent that just about everything else seems to be moving away from it.
We can’t seen to go a day without yet another log being thrown on the increasingly incendiary fire surrounding L’Affaire Paramount–a topic we mused extensively about just about a month ago. When this week began THE LOS ANGELES TIMES’ Meg James threw in a particularly large hunk of her own via some daunting figures connected to David Ellison’s ticking clock:
Combining Paramount and Warner could result in the elimination of nearly 4,500 positions over three years and put at risk an additional 5,865 jobs within businesses that serve the studios, according to an August report by the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity. “When you look at the economic impact, it’s pretty staggering,” Kelly LoBianco, the department director, said in a recent interview. “An estimated $4 billion in economic output lost, and another $550 million lost in tax revenue at the local, state and federal level.” The merger also could erase $79 million in tax revenue to Los Angeles County even if Paramount stays in L.A., she said.
“It’s a game of chicken,” Kevin Klowden, an economist and managing director at the Melcene Advisory firm, said in an interview. “But I’m not dismissing the threat because it is very real.”…”If Ellison moves all the management out and all of the productions out, you’re talking about potentially tens of thousands of jobs,” Klowden said. “That, bluntly, isn’t just devastating to L.A. That becomes devastating to everybody.”
Just yesterday that chicken got infused with hormones by what GURUFOCUS’ Faizan Faroque shared:
TMZ reported that officials in Los Angeles and the California Attorney General’s office had been told Paramount planned to announce it was leaving the state. But the expected announcement never came. It remains unclear whether the plan changed or was simply delayed, making the report another source of uncertainty around Paramount’s much larger battle over Warner Bros. Discovery.
And if it needed it that chicken got teeth in the wake of the news that VARIETY’s Michael Schneider finally publicly reported something which even my trivia night klatsch was aware of weeks ago:
In news that felt all too depressingly common in production-starved Los Angeles, word emerged Tuesday that “American Idol” — which has been broadcast live from Los Angeles since it originated in 2002 — would move production to Georgia. ABC, as well as producers Fremantle and 19 Entertainment (via owner Sony Pictures TV), didn’t respond to requests for comment about the news. But it makes “American Idol” the latest studio-based reality competition series to pull up stakes and leave Los Angeles in search of tax incentives and lower costs.
Given that Fremantle had already uprooted less higher profile prime time series like PRESS YOUR LUCK and CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD for the siren’s song that suburban Fayetteville’s Trilith Studios was already singing I wasn’t all that surprised even when I first got wind of it. But what Schneider added was something that all of us apparently missed when the news first broke in May in the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION from the almost comically-surnamed Rodney Ho:
ABC’s “Shark Tank” is moving from Los Angeles to Atlanta after 17 seasons, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation…Tyler Perry Studios will be the new home of the popular reality competition show, according to a source close to the studio who was not permitted to discuss tenants there…Production is set to run June 16 to June 27, according to crew union IATSE Local 479.
Schneider then rattled off other recent relocations with the reminder that while they may not necessarily be considered significant enough for the politicans obsessed with studios, movies and scripted series they aren’t necessarily chopped liver, either:
Fox’s “The Masked Singer,” for example, has moved to New Jersey, having most recently shot on the Fox lot in Century City… as has Fox’s “Lego Masters,” formerly shot in Van Nuys…The loss of more reality and game series production in California comes even as the state’s film and television tax credit program has expanded to include unscripted fare. But there’s a catch: Those competition shows must have a budget of more than $1 million per episode…The California incentives still don’t include docuseries, talk shows or game shows. States like New Jersey and Georgia, on the other hand, don’t limit their incentives. Georgia’s tax incentives require a total production spend of $500,000, making it more attractive for shows like “American Idol.”
The fact that Sony–which OWNS a production facility that for all but the COVID summer dedicated two soundstages in June and September to producing SHARK TANK–has now chosen to join the Peachtree Party should be raising a few more red flags around the politicians who claim they have the best interests of their constituents in mind when they saberrattle about production exoduses–not merely trying to score points because they’re sticking a finger in the eye of octogenarian oligarchs that a percentage of those constituents spend a disproportionate amount of down time sh-tposting about.
There’s already justified paranoia among many game show geeks and studio supporters that due to the onerous payments connected to supporting the production of THE PRICE IS RIGHT and LET’S MAKE A DEAL Fremantle is already considering abandoning the state-of-the-art production facility they invested in just two years ago in the equally suburban enclaves of Glendale to have those more frequently produced shows join those aforementioned prime time series–not to mention the daily syndicated FEUD–in Hotlanta. If that’s indeed becoming increasingly likely, does anyone think that JEOPARDY! and WHEEL OF FORTUNE franchises might not find similar incentives appealing if not even studio ownership is enough of a counterbalance for their increasingly challenged bottom lines?
If you indeed have that many programs being added to smaller-potatoes series which now call the ATL home it becomes all the more likely that the support community and vendor infrastructure that contributes to the Los Angeles economy will have enough steady work to justify full-time relocation. Of the jobs, not necessarily the people.
And there is precedence that goes back waaaay before the current political climate was even a thought—to the Obama administration. Look what NBC4 LOS ANGELES parochially reported at the time:
“The Tonight Show” will move from its long-time home in the San Fernando Valley back to New York when Jimmy Fallon replaces Jay Leno as host in the spring of 2014 — a departure for which Burbank officials had been bracing…”It’s certainly not going to take Burbank down, but it’s going to have an impact on people that work at the show,” said Burbank Mayor Dave Golonski. “A number of them are Burbank residents. This is not a move we’re happy to see at all.”
Councilmember Paul Krekorian said the move announced Wednesday is a “great disappointment.”…”At the same time, it’s important to emphasize that NBC made this decision due to the specific circumstances of this show and its host,” said Krekorian. “NBC has personally assured me of the network’s continuing commitment to increase production in Southern California.”
But when the actual premiere happened just after the 2014 Olympics in the dead of winter the ASSOCIATED PRESS’ Jonathan Lemire revealed it was a lot more than Fallon’s personal desire not to stray too far from his native Saugerties that drove the move:
An unconventional 30 percent tax credit aimed at luring “Tonight” away from California after four decades is reportedly saving NBC more than $20 million a year. The network said that while the show relocated to New York for creative reasons the move wouldn’t have been possible without the tax credit.
The tax incentives were inserted into the state budget by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration in early 2013 as NBC was debating dropping the show’s then-host, Jay Leno, for Fallon and potentially leaving Los Angeles to return to New York, where the show started in 1954. The language of the 30 percent annual tax credit was remarkably specific: It would only benefit a show that had filmed at least five years in another state before moving to New York, spends at least $30 million in production costs and films in front of a studio audience of at least 200 people. In other words: “The Tonight Show.”
At least some politicans paid such attention to details. Not exactly seeing such from the powers that be in place now. By the way–anyone recall who were the lieutenant governor and attorney general of California at the time all of this was happening? I do. 
And you wanna know why my confidence in things working out any better now is so low?
If indeed their disciples—who are jockeying to fortify own political chops—actually need an agenda to campaign on they need look no further than an opportunistic timed Facebook comment from an esteemed producer named Raoul Mongilardi who took the time to actually post something enlightening on a friend’s feed earlier this week:
We have been seeing this for decades. The slow evaporation to Atlanta, then NJ, because of the feckless greed of Sacramento and its quiet disdain for Hollywood. Every year or two we are ‘teased’ with an announcement that the Governor allocated 300 million or 700 million for a tax incentive that is actually a tax lottery and NOT an incentive. A tax incentive is a law, not an annual granting equity, which guarantees production equity incentive on any production below the line, which is why everyone fled to Atlanta years ago and why New Jersey is the current stake holder at 42 -48 percent and why Lionsgate and NETFLIX moved their operations to NJ. Right now, CA offers a pathetic 21 percent incentive that fades quickly after permits and production costs. And how fast do you suppose that limited tax lottery is gobbled up each time it is released- faster than lightening. Now, in our current economy, it is simply a mandate to go where the business model makes sense. It is the same model that drove our industry to its knees in the wake of the post-pandemic strike, when all the advertising money didn’t vanish, it simply went to Europe and Asia, shifting the streaming revenue model fairly permanently. If we could secure a federal nationwide tax incentive, then every state would be on a par with GA and NJ.
Oh, but if we did that that would be playing into the desires of a certain toxic administration that heaven forbid those running for office would even dare choose to grudgingly admit might actually have better ideas that do the attorneys general and union leaders that were not even weighing in when this exodus actually began 13 years ago.
One would think someone within the campaigns of Xavier Becerra or Nithya Raman–or G-d forbid even Karen Bass–might have picked up on someone like Mongilardi if they were looking for a leg up in their respective races that might actually offer something to campaign on more than just “vote blue no matter who”. Maybe Rob Banta could devote one of his emergency podcasts to actually teeing that up as desired policy. At least one of those strategic genuises could probably even steal it outright without much backlash and at least get street cred for it if they did.
But I guess they’re determined to follow the Nero-esque leads of their predecessors. Good luck with that, geniuses. Idol–er, idle—thoughts haven’t aged well of late.
Until next time…