has seen the non-fiction business trend toward premium offerings with more event series – an evolution shared across much of the larger television landscape and pushed, in no small part, by streamers.. “Now, it’s a question of getting people to sign up and stick around because what they like is on a given platform.”
“The call for always having something unique is probably more intense now,” says Jennings. “We have to operate at a very high level in terms quality, because we’re competing with all the blue chip narratives; we have to go toe to toe with those kind of shows, and hopefully ours are fascinating enough to win out.”
“[Viewers] want access that no one else has,” Jennings grants. “But it’s getting harder to find new material on topics that are big enough and global enough [to warrant this kind of focus.] So I always tell my researchers to think outside the box when looking for footage. I tell them, if I was this [dream footage], where might I live?”, the answer could be found in a Chicago garage.
“Our task is to either find a great story that needs to be told, or to take a really big picture thing like Charles and promise the audience a whole new look – and then to deliver.”