As its siblings over at HBO/HBO Max celebrate a massive Emmy nomination haul, a good chunk of their shows come from Warner Bros. TV Group — and both studio and platform were toasting their joint drama series nod for “The Pitt” and limited series nod for “The Penguin.” All told, Warner Bros. TV Group scored 60 nominations for the 77th Emmys — which it says is the most of any traditional studio this year. Leading the pack: 24 noms for “The Penguin,” 13 for “The Pitt,” seven for Apple TV+’s “Shrinking,” six for ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” (including another acting nod for creator Quinta Brunson, seen with Dungey at the 2022 Emmys above), five for NBC’s “The Voice,” four for Apple TV+’s “Presumed Innocent” and one for CBS’ “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.”
Variety recently spoke with Channing Dungey, the chairman/CEO, Warner Bros. Television Group and (for now) WBD US Networks, to talk about the studio’s Emmy haul, what’s next for “The Pitt,” “Presumed Innocent” and (possibly) “The Penguin,” and also what’s to come — including some hints at what to look forward to as “Ted Lasso” returns.
What was Emmy nomination day like for you?
It was a fantastic day. And what it means for me, it’s just so rewarding. We love all the shows that we make, and we’re so proud of the creators with whom we work. Obviously, nominations aren’t everything, but it is a really wonderful signal that people are enjoying the content that we’re making. And I love that for the team.
Let’s talk about “The Pitt” in particular, that was a bit of an experiment — producing a broadcast-style show and order for a streamer — and it appears to have paid off.
‘The Pitt’ is the ultimate success story. I’m so proud of John [Wells] and Scott [Gemmill] and Noah [Wyle] and the entire cast and crew. This is such a tremendous recognition of their talent. I think there are some people that are saying, ‘oh, it’s like a sleeper hit, or it’s an underdog,’ but from where I’m sitting, it is a validating proof of concept. It means great storytelling, no matter what the current trends are in terms of format or whatever, will always resonate.
What’s been the reaction in the business to “The Pitt” model, are there more conversations of producers asking, “Where’s my ‘Pitt'”?
There definitely are some conversations. I think what has really been interesting is that the larger episode order has resonated really well with the general public, with fans, but also with people in the business. When you’re enjoying a show, the fact that you get 15 episodes of it, we’ve gotten to the point of being so used to six of this or eight of that. And I think people were not only thrilled that there’s 15 and you can really immerse yourself in the world and the characters, but also the fact that we’re bringing it back on an annual cadence has people really excited.
I don’t know if you heard my pitch to Casey Bloys, but the idea is there’s a fire station down the street from the hospital, and the show is called “The Fire Pitt.”
I did not hear that, but that’s very fun.
This is how these things work in success, right? Is there serious talk of a companion series, expanding the franchise?
At the moment, we’re in production right now in Season 2, we’re aiming to be back on the air at the top of the year. I think right now, the focus is just making sure that we deliver as strong a season in the second season as we did in the first. Anything else maybe comes after that. We’ve not yet gone to the place of talking about spin-offs. The focus right now is all on Season 2.
Speaking of potential Season 2s, ‘The Penguin’ did quite well for for you all. There’s still some thought of a way to continue that universe. Where do you see the future potentially of that franchise going?
The main focus right now for Matt [Reeves] is getting the movie underway, and that seems to be going along very well. I think he and Lauren [Lefranc] have batted around a couple of different ideas. So I would say that it’s absolutely possible. We want to do it if it’s right and all of the things come together in the right way. But there’s nothing specific to share at the moment.
Another show that did quite well for you at the Emmy nominations is ‘Presumed Innocent.’ Anything new to talk about that, beyond the Rachel Brosnahan casting?
We are in pre production, very excited about that. We are in the midst of conversations about casting, but nothing that I can confirm yet today. There’s a lot of rumors out there, and it’s just exciting because there are so many people that are anticipating the second season. But no, no new details yet.
What were those conversations like in figuring out how to continue the franchise? Was that always in the back of your minds, to make this an anthology series?
We didn’t start out that way. This was very much intended as a limited series, kind of a one and done. What ended up happening is there’s such great creative collaboration. David [E. Kelley] had a really fun time doing it, and Apple was really excited about it. Some of those conversations happened as the episodes started rolling in, this idea of using ‘Presumed Innocent’ as the marker for an anthology. And the great thing was that we were able to find a book, ‘Dissection of a Murder,’ a debut legal thriller from an author named Jo Murray. David really sparked to it. And so that’s the that’s the jumping off point for us for this second season.
On to ‘Shrinking,’ and we just had Harrison Ford on our cover a few weeks ago. It feels like it really hit the zeitgeist in Season 2.
We take a lot of pride in the fact that we have the No.1 and No. 2 comedies of all time on Apple, because ‘Shrinking’ comes in right behind ‘Ted Lasso,’ which is exciting. We had an amazing first season, but everything caught fire and really took off in the second season. People just love these characters. Harrison Ford, in particular, is the fan favorite. Every person that I’ve talked to, they cannot get enough of Harrison Ford. It’s really exciting to see that he has now garnered his first Emmy nomination.
Hard to believe that it’s only his first nomination.
It’s totally wild, but we’re thrilled that it’s for this show. We just wrapped Season 3, and I never want to jinx anything, but I think it is the strongest season yet. We’ve got some great guest stars in it: Michael J. Fox, Jeff Daniels and Candice Bergen. I think audiences are going to really enjoy Season 3.
Since you said the magic words ‘Ted Lasso,’ the question is no longer, ‘will it come back?’ The question now is, What’s the ETA?
Can you believe we are back in production? This was one of those ones where I was like, ‘I don’t know if we were going to get there,’ but we are here now. I’m really excited about the new cast. We don’t have a firm date yet from Apple. We’re talking right now about mid-year next year, so your guess is as good as mine as to what that actually means. But I would say sometime from Q2 forward.
So you’re already in production, what are the dailies looking like?
I’m telling you, it is amazing when you actually feel emotional in watching dailies. There’s a there’s a scene that takes place at an airfield. You’ll see it, it’s in the first episode. And I’m telling you that everybody in watching those dailies was tearing up. I think it’s because it just feels so good to be back in the saddle with these characters.
In the end, it was wise that no one ever said it really was over, since it clearly wasn’t. Does it feel like a natural bridge from the first three seasons to now?
It feels both like a natural bridge and that we’ve hit the reset button in great ways. The new cast that we’ve added are fantastic, and I think people are going to be very excited about this next version of the story. It was always about getting the right idea, and Jason [Sudeikis] and the team landed on this, and it’s a great direction for us.
Has Jason said, he’s got another three seasons in him?
Well, that’s the ambition. So hopefully we get there.
Let’s talk a little bit more about what the Emmys mean to you now, and how has that changed? Back in the broadcast days, Emmys were nice, but they didn’t have the kind of impact that they have now in the streaming age.
What I think makes it feel a little bit different is that there’s so much content now. There are so many shows on so many platforms, and so when you have shows that are nominated for Emmys, it brings welcome attention to that show. It tells people this is one that you should be paying attention to. It’s always a testament to the passion and hard work of the producers and the creative teams, but it’s also very validating to be recognized in such a prestigious way.
What else you excited about? What are we going to be talking about next year at the the Emmy nominations?
The thing that I’m always the most proud of as an independent studio is that we’re still selling everywhere. This season, we have shows on all five broadcast networks. And across the whole portfolio, we have more than 80 series across 20 different platforms What are we gonna be talking about next year? Well, I don’t know if we’ll necessarily be talking about ‘Untamed’ for the Emmys, but it was Netflix’s No. 1 series in 76 countries, which is crazy, and we were quickly renewed for Season 2 on that one. Other second seasons are ‘Running Point’ —Season 1 was another big success for Netflix, and we are starting production on the second season of that this month as well. If I stick with the comedy space, we are just getting ready to do our table read for Mindy Kaling’s ‘Not Suitable for Work,’ which is her twentyomething single camera comedy for Hulu. I flew to Toronto for the table read of ‘Memory of a Killer,’ which is our Fox drama that Patrick Dempsey and Michael Imperioli are starring in. And then we have coming up a little bit later this fall, the ‘Scooby Doo’ live action series for Netflix, and then ‘Stillwater,’ which is a project that we’re doing for Amazon with Greg Berlanti. And then Greg is also developing an untitled drama pilot for Casey, which he’s very high on. So hopefully that’s something that’s going to come together.
What’s that one about?
It’s a family drama. Very much in the vein of the work that Greg did on ‘Brothers and Sisters,’ but with an interesting secret at the core
And then unscripted stuff. we’ve got ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ on the air now. ‘Bachelor’ original recipe was just renewed for season 30, and that’s going to be a big celebratory season for all of us. We’re having some conversations with ABC about that. And we’re shooting ‘Golden Bachelor Season 2’ right now. And then we’re also doing, of course, my HGTV series. Before I get out the door here, I’m getting this done. ‘Bachelor Mansion,’ excited about that.
A couple of animation shows as well. We did just have the ‘Wonderfully weird World of Gumball’ premiere on Hulu, and that has resonated really, really well with fans. And then we’ve got ‘Bat Fam’ which is a spin off of our very little Batman film, which we’re doing for Prime Video. And then we’ve got a couple of other things in the works that are happening. The ‘Steven Universe’ Lars of the stars is also for Amazon. And then we just had a ‘Keeping Up with the Joneses,’ greenlit at Adult Swim. And we’re doing ‘Mr. Miracle’ with DC Studios — platform on that one is TBD.
‘Peacemaker’ Season 2 from James Gunn starring John Cena premieres on August 21, and ‘It: Welcome to Derry’ premieres this October on HBO. Also coming up in 2026 is HBO’s untitled college comedy from Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses starring Steve Carell.
And I am assuming Harry Potter will not be ready for next Emmy cycle.
Not next Emmy cycle, but the one after that. We are in production. We’re getting dailies every day. It’s so exciting. And they look great. They really do. It’s been, it’s been really fun to see.
Source : verity
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