Originally posted Friday, October 18, 2019 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Georgia brought in 20 new scripted TV or streaming shows in the past year, which was fourth behind California, New York and British Columbia, according to a study by FilmLA, which promotes production in California.
The state is also fourth in overall scripted show production.
California was by far the top draw for new productions at 72 out of 196. New York was far behind at 29, followed by British Columbia (24) and Georgia (20).
Still, this was the best year ever for Georgia in terms of new scripted shows, up from 6 the previous cycle. The best season before 2018-19 was 2015-16 with 15.
With the controversial abortion bill earlier this year causing some studios to reconsider Georgia as a place to shoot, new production numbers might slip in 2019-20 but it’s too early to say how tangible an impact that will have given that a judge has placed an injunction on it.
Among the new scripted shows that debuted from September 2018 through August 2019 and were shot in Georgia included OWN’s drama “Ambitions,” Facebook Watch’s Catherine Zeta Jones vehicle “Queen America,” BET’s “American Soul,” BET’s “Boomerang,” DC Universe’s “Doom Patrol,” the CW’s “Legacies,” Hulu’s “The Act,” Netflix’s “The Haunting of Hill House.”
Excluded from this count are reality TV shows, news and talk show programming, documentaries, TV specials, TV movies, animation, children’s educational programming, short form video and daytime TV dramas. It does include pilots of shows that did not ultimately get picked up or went elsewhere.
For the first time, streaming services produced more new scripted series (76) than broadcast (67) and cable (53). That trend is expected to continue into 2020 with so many new streaming platforms joining the fray.
Other notable trends: more shows are going straight to series and seasons tend to be shorter on digital streaming platforms than either cable or broadcast. Plus, streaming services are going to spend literally tens of billions in new production so demand for soundstages will help keep Georgia busy.
Among all scripted shows (465), Georgia had 33 of them, far behind California (198) and New York (60) but relatively close to Vancouver/British Columbia (37). Georgia’s fourth place spot was secure since Toronto in fifth place only had 15.
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