Ignore that deep, existential AI dread for a moment — “It’s the devil’s tool,” cautions Damon Lindelof — and you’ll find that showrunners actually do have plenty to feel good about these days.
Original concepts are selling again (Widow’s Bay! Pluribus!). Commercial success with the old model is still possible (see: High Potential or The Pitt). Young people are watching more than just MrBeast attempting not to die on camera: Just look at Prime Video’s YA triumvirate of The Summer I Turned Pretty, Off Campus and Sterling Point. Hell, a Canadian import with zero marketing and a whole lot of gay sex turned two unknown actors into The Beatles. TV is so back! And even as creatives brace for the Warner Bros.-Paramount merger as if the moon herself were barreling toward the Southland to incinerate us all, THR‘s annual poll of the most powerful writer-producers in TV dives into all the good stuff like show envy, the trends they’re glad to see die and the execs who impress them the most. And, yeah, sure, AI is coming for all our jobs. But it hasn’t yet. So take a breath and take note of Michelle King’s advice for aspiring TV scribes who might one day join the ranks of this storied list: “None of the sensible professions — lawyer, engineer, doctor — are safe from AI either. So, you might as well become a writer.”
