E!'s Adam Stotsky on Taking Over the People's Choice Awards

the Comcast owned brand. Thanks for coming in out, Thanks for having me, brightest mind that is, that's a that's that's a stretch, but it's a lot to live up to it. You're gonna be just fine. Um. So, when I saw the headline about you getting People's Choice about a year ago, I understood it to some degree. It's entertainment, People's Choice E. On the other hand, awards shows. Live programming certainly has its value, but awards shows are tough,

tough roads. Sometimes ratings could be tough, cluttered atmosphere. What did you see in this particular franchise? Sure, well, for us, it was a it was a bang on opportunity for us UM. I was sitting in my office about sixteen seventeen months ago, and I took a call from one of our AUNT sales colleagues in New York who said to me, I just took an even stranger call from a lawyer deep inside Procter and Gamble. Do you have

any interest in acquiring the People's Choice Awards? How does Proctor and Gamble even come to own an awards show? Procter and Gamble actually created the People's Choice Awards forty three years ago as a media property to sell their brands. You know, they have had UM a long and very successful history of UM media development and production. Soap operas are called soap operas because of Procter and Gamble. They created the format to sell soap and UM in addition

to soaps and Movies of the Week. Forty plus years ago, they created their own award show event. They partnered with CBS and UM for the past four decades have built the franchise into a a legitimate reflection of what audiences and fans are are really excited about in the pop culture landscape. And so for US as a brand, we're focused on entertaining and exciting the pop culture fan and

all of us. That's our mission statement. That's you know, emblazoned on our T shirts and in the halls of the But were you in the marketplace looking for award shows? Because when I think of the I think red carpet, your companioned the awardship. That's true, you know, our our head of communications, Sarah Sarah Goldstein likes to say, you know, for the past two decades, we've we've built a business off of filming people walking through a parking lot and UM.

And that's true. That's a that's a great UM legacy for us. UM. It's part of our brand, UM, it's part of our identity. It's a great it's a great part of our business. But we have always had these ambitions of getting into UM, into the building UM as it were, and UM and so over the course of the past several years, we had had UM discussions about acquiring some of the smaller shows that would come up

for UM come up for discussion. We had talked about starting one from scratch, which feels like it feels like a very very tough lift. And so when this call came into me, I sat back and thought, she's well

that that couldn't be any more perfect for us. He is an egalitarian brand where a populist brand, and I mean that with a small p. In today's political climate, and um, you know, we are all about reflecting the current tastes and interests and and and and passions of our audience and the People's Choice awards for forty three years,

UM has always been about that. I get it. On the other hand, award show there's just so many of them, and People's Choice I agree as a brand, but I don't necessarily I wouldn't say I saw it coming off sort of a peak. So what did you see in it that you thought you could take it to the next level? Well, we saw, we saw forty years of equity, we saw forty years of history, UM. And we saw an idea, a concept, this idea of for the people by the people that felt really decidedly and so UM.

When we sat down with the Procinant Gamble team who had done it, just a great job. And you know, their business, like all of our businesses, changing and so they were looking to to exit broadcast production. UM, we thought this is a relatively modest investment for us, to take a swing into UM an ownership position. Whereas historically, if you think about our red carpet business, which is you know, we do eight to ten of these red carpet events a year. Uh, you know, we're more of

a renter or in some cases of squatter. We sort of show up on the show, up on the red carpet with our with with our cameras and UM and we build that into you know, into a great story for E. This is an opportunity for us to take that experience, that exposure, UM, that expertise UM and and really drive it all the way from the red carpet into the main awards show in a in a relatively UM cost efficient way. And so UM strategically made a

lot of sense for us. Live viewership is something that you know, many of us in the AD supported linear TV space, covet and UM. You know, even even in the face of a challenging competitive dynamic for award shows, felt like a smart, strategic UM and and really focused investment for us. But how do you spruce it up and make it your own? Because I think there's expectations when you move from say CBSDE we're going to see a slightly different better property hopefully will be will be better.

It will certainly be different. UM. We've spent Jen Neal, who's our chief marketing officer and also the executive producer of our live events business. UM will share Studios, which is our in house unscripted producing facility have long history producing our red carpet business. UM and Den of Thieves,

who's our external producing partner. UM, most famous for producing the MTV v m as for the past decade or so, have spent the better part of the last year kind of stripping the franchise down to the studs as it were UM and reimagining it through the lens of E. UM, reimagining it for UM where we think award shows are going, and and reimagining it for global audience. Uh. You know. This will be the first time that the franchise has

been broadcast globally. UM E distributes our Channel two D and sixty countries around the world, so this would be a global broadcast. It's also going to be a UM A multi platform UM production for US, so not only will E broadcast, it will also be simulcast across the USA network, Sci Fi Network, Bravo Roadblock as they say

the road the roadblock across the entire portfolio. And so you know, we we spent the better part of a year just looking at the category as a whole um and really trying to take the best of what's performed in um the category and and really bringing it to bear, to reimagine it, reimagining the people's choice for for e and for a new audience. And that's what you'll see on November eleven. It seems to me that what works for award shows is when and I think of how

MTV does this. This is I think analogous because they're a cable network. It's their own show that they own. It's really about concocting these viral moments, things that people are gonna be talking about minutes after they occur on social media. We is People's Choice, gonna maybe unbuttoned the top collar and get crazy because that's my only way

of seeing viral happen. Yeah, I think, you know, we'll do We'll do a lot of things that will be different, certainly from the show's history and different from other award shows. I think, first and foremost, I'm given our two decades worth of red carpet expertise. We're gonna take that experience red carpet for two hours and drive it right into

the main show. So they're gonna it's gonna feel like a connected hole between the red carpet show, which is our legacy UM, and this new expression of the People's Choice Awards. So historically, if you think about the way UM other award shows UM exist visa vi their red carpet experience, they feel like too two very separate and discrete things. This is going to feel like a connected whole, UM.

And right out of the gate, we know that our main job is to connect with our audiences and to drive those um, those those those moments UM that will get people talking. And so we've got a lot of things planned UM, a lot of things that I'll wait to surprise your viewers with on November eleven. But we understand what it is we're up against and have planned accordingly. And I'm curious about the Procter and gamble of all this. What was that acquisition sess like, were they looking for

you know, tough, very competitive bids. Were there are other people in there? We do know there were other people involved, UM, some household names to your viewers to your listeners, UM, they'll remain nameless. But you know, I think, I think what we proposed to UH, to Procter and Gamble was an environment that would would would care and nurture this baby that they had birth and developed and had grown into a sizeable franchise across Barty three years. UM. It

wasn't just simply the acquisition of an asset UM. We really made a pitch to them for UM strategically, why the brand and the franchise made sense at E how it could be an outgrowth of our entertainment news offering and our live events offering UM, and so I think

for them, UM it made financial sense. We put together a financial package that that that was UM that solid and obviously UM good for them, but it was also a strategic presentation that that we wanted them to understand how we were going to use what they had built, because you know, in addition to marketing scope and and and Crest and oil of l A and lots of other products, this was this was one of their brands and and and something that they cared for and nurtured

over you know, over the course of decades, and so UM articulating that their baby would have a comfortable home at E. U was also part of the pitch in addition to the financials. And there's a lot going on at e and we'll we'll get into that. But I'm curious what this means in terms of the brand identity of EID as it tell us something new your brand. It's been how long now has it been years? And it's never there's there's never a time, it seems, even

for networks that are a lot older. Uh, you can't rest on your laurels. There's always this constant read definition of going on. So what does this addition tell us about the brand? Yeah, yeah, it's a great question. You know what, We're focused on three things at e We create pop culture, uh in the form of the franchises that we built, Kardashians obviously being noteworthy, some of our scripted efforts, Royals Arrangement, Christian Cavalary, Uh, you know, new

sort of runaway hit for us. We report pop culture um in the form of the news, and we do that multi platform. I know you and I have spoken about that in the past. UM. And then we celebrate pop culture, and we celebrate pop culture at these sort of seminal pop culture moments throughout the year, whether it's the Oscars, the Grammys, the Golden Globes, UM, what have you,

and the People's Choice Awards. Is really sort of bridging those two, those two strategic pillars for us of reporting pop culture at the seminal moments of the year and the and the events of of pop culture and so UM. You know, it says to us that if you're interested in what's happening UM inside the pop culture landscape, E is the brand UM for you. You know. Actually, just uh, just this week, we've taken a dive back into topical

talk in a fairly sizeable way. You know. UM. Joan Rivers is, you may recall, passed away about four years ago, UM and UM with Joan passing away with Chelsea Handler leaving us for for her her efforts elsewhere, and we had gotten out of the topical talk space in UM in any significant way and UM on Monday part of me. On Sunday night, we launched Busy Tonight, which is hosted by Busy Phillips, produced by Tina Fey, which is a

four night a week topical talk show. UM. Really bringing Busy Phillips unique perspective and only on the world, but on Los Angeles and the the Hollywood ecosystem. Um uh at its uh you know, in its fullest um. But which interesting about Busy is sure she's an actress, but I think more people know her nowadays from She's got a pretty robust in Degram president. She does, she does, she's she's done a great job of cultivating a really authentic,

unique point of view through her Instagram stories. And that's really what caught us. I mean, we had been familiar,

we had known Busy for quite some time. She'd show up on the Red carpet with Michelle Williams um and you know, sure, certainly she's a she's an actor in her own regard Cougar Town to to e r tow to Dawson's Creek and so um, you know, for us to have, um, you know, a real sort of working member of the Hollywood community who also has a real strong point of view on the world and um an authentic voice that has done a great job of connecting

with millions of followers via Instagram, we thought that that that needs to come to come to eat. So in addition to Busy tonight, also on Sunday we launched Lady Gang. Lady Gang is a podcast uh topical um pop culture podcast. Entertainment Weekly called it the podcast of the Year. It was actually nominated for People's Choice Award. UM we had nothing to do with that. That was all fan driven. UM. And then last night we actually launched a third topical

talker UM called Nightly Pop. We have a daytime strip um talk show called Daily Pop, which is uh nine am here on the West coast, noon on the East coast, and it's a it's a topical um sort of gossip show. And Nightly pops the sort of edge your version, edge your sister to two. Daily Pop so a fairly significant return into topical talk. And so for us People's Choice Awards.

Along with with Busy Tonight with Lady Gang, Nightly Pop just works to reinforce UM, you know, our point of view that pop culture matters, and it matters significantly to our audience, and UM, we want to make sure that anywhere, um and anytime pop culture is happening, uh, anything's happening inside that space. This this brand needs to be there. In addition to those sort of um big sort of seminal moments which will capture in into People's Choice Awards

this year. But talk shows are just as challenging a place to play as awards shows. I think, particularly we're talking about Busy and Late Night. I guess there's a two part question, what makes you think late night needs another voice? And number two? You know, I think there's a special challenge, a challenge that I think he has dealt with in the past about taking a digital I don't want to call her a digital native star digital native ish maybe she might appreciate that and transplant that

into TV. So how do you make these things work? Yeah? Well, look, the entire business is challenging. That's what makes it, That's what makes it interesting, and that is what really works. Uh, you know, challenges us to raise our game each and every time out. Um. You know, I think we didn't really set out to get back into back into late night per se. Um. We were introduced to Busy and just kind of fell in love with her. Um. We love her voice, we love her authenticity. She's so fun.

She's like that friend that every girl wants to have and wants to hang out with with a with a margharita and uh, you know, a pair of comfortable pants. I think she calls him. Um. Actually, she's got this thing on her show. She calls it Mr. Knightgown. Um. She gets into Mr. Knightgown to close every show because she knows that our audience is sort of settling into bed for the night, and so she wants to be that sort of last last moment um for our for

our audience before they before they kick off for the night. UM. And so you know, I think we follow the talent and we follow the um. We follow the opportunity more so than we look at the competitive dynamic. UM. Busies on at ten o'clock. Um, So it's late night adjacent, we'll call it. Maybe it's late night for some folks, actually late night for me the father to probably late night for you as a father one. UM so UM.

A little bit of a zig against the against the pure late night zag of eleven thirty and twelve thirty across the rest of the linear ad supported networks. UM. But I think it's it's really about out. Anytime you have an opportunity to find um and collaborate with a unique voice, whether it's Busy Lady Gang, the team at Nightly Pop. You know you have to find a venue

for it. UM. Uh competition be damned and UM we feel really bullish about UM our dive back into topical talk with these these three franchises, and UM, you know we know from experience with Chelsea, UH, my experience at NBC with Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon. Uh, these kinds of shows are marathons. They're not sprints. UM. The first shows bear very little resemblance to the tenth show or

the thirtieth show. And UM, you know, we've got to create an environment where UM, a voice like Busy, UM, a voice like the Lady Gang can can can play and can really innovate and try some new things and UM not be worried about about performance. And so we'll look at certainly, we'll look at ratings performance that that

is a key driver for us. We'll also look at engagement um both uh linearly UM and socially and digitally, UM, we'll look at retention, you know, week to week, episode episode, We'll look at flow vertically horizontally across across the east. So lots of metrics that we can um evaluate our success UM through. It sounds like you're really drawing on as you eluded your days at NBC when you were there.

Talk about what you were doing when I first got to know you were running marketing then, But are what you is? What you did then it was just ten fifteen years ago applicable to today's environment. Sure, Uh, it was just about ten years ago. So I spent I spent three years at NBC as the as the president of marketing. UM. You know. During that during that tenure,

we UM had some terrific late night successes. UM, we had some some challenges migrating at late night franchise and Jay Land know to uh to ten o'clock, which was very disruptive, very challenging and ultimately and ultimately um uh not something we look back on all that, all that fondly from a ratings perspective. For me, UM, it was a great opportunity to learn how to how to how to deal with really interesting, strong talent voices like Jay Leno,

like Jimmy Fallon Um, like Conan O'Brien. You know, we launched Conan at thirty to take over the tonight show. UM. And so a great opportunity for uh, for someone like me to see a new category. I grown up in the cable space, Sci Fi and Discovery. Prior to that had never spent any time in the broadcast ecosystem. So

that was that was learning. UM. But I think most importantly, these are incredibly strong voices with very very strong executive producing partners behind them, and UM, our job really is to create an environment within which they can they can flourish, and their voices can thrive, UM, and they can tell stories and they can connect with an audience. And I think, UM, you know, creating uh some some some guardrails within which that exploration, that innovation, that creativity can happen is really

the job of the network. And that's something that UM that I learned with uh some exposure to the folks who were running Late Night at the time. Rick Ludwin actually was this the head of Late Night um at an NBC really legend in the industry, UM. And just watching the way that he dealt with talent like Conan, like Jimmy, like Jay Leno was UM, you know, kind of worth its weight in gold and just a great experience for me that I draw on really on a

on a daily basis, UM. And now more than ever as we sort of dive back into it, now that I've asked you this deep in the weeds TV question, I want to go in the other direction. Really the most macro question I could ask you of all, which is how much day to day are you thinking of the beyond just being a programmer of a linear network, but of really a multimedia brand. And I actually think there are a very few cable networks that could really claim to have the history as a multimedia brand. E

being pretty robust as a website for quite some time. Yeah, yeah, So four years ago, uh, when when I, along with Francis Barrett came into came into E, we made a fairly sizeable UM investment in UM, growing our digital business. We had a as you mentioned, UM, a fairly sizeable website, you online dot com UM, and it's content set mirrored what we were producing on a daily basis for our

E News linear show at seven o'clock. The content looked shockingly similar, but they were run as two separate operations. Understanding that news and information was increasingly becoming mobile first UM and social first, in particular especially for ease audience of young women, we made the decision to collapse the two organizations into one, and in some ways actually in the focus. So for young women UM getting their news and information in our case about pop culture and entertainment,

UM is really a mobile first kind of experience. And so what we produce, what we publish, as it were two platforms like Snapchat, platforms like Instagram stories, UM, is it as important, if not more so UM in terms of engagement than UM what we produced nightly to our linear platform at seven o'clock UM. And so you know, when we think about the brand on a on a macro level, we think about engagement, and we think about

total engagement. UM on a monthly basis, he will do about a about about a billion digital engagements and that's a a post, a tweet, a comment, a like, a view, about a billion engagements across all of our platforms. And so when you think about that whole ecosystem in that broad away, it really kind of opens up new storytelling opportunities.

We're talking earlier about Snapchat snaps, a great platform that has done a terrific job of engaging millions and tens of millions of of young people on a daily basis. We felt it was important to a partner with them and really learn how to tell stories on that platform, UM, and so you know, it's it's a it's a it's a great opportunity not only to tell stories on all these new platforms, but also to connect all these various

experiences in terms of delivering value to our advertisers. And so when we think about partnering with brands, UH, we think about not only the value of a thirty second spot on our linear feed, but also how do we take their messaging UM or their objective or their initiative really across all these touch points that we have with

our audience, across all these platforms. Your parent company has a pretty sizable investment in snap Uh, you have a pretty sizable investment in UH being part of snaps, Snapchat shows plat form. How's that going for you? You are probably the single most prominent TV brand there. There's got to be some early lessons. Yeah, we were early in on on Snapchat. UM. JOHNA. Jerry And who runs our e news business across all of its all of its manifestations, brought the platform up to me I think three and

a half years ago. I was not familiar with Snapchat, was not a user UM, and he said, you know, we we need to figure out how to how to tell an E news story on this on this platform, because they're doing an amazing job of connecting with, UH with twelve to twenty four year olds, which is a very elusive audience for linear television, and so very early on we said, okay, let's let's figure out how to use our infrastructure are E news infrastructure of broadcast, video production, distribution,

our news gathering organization, let's create something bespoke for the platform. And out of that process, together with Nick Bell, who I know you've spent some time with snapchats head programmer, YEP created a show called The Rundown, which is E news for snapchatters, and um, you know, over the course of the last couple of years since it's launched, I think it's maybe eighteen twenty four months old, it does about three and a half million viewers and episode three

times a week. That's incredible audience engagement and UM you know, for us, it just trains us to learn a new language, UM, tell stories in a in a vertical format, UM, and I think most importantly, understand how to connect with with young people who may not be coming to the linear platform UM as as frequently as they once were, well, looking ahead, what are some of the things that you have, whether it's on TV or SNAP or anywhere, that you think, UH will be big. I heard a a certain classic

E franchise, for instance, will be returning to TV. The E True Hollywood Story will be returning in ten to E were incredibly excited about it. Every why, every everything. I guess this is reboot culture and everything. Of course, everything, every every everything had its time and everything will have its time once again. I think, UH, I think is is the adage. UM. You know, for us, anytime we go out and we talk to our audience, UM, a couple of a couple of franchises always crop up in

the conversation. UM. Each of Hollywood Story is one of them. It was a seminal UH brand definitional franchise for E UM in its heyday. UM, and that brand still is resonant inside our current and prospective audiences hearts and minds. And you know, I think we've also seen Netflix has done a terrific job with this. UM. We've seen UM.

You know, audiences get really passionate about documentaries, UM and about documentary storytelling, and so UM our aim with the True Hollywood Story is to bring a documentarians lens to a franchise that you know, had applied a little bit on the sellasius, maybe a little bit on the uh. I call it like the you know, the overdose of the week, um and um, and really tell those definitive Hollywood stories, those true definitive Hollywood stories in a unique,

fresh and and hopefully very high quality way. Well, I've always thought that this kind of storytelling that we saw from each true Hollywood story. And also I would say vach Ones behind the music, which how they have not rebooted that ten more times? I don't understand. Wait for it. I'm sure it's coming. I mean these things I think would resonate also even on digital platforms. I mean, is there any thought to a franchise like that being more

than just a show? Yeah? Anytime we uh we developed content today, we're thinking about it through a multi platform lens. UM not only because that's where audiences are consuming content, not just on linear platforms but on um actually they're no longer new and emergent, but on all these other platform platforms, be at Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and and the like. And so we've got to figure out how we build our principal quote unquote legacy business, which is still a

sizeable and very vibrant business. But also, how do we take those franchises and those stories, just as we do with the news UM and tell them a cross platform UM in a in a unique and fresh way. And so you know, our goal ultimately with our stories UM is to create a deep and meaningful and rich relationship with our audience. And it's it would be naive of us and certainly limiting for us to think solely about the linear platform is the only way to do that.

And so everything that we're doing back at the Amy and Turcaso Davis, who's our head of head of original content, she and her team were thinking about linear stories certainly, but also thinking about how do we how do we take those concepts, those ideas, those characters, those stories and utilize the rest of the ecosystem to to build them

out into their fullest. Certainly can't let an interview with the president of EGO by without throwing out the K word Kardashian, Oh that Y word you've heard of her or the family. I should say, I'm just actually kind of want to status update. I mean, I would think that this show. This franchise has been so central to E for so long, which I think may even be a bit of a double edged sword. But do you see it as sort of primary and the E identity.

As Ever, when we think about E and when we talk to audiences about E, they're they're really kind of three things that that crop up immediately top of mind. They think live from the Red Carpet, they think the News, UM, and they think Kardashians and UM, you know that kind of instant brand clarity, especially given the UM the size of the Kardashian ecosystem. UM, I think is a real

we think it's a real strategic benefit. UM. We've had an eleven year partnership with them that's been incredibly successful and a very wild ride. UM. Chris Jenner says more often than I do, she certainly couldn't have scripted the stories that we've been able to tell together inside keeping up at the Kardashians. It's really kind of an amazing franchise. I happened to be the current custodian. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't originate the idea. I'm just the sort of

current brand manager. UM. You know, they've got They've got incredible social social influence UM and social power as well as social reach over a billion followers across Facebook, Instagram, uh, YouTube, and Twitter. And that doesn't even count Snapchat. Kylie Jenner

is really the queen of Snapchat. UM. And so that is an an invaluable marketing and promotional tool for us that the family has been incredibly gracious and gracious enough to deploy to the show's the show's benefit, um, And I think more than anything, they as a family have been incredibly open um with their with their story. UM. We seen you know, hilarity, We've seen challenging times, divorces, births, um, gender identity shifts, um, and and you know everything in between.

And that kind of authentic storytelling, that kind of open and honest, documentarian kind of kind of story is really rare and so UM, we're we're ready willing and able to tell that story as long as they're ready willing and able to be open for it. And as an executive, as the brand manager, though in the Procter and Gamble sense of the word, how on earth do you maintain a sense of control over what seems maybe isn't but

seems so uncontrollable, a lot of pepto bismol. I wonder for you, certainly, not for the faint of heart that that that's for sure. I think that you know, the good news is UM, from Chris Jenner to Kim all the all the way through the entire family. UM, they've

been incredibly UM, collaborative partners really across the board. UM. And when there are sensitive issues that UM that the cameras capture because there's always on you know, we have those conversations about, UM, how we want to tell these stories. They're not only participants in the show, their executive producers and so they have a they have a say, and they have some influence. UM. But it isn't a one way street. UM. You know, they they they seek our perspective,

they seek our opinion. UM. And I think that we collectively have had just a great partnership across the eleven year history. And UM, you know it's it's it's um, it's delivered so so far, so good. Well, I have but never never doll sure, well, I have no doubt they am a whole lot more going to keep things interesting that you for you, Aggie, for quite some time, Thanks for coming in and talking about thanks for having me any This has been another episode of Strictly Business.

Tune in next we for another helping of scintillating conversation with media movers and shakers, and please make sure you subscribe to the podcast to hear future episodes. Also leave a review in Apple Podcast let us know how we're doing. M