Charlie Collier

AMC has been the home of some of the most critically acclaimed and award-winning series on television. Starting with Mad Men, then Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, AMC has transitioned from a channel that offered mainly movies to one that satisfies eclectic tastes with a broad range of original productions. Sister network SundanceTV has also branched out beyond its original mission of presenting the best independent films by offering viewers distinctive television series, often from overseas. Charlie Collier, the president and general manager of AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios, has been boosting both channels’ slates of original series and is always looking for unique voices and forms of storytelling.

WS: SundanceTV celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. When Robert Redford founded Sundance Channel, he stated that its mission was to celebrate creativity and distinctive storytelling by finding unique voices. Through the years, how has the channel remained true to its mission?
COLLIER: Bob has remained an amazing supporter of our growth. He has not only stayed true to the mission, but he has also worked with us as we have expanded upon it. Certainly before I started working for the channel, the folks who worked for SundanceTV had become market leaders with the kind of programming they were bringing to American television—Carlos, The Honorable Woman and Top of the Lake. I think that uniquely SundanceTV was a place that could not only find those original voices and stories but also elevate them in a meaningful way.

WS: How did the strategy of openness to series from outside the U.S., even those in a foreign language, come about?
COLLIER: Under the mission of finding unique voices and phenomenal stories, regardless of their birthplace, it’s been remarkable how Sundance, from its earliest days with AMC Networks, worked to find storytellers who had a different point of view and perspective. I was not working with the network when The Honorable Woman first aired, but I have to tell you, seeing something like that coming to American television, with such a specific point of view, really was one of the finest examples of exactly what the mission of Sundance was from day one and how the network has grown under AMC Networks.

WS: SundanceTV has been active in international co-productions and co-financing series. How has this strategy paid off?
COLLIER: I mentioned Carlos as the first example of international programming and it was a wonderful look at what has become a more pervasive strategy for SundanceTV. Carlos was a foreign co-production. It won the Golden Globe [for best television limited series or motion picture made for television] the year after it premiered. We looked at that history and thought there are so many more types of stories like that that SundanceTV could uniquely elevate. In many ways, these transcend the language barrier and are just great storytelling. We did it both on Sundance and on AMC, and when we hit it right we’re building passionate, loyal audiences.

WS: I hear from British and European producers and writers that they learn from the American way of writing and producing TV series. What does the U.S. have to learn from the way the Europeans or the British produce series?
COLLIER: We’re all learning from each other; there is a lot of learning back and forth at this point for sure. I will say, however, while the creative approaches on either side of the Atlantic are not different now, they are still very different with respect to the way shows get made. There are very different lengths to the talent deals for the actors, and obviously, there’s greater reliance internationally on the individual writer versus the writers’ room, which is more traditional in the U.S. But truly, we are starting to see more overlap in both directions as the co-production model increases in popularity.

WS: It’s also interesting to see how in the U.S. the number of episodes per season is shrinking for a number of reasons, and in Europe, where four or six episodes used to be considered a lot, now they are stretching to reach eight or ten.
COLLIER: It’s true. You’re seeing different order patterns and certainly different cadences to the air, but what I like the most is that you’re seeing collaboration and flexibility. We have shows like Humans, which very much has a British cadence in terms of its airing schedule, but we were able to turn it into an event on our air [on AMC] a few months after the episodes appeared in the U.K.

WS: What are the other highlights on SundanceTV?
COLLIER: We’re so excited about where SundanceTV is because, in an era when the gravitational pull of ratings on domestic linear channels has been widely reported, SundanceTV has grown dramatically. And we think it’s because we are really hitting our stride with a mix of films, the programs we talked about, and the scripted originals that have joined our air and are upcoming. Hap and Leonard, which was a high-water mark in terms of our originals this year, is returning for a second season. I believe Rectify is an enduring series, and not unlike The A Word, also on Sundance, or Mad Men or Breaking Bad on AMC, will be something SundanceTV is proud to have in its DNA for years to come. The final season of Rectify premiered on October 26, which was a terrific moment for Sundance original series. The A Word has already been renewed for season two and it really is the type of story that is uniquely SundanceTV. It’s charming, it’s internationally based but it’s absolutely a global story, and you’ll be seeing more of that. Cleverman comes from ABC in Australia and we’re thrilled to have that come back for another season. So it is a diverse slate and there is quite a bit of original scripted programming that we are going to elevate over the next year.

WS: You also aired the Italian crime series Gomorrah.
COLLIER: It is a terrific piece of story­telling. You learn a lot when you speak to your audience but, before that, we pass it to people we think will be fans of it here at the network. It’s fun to walk by and talk to people about a series like Gomorrah and know that they are as passionate about that as something in their own language.

WS: What role do feature films still play on SundanceTV?
COLLIER: With feature films, first and foremost, purely based on the number of hours, you have to say that SundanceTV very much still has film at its core. We curate all sorts of films through the original mission and again, based just purely on the numbers, it is primarily a movie network. We not only brand around movies, we also use them to help elevate some of the original programming. And by having such a diverse library of films at its core, Sundance is able to curate intelligently to help support its original series.

WS: What about unscripted series?
COLLIER: In terms of nonfiction programming, I’m very proud of what happens on Sunday morning with Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter because it allows us to reinforce every angle of Sundance’s creativity. It has interviews with filmmakers and is obviously heavy on the area that is longest in our legacy, which is the creative voice around film, but it also beautifully weaves in television storytelling and every aspect of the filmed arts. It really complements our air beautifully.

WS: Are all the viewing options that technology gives consumers, such as binge-watching, impacting scripted television and the way you program shows?
COLLIER: I do think the impact of technology is pervasive, whether it’s that emphasis on bingeing or just the ability to time-shift and have more of an on-demand world. At the same time, I still do believe in some fundamental tenets that make linear television great, like the power of event television. When you see it, it stands out more now and in many ways is more valuable than it was, but it very much still exists. What has happened is that all these new ways of watching have put more pressure on us to create programming that has some urgency to it and captures those passionate audiences, who will help, by the way, not just make our programming successful on our linear platforms but across all platforms that we now design and distribute to. All these new ways of watching are absolutely a pervasive change and have created an opportunity to market to people not just during the linear event, but what we call Live+365—live TV, and the event nature of it, and then the second that’s over, really trying to get people engaged on whatever platform is their preferred platform. [For example, recently] we wrapped season one of Preacher, which we are incredibly proud of, on AMC. It was a very successful launch on American television this year. The day it ended we started promoting the binge of that series on all of our apps and alternate platforms. We take very seriously having that type of success not just contained to linear, but also transitioned to the other platforms. We hope to have people back for the next live Preacher television event.

WS: You hired a cultural anthropologist to help understand shifts in television, from escapist fare back in the ’70s to immersive content today. What were some of the findings of the study?
COLLIER: I do think that immersive content rises and connects with a passionate audience in a way that is different than so much great television that doesn’t hit those heights. So we very much wanted to study what it was that was making people feel so passionate about the types of stories that we’re telling and that so many others are telling. But very few shows have risen to the level where they get into your soul, and when that happens I think it’s pretty magical.

We looked at some of the ingredients that our cultural anthropologist and other researchers have helped us study and we learned that it has to do not just with the great storytelling led by great writing, but also very much what’s going on in the world [cultural forces such as diversity, less religiosity and the power of individual voices on social media] that would make people be open to those messages in a far more personal and enduring way than it was back in the days of The Waltons and Kung Fu.

WS: Since you have increased the number of original series on AMC and SundanceTV, has your development process evolved over the last few years?
COLLIER: Absolutely, we are constantly refining the development process across SundanceTV and AMC. If you look at SundanceTV, we’re in the early phase of creative development of scripted originals, but on AMC we’ve refined and revised the development process quite actively over the years and we continue to do so. We are still very committed to adult dramas. You look at shows like Turn: Washington’s Spies and Halt and Catch Fire, or our upcoming adaptation of The Son starring Pierce Brosnan—those very much have a home on AMC. With The Walking Dead and Preacher and Into the Badlands, we’ve done a healthy dose of genre development that wasn’t there in the early days but certainly is core to our brand now. Even in terms of process, look at what we’ve done on staffing writers’ rooms early so we get a longer and larger look at the material prior to greenlighting. That’s been a real evolution for us that has gotten us deeper into the story than we ever were before prior to greenlighting a series.

WS: What have you learned from looking for the next great show—after the end of Mad Men and Breaking Bad—that you can apply to both SundanceTV and AMC? You can never replicate those two shows, but how do you look for what you think might be the next great one?
COLLIER: You started in exactly the right place. The first thing you learn is that you cannot replace a show like Mad Men, and you can’t replace a show like Breaking Bad. We spent at least a couple of years on both shows trying to elevate them and put them in the proverbial hall of fame. In fact, both of them are now in the Smithsonian and that was a rewarding and fitting end to two series that truly are not to be duplicated. They are part of our history forever and we will always be proud that they are part of our DNA.

You do learn a lot from them in terms of guiding principles, like believing that great drama is more about the character than the plot—that’s a big one for us. And obviously, on both those shows and so many others we are proud to invest in, we believe that nothing trumps great writing. You do learn a lot from those, but I would also say that when you have a network with shows as diverse as Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, The Son, Hell on Wheels and Halt and Catch Fire, you have to remain flexible. If you didn’t know our slate and you were looking at that portfolio of shows, discovering that they are all on the same network and are being elevated as originals by the same people might come as something of a surprise. It’s that flexibility and that nature of being eclectic by design that we are all very proud of.

WS: AMC Studios is in production on its first anthology series, The Terror. Anthologies are becoming increasingly popular on a number of networks. What does this mean for you in the U.S. and internationally?
COLLIER: Domestically and internationally, this is an AMC Studios show. The fact that we found our next genre series is really exciting and drumming up a great deal of attention. It’s an anthology series based on Dan Simmons’s international bestseller. It is executive produced by Ridley Scott and David Zucker. As you can imagine, if you want to be in good hands in the genre space, you can’t do much better than that! Each season of The Terror explores a different true story in history and overlays a supernatural element. So it allows us to do some of what we’ve been very successful at doing across multiple stories on our air, which is elevating material about which people are passionate and then adding a fictional element in the genre, and that will make it like nothing they have ever seen before. We are thrilled that the AMC networks internationally have taken it into their footprint, and we have a lot of interest around this all over the world.

WS: What are you learning about U.S. viewers’ acceptance of stories, settings and characters that are not American?
COLLIER: For one, the absolute growth of scripted story­telling, in general, has allowed audiences to lean into the projects that maybe they wouldn’t have when there were far fewer choices. I believe, especially with the subtitled fare, in never trying to be television for everybody, it’s television for a specific audience. And when we hit it right with The Returned or with Deutschland 83 on SundanceTV, I think it’s less about learning and more about what we’re reinforcing, which is audiences will come for great storytelling, well told, almost regardless of the format.

WS: Just a few years ago it would have been unheard of to air a series in a foreign language with subtitles, yet SundanceTV has done so successfully with Deutschland 83.
COLLIER: It’s interesting; even now, foreign-language series with subtitles are slightly few and far between for us, but we do it on notable programs. You mentioned Deutschland 83. When something cuts through and is a unique type of storytelling, we’ve made that choice. Frankly, I think it serves not only those who speak the native language but those who are fans—again, as the mission says—of unique voices and elevated storytelling. Another example is The Returned. It came under my colleagues’ leadership of SundanceTV, but how great to have The Returned offered on SundanceTV in the very same networks group that has The Walking Dead on AMC. It shows how we can do different types of storytelling, but the two channels are first cousins in many ways in terms of creative voice, originality and excellence.

WS: How do you work with showrunners to help them pursue their vision while still getting a show that fits your brands?
COLLIER: We’ve been fortunate to have some terrific showrunners, and I’ll tell you the best showrunner relationships are the ones based on trust. Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould with Better Call Saul, the prequel to Breaking Bad, and with Breaking Bad, they’ve been here pretty much as long as I’ve been here, and I consider them true partners, not just on their shows but partners to the network and personal friends. There is a real mutual trust, and we do tend to walk arm in arm. I will say that we always start with the premise that the showrunner’s vision is the most important ingredient. At the same time, we also believe in development, and there is an art to that balance.

WS: With so many television series these days across so many channels and platforms, what are you learning about the best way to launch a show, make noise and get viewers’ attention?
COLLIER: I will tell you brand matters a lot. We believe we have a very important and valuable asset in the AMC brand and the idea that an AMC show means something to viewers around the world. That is incredibly valuable when we are launching a new show and when we are taking the type of creative risks that turn into Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Preacher. We are thrilled that television has become such a dominant form of filmed entertainment in our culture. I believe the stories on our air and other great ones across other networks and platforms just simply wouldn’t have been possible in terms of creative risks and storytelling excellence without this technological change. But with that, to make noise in a relatively cluttered landscape, having the brand that backs what you do really matters.