{"id":19065,"date":"2022-11-30T08:50:17","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T13:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2022-12-01T09:38:25","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T14:38:25","slug":"magilla-entertainment-on-the-keys-to-franchise-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/magilla-entertainment-on-the-keys-to-franchise-building\/","title":{"rendered":"Magilla Entertainment on the Keys to Franchise-Building"},"content":{"rendered":"

Magilla Entertainment co-founders Matt Ostrom and Laura Palumbo Johnson talk to <\/em>TV Real about building successful franchises.<\/em><\/p>\n

Magilla Entertainment has been producing non-scripted television since it was co-founded in 2009 by executive producers Ostrom and Johnson. Comprising more than 1,800 hours of programming, its portfolio of shows has spawned a range of successful franchises, including Moonshiners<\/em>, Diesel Brothers<\/em> and Beachfront Bargain Hunt<\/em>, to name a few.<\/p>\n

According to Ostrom, the biggest key to building a successful franchise is character. \u201cCharacter conquers all,\u201d he says. \u201cI definitely think [having] big, fun characters always wins. There\u2019s this move back into that, which is something that is great for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continues, \u201cWe\u2019ve always made our bread and butter off finding really great people and then building worlds around them or leaning in their worlds.\u201d He points to Diesel Brothers<\/em> and its roster of stars as a prime example, noting, \u201cThose are fun guys. They build giant trucks. When you\u2019re with them, you just want to hang out and be their friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

When you have great characters, the audience is invested, Johnson notes. Though not a franchise, she points to Long Island Medium<\/em> and Theresa Caputo, \u201cone of our biggest characters that we work with,\u201d she says. \u201cShe just time and time again makes people laugh while crying, or just laughing while laughing. She has that effect on you that makes you want to watch more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moonshiners<\/em> in particular is a shining example of character carrying a show. \u201cMoonshiners<\/em> was a show that started and nobody thought we could do a first season, and then no one thought we could ever do a second season,\u201d Ostrom notes. \u201cBut we were able to build out the worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continues, \u201cMaster Distiller<\/em> grew out of that because there\u2019s this moment of, these guys are such experts at making alcohol, wouldn\u2019t it be cool if they could be judges? It took a little figuring because there are lots of laws around making alcohol, so it\u2019s a really complicated show to make, but we eventually figured out a formula and we were able to expand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe networks, they want it to be bigger,\u201d he points out. \u201cSo, it\u2019s really up to us to say, \u2018Oh, let\u2019s do this.\u2019\u201d If you\u2019re thinking of expanding a show, it\u2019s important to sprinkle in opportunities throughout the original series, he says. With Diesel Brothers<\/em>, \u201cwe\u2019ve already built in a few spin-off opportunities,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are places we can take that. As the series rates, we know, oh, we have this one episode that is an example of what we want to do with the future of that franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson adds, \u201cWe definitely play with how to spin out, how to pull out the tentacles within the series first. That gives us the opportunity to find a lot of those franchises.\u201d<\/p>\n

She points to Moonshiners<\/em> again. \u201cThe Master Distiller<\/em> side of it grew out of this real competition between the guys, illegally, as to who is the best, always doing tastings when they get together and figuring out who is the master. It obviously made sense to see how we [could] bring that into a more repeatable, self-contained episode competition show.\u201d<\/p>\n

And \u201cyou know when a program has a world that\u2019s happening around it,\u201d Ostrom says. \u201cYou know when viewers are responding to it; there\u2019s social media presence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other times, it\u2019s quite obvious right from the beginning, and Magilla doesn\u2019t have to weave in spin-off opportunities throughout the original series. With Beachfront Bargain Hunt<\/em>, Ostrom notes, \u201cIt just felt like, you\u2019ve told the story, they buy [the property], you\u2019re like, well, did they fix it up? What\u2019s the next level?\u201d Thus, Beachfront Bargain Hunt Renovation<\/em> was born.<\/p>\n

Aside from centering programs around big characters, another key to success is inking deals with talent. While not necessary to build out a catalog, deals can be very strategic and beneficial, Ostrom says. \u201cSometimes we\u2019re partnering with celebrity talent, like the Biermanns, which we\u2019re out with because we know that they have notoriety within the world,\u201d he says. Other times, Magilla teams with producers such as Sugar 23, which can be equally beneficial, as you know \u201cwhich producers bring [which] strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ostrom adds, \u201cIt\u2019s mostly a lot of fun to partner with people because you get to meet people and learn about their worlds, and they\u2019re as passionate about what they do as we are about what we do, so it\u2019s always a really good collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Ostrom says the market is a little slow at the moment due to mergers and consolidation, he believes that when it kicks back up again, the demand for non-scripted series will soar, as streamers realize what cable companies did years ago: \u201cYou can make one scripted series for the same price you can make ten non-scripted series, and if you can get the same amount of eyeballs, you\u2019re coming out ahead. With non-scripted, you have ten chances to get the same amount of eyeballs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Co-founders Matt Ostrom and Laura Palumbo Johnson talk about building successful franchises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":19066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[6647,6646,6644,5863,6643,6645],"class_list":["post-19065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-beachfront-bargain-hunt","tag-diesel-brothers","tag-laura-palumbo-johnson","tag-magilla-entertainment","tag-matt-ostrom","tag-moonshiners","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nMagilla Entertainment on the Keys to Franchise-Building - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/magilla-entertainment-on-the-keys-to-franchise-building\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Magilla Entertainment on the Keys to Franchise-Building - TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Co-founders Matt Ostrom and Laura Palumbo Johnson talk about building successful franchises.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/magilla-entertainment-on-the-keys-to-franchise-building\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-30T13:50:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-01T14:38:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2017\/07\/MagillaEntertainment-MattOstromandLauraPalumboJohnson-1122.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"319\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/magilla-entertainment-on-the-keys-to-franchise-building\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/magilla-entertainment-on-the-keys-to-franchise-building\/\",\"name\":\"Magilla Entertainment on the Keys to Franchise-Building - TVREAL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-30T13:50:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-01T14:38:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/magilla-entertainment-on-the-keys-to-franchise-building\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/magilla-entertainment-on-the-keys-to-franchise-building\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/magilla-entertainment-on-the-keys-to-franchise-building\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Magilla Entertainment on the Keys to Franchise-Building\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\",\"name\":\"TVREAL\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\",\"name\":\"Jamie Stalcup\",\"description\":\"Jamie Stalcup is the executive editor of World Screen. 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