Fresh off the end of his Emmy-nominated show Better Call Saul, series co-producer Vince Gilligan will create his next series with Apple TV Plus, with Saul’s Rhea Seehorn set to star.

Gilligan, who produced AMC’s Breaking Bad and series spinoff Better Call Saul for Sony Pictures, will serve as executive producer and showrunner of the yet-untitled series, which has already received a two-season order from the streaming service. 

Seehorn, who earned a 2022 Emmy nomination for her role in Better Call Saul, will star in the new Apple TV Plus series. Overall Better Call Saul — which ended its sixth and final season this past August — earned seven 2022 Emmy nominations.

Also: ‘The White Lotus,’ ‘Euphoria,’ ‘Squid Game’ Top Emmy Award Winners

In a tweet, Seehorn said she was “over-the-moon excited” about the opportunity to work again with Gilligan.

The series will also reunite Gilligan with Apple TV Plus executives Zack Van Amburg, Jamie Erlicht and Chris Parnell, who, while at Sony Pictures, were behind the development of both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. ■

Actress Krysten Ritter has landed a starring role in AMC Networks’ Orphan Black spinoff series Orphan Black: Echoes.

Ritter, who starred in Netflix's Marvel’s Jessica Jones series, will executive produce and star in the 10-episode Orphan Black: Echoes series, which follows a group of women as they weave their way into each other’s lives while unravelling the mystery of their identities and uncovering a story of love and betrayal, said AMC Networks. 

Ritter — who also starred in Breaking Bad and Don’t Trust the B----- in Apartment 23, and will star in HBO’s upcoming series Love and Death —  plays a woman who is trying to find her place in the world in Orphan Black: Echoes, AMC said. 

The Emmy-winning Orphan Black series, which starred Tatiana Maslany, ran on BBC America from 2013-2017. 

Orphan Black: Echoes, which will premiere in 2023, will be executive produced by Anna Fishko along with John Fawcett, David Fortier, Ivan Schneeberg, Katie O’Connell Marsh, Nick Nantell and Kerry Appleyard. ■ 

AMC will launch the final season of its Emmy-nominated drama series Better Call Saul with a two-episode premiere April 18, the network announced as part of its Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour session.

The final season of the series, a spinoff of AMC’s Breaking Bad starring Bob Odenkirk, concludes the complicated journey and transformation of its compromised hero, Jimmy McGill (Odenkirk), into criminal lawyer Saul Goodman. Better Call Saul’s sixth season will roll out in two parts, with the first seven episodes debuting April 18 and culminating with the series’ final six episodes beginning July 11, said AMC. 

Three new original short-form series connected to the world of Better Call Saul will also debut this spring, including the animated series Slippin’ Jimmy; Cooper’s Bar, starring Saul’s Rhea Seehorn; and new episodes of the Emmy-Award winning Better Call Saul Employee Training Video series.

Along with Odenkirk, Better Call Saul also stars Rhea Seehorn, Jonathan Banks, Giancarlo Esposito, Michael Mando and Tony Dalton. The series is executive produced by Peter Gould, Vince Gilligan, Mark Johnson, Melissa Bernstein, Thomas Schnauz, Gordon Smith, Alison Tatlock, Diane Mercer, and Michael Morris. 

“Vince, Peter and Bob took the question, ‘Why would you ever try to follow one of the most celebrated and beloved shows in television history with a sequel,’ and they answered it on every possible level, with truly extraordinary results,” said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks in a statement. “Saul Goodman has been a central character on AMC for more than a decade, and he really livens up the place.”

The six-part Slippin’ Jimmy animated series follows the misadventures of a young Jimmy McGill and his childhood friends in Chicago, Illinois. Told in the style of classic 70s-era cartoons, each episode is an ode to a specific movie genre — from spaghetti westerns and Buster Keaton to The Exorcist, AMC said. ■

Cooper’s Bar, led by Rhea Seehorn, is a six-episode digital series that follows the antics of character actor Cooper, played by Lou Mustillo (Mike & Molly) and the unique group of LA natives who frequent his neighborhood bar.  

Better Call Saul’s Emmy Award-winning Employee Training Video series will also return this summer and will teach viewers how to make commercials the Better Call Saul way.  The videos will feature cameos from Better Call Saul characters and be penned by Better Call Saul writer Ariel Levine. ■ 

AMC will debut the fifth season if its drama series Better Call Saul on Feb. 23, the network announced Thursday.

The 10-episode fifth season will debut on Feb. 23, with a second new episode airing the next night, according to AMC. The Breaking Bad spinoff stars Bob Odenkirk, Rhea Seehorn, Jonathan Banks, Michael Mando and Giancarlo Esposito. 

AMC will premiere a new season of its Emmy-nominated series Better Call Saul in February across two nights, the network said Wednesday.

The series, which stars Bob Odenkirk, will debut its fifth season on Feb. 23, followed by a second new episode on Feb. 24, according to the network. Subsequent episodes will air on Monday nights at 9 p.m.

AMC's Breaking Bad is often heralded as one of the greatest television shows of all time. The series, which starred Bryan Cranston as chemistry teacher suffering from lung cancer who decides to produce and sell crystallized methamphetamine to secure his family's financial future, won 19 Emmy Awards and garnered near universal critical acclaim during its five-season run in the late 2000s.

MCN Original Videos caught up with Cranston in 2010 prior to the show's third season and before the show really took off with viewers and critics. 

For the first time, the lights of Broadway will shine on The Cable Center’s newest Cable Hall of Fame class.

Five executives and a groundbreaking television show — AMC’s drug-dealer drama Breaking Bad — will share the stage of New York’s Ziegfeld Ballroom on Wednesday, April 4, for the 2018 Cable Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Lending more star wattage to the festivities will be host Carla Hall, a popular cooking personality from ABC’s The Chew and Bravo’s Top Chef and Top Chef America.

Among the industry figures set to be enshrined are Nomi Bergman, president, Advance/Newhouse; John Bickham, president and chief operating officer, Charter Communications; Balan Nair, president and CEO, Liberty Latin America; Richard Plepler, chairman and CEO, HBO; and Neil Smit, vice chairman, Comcast Corp.

June Travis, a former NCTA executive, will also be presented with the group’s Bresnan Ethics in Business Award. Breaking Bad creator, head writer and executive producer Vince Gilligan will accept Hall of Fame honors on the AMC show’s behalf.

Nomi Bergman
President, Advance/Newhouse

Second-generation cable executive Nomi Bergman didn’t intend to get into the family business. After graduating from the University of Rochester with a degree in statistics and economics, Bergman went to work as a systems consultant in Arthur Andersen & Co.’s consulting division. Bergman’s father, Robert Miron, ran the Newhouse cable companies, and a cousin at parent company Advance/Newhouse encouraged her to join the larger organization’s internal consulting group. As an analyst with Advance/Newhouse, Bergman worked on instituting best practices and operating efficiencies among the company’s publications and cable divisions.

In the late 1980s, her group installed new accounting systems at company properties. Noticing that the various cable operations used a variety of billing systems, she recommended integrating them. She took charge of what would be a two-year project involving 50 system conversions. She became a cable nomad, setting up camp in each Newhouse location to oversee successive rollouts. The odyssey was an immersion in MSO field operations that convinced Bergman to make her professional home in cable at Advance/Newhouse. (The company formed a partnership with Time Warner Cable in 1995.)

Bergman adapted quickly to the architecture side of the cable business. Among her most satisfying achievements was being part of the launch of RoadRunner, Time Warner’s broadband internet service. “Being a part of reinventing the purpose of a cable system … re-architecting service delivery, growing the team, was beyond exciting,” she said.

Bergman helped launch sixth-ranked MSO Bright House Networks in 2003 and served as the company’s president from 2007-16. Today, as senior executive officer with Advance/Newhouse companies, she focuses on corporate development and strategic partnerships.

The busy executive and mother of three daughters has been a force in a number of cable and community support organizations, and she remains actively involved with several. Her work on the board of Adaptive Spirit grew out of a mother-daughter activity that became an annual tradition. “Watching [U.S. Paralympic Ski Team members] embrace their disabilities as their star qualities and become exceptional athletes is incredibly inspiring,” Bergman said. “It’s a powerful metaphor for us all — about how to live our lives and be our best selves.”

She believes in the value of kindness in all aspects of life. “People trust kind and caring leaders,” she said, and feels these qualities helped her to cultivate dedicated fearless, and knowledgeable teams who felt empowered to win.

John Bickham
President and Chief Operating Officer, Charter Communications

John Bickham’s career has taken him from the utility industry in Texas to the cable C-suite in Connecticut. Born in Corpus Christi, he graduated from Texas A&I — now part of the Texas A&M system — but had no idea where he would go from there. He landed at utility holding company Houston Industries, where he helped design and build coal-fired generating stations. In 13 years with the company, he was involved in utility regulation at the national and state levels. In the mid-1980s, the holding company became interested in cable and went into partnership with ATC. Bickham’s accidental entry into the cable business was the start of a long, successful career.

Compared to the staid world of utilities, Bickham found cable “an immature business, unsophisticated from a business planning and construction standpoint. It was different, it was fun, and you were a lot closer to the cash register.” Thirty years ago, “who knew the business was going to be what it is today? Today … we sell services that every home and business needs.” In 1986, he co-founded KBLCOM, a cable company that partnered with ATC and owned cable systems in eight states. He left as president and chief operating officer of KBLCOM to operate Time Warner Cable’s Los Angeles division, and advanced to executive vice president of TWC, overseeing the company’s operations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.

Bickham moved to Cablevision Systems in 2004 as president of cable and communications. He joined Charter as COO in 2012 and added president to his title in 2016 when the company’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks closed. In the cable industry, local operations continue while the owners change; at Charter, Bickham has gotten reacquainted with cable systems that he previously led at KBLCOM.

The father of two grown daughters, Bickham enjoys spending time with his four-year-old grandson. And he travels the world in pursuit of game birds — to England, Spain and South America, as well as in the U.S.

Bickham advises the industry’s future leaders to take every opportunity to learn the different aspects of the business, especially as companies grow and jobs become more tightly focused. “Don’t limit yourself,” he urged. “Don’t ever get bored with what you’re doing. Move around in your company; experience different things.”

Breaking Bad
Television Drama Series, AMC, Vince Gilligan, creator

Only on cable could a series that starts with a cancer diagnosis and continues into the darkest corners of the methamphetamine industry find a home. Breaking Bad broke new ground in television drama and demonstrated the possibilities of innovative storytelling.

The series premiered on AMC in 2008 and ended in 2013. It tells the story of Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher who, with two years left to live and a desire to secure his family’s financial security, becomes a powerful meth manufacturer.

Series creator Vince Gilligan envisioned an approach that had never been tried in series television: a “show about change” that began with a definite end point in view. Gilligan is a TV fan who streams shows from the 1950s and ‘60s and observed, “The thing TV has done very well is tell an indefinite story — a story that can go on for 20 years [a la Gunsmoke or NCIS]. And the way to do that, from a writer’s point of view, is not to put the characters through too many personal changes … I figured stasis had been tried with great success for 50 years, and something more dynamic in terms of character would be interesting. But that meant it couldn’t last indefinitely.” Gilligan was well aware that the concept of a finite series would be difficult to sell. “That’s why I’m still amazed that Sony and AMC signed on. … You don’t want to be told from the get-go, ‘This thing probably won’t last long enough for you to make your money back.’ ”

Not only does Walter White change, but unlike other TV heroes or anti-heroes, he changes for the worse, as the series title suggests. Legend has it that Gilligan pitched his idea to AMC as “turning Mr. Chips into Scarface.” Another unusual approach: in the moral universe of Breaking Bad, actions have consequences. Ultimately, characters reap what they sow, and nobody gets away with anything.

Gilligan believes television drama continues to change, and he hopes it will continue to pursue shows designed for more than the same demographic sweet spot. Above all, he wants writers to be bold. “Don’t copy off your neighbor’s exam,” he said. “Don’t pay too much attention to the stories other folks are telling; tell a story that excites you.”

Balan Nair
President and CEO, Liberty Latin America

“My life is 95% luck,” said Balan Nair. “Making the most of opportunities takes a little bit of skill, but to get those opportunities [takes luck]. I’m a very lucky man.” What Nair calls luck, others might see as destiny.

In his 11 years with Liberty Global, Nair has advocated focusing on software as the driver of cable’s evolution and he’s met the challenge of harmonizing products, services, workforce and networks across multiple countries, languages and regulatory environments. Named CEO of Liberty Latin America late last year, he is now focused on high-potential markets in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Nair grew up in Malaysia, coming to the U.S. in 1985 to study electrical engineering at Iowa State University. He met his wife at Iowa State — an event he believes was the greatest stroke of luck in a fortunate life. He began his career working on high-voltage power transmission, and discovered an aptitude for writing software. His wife worked at telephone company USWest in Iowa, and when she was transferred to Minneapolis, he followed and found work at a power research company. When another USWest transfer came up, this time to Denver, Nair switched from power to telco, and joined USWest himself. In more than 12 years with the company and its successor, Qwest Communications International, he rose up the leadership ladder to become chief information officer and chief technology officer.

With extensive telco experience under his belt, Nair decided to move on to the fast-growing internet world. He joined AOL as chief technology officer, overseeing technology, IT and network operations. The Nairs left Denver for AOL headquarters in Washington, D.C. Given his experience, Nair was well-positioned for an industry that saw its future in both areas. Liberty Global came calling in 2007, and the family happily returned to Denver.

As a cable industry newcomer, Nair saw a huge opportunity. He “immediately saw the advantage cable had over any other telecommunications business. We had better networks, better platforms and we were better suited for the transition to a software world. We also have a perpetual entrepreneurial spirit. The founding members [of the industry] are still involved, and our second-generation managers were trained by founders. That is very special.”

Richard Plepler
Chairman and CEO, HBO

It’s safe to assume that Richard Plepler is the only high-ranking cable executive whose entry into the industry came about through a chance meeting with a U.N. ambassador at a Chinese restaurant. To start at the beginning: Plepler grew up in the ’60s in a politically active home where engaged, informed citizenship was paramount. “At the dinner table, you had to have read The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and you had to be prepared to talk about the world,” he recalled.

After graduating from Franklin & Marshall College, he went to work for Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). From Dodd, he learned about building consensus and the notion that people can disagree without being disagreeable. “I think that informed the way I began to think about business, and I think it informs my leadership style,” Plepler said.

Plepler next went on to work for a small media-consulting firm that specialized in crisis management. After a year, brimming with confidence at 26, he started his own strategy and production firm, RLP International, which would make films to help countries that wanted to improve their images. Cheerfully acknowledging his own youthful hubris, Plepler is quick to point out that he was RLP International’s sole employee.

His big break came at a Chinese restaurant in New York in 1988, where then-Israeli ambassador to the U.N. Benjamin Netanyahu happened to be dining. “I went over to introduce myself, and I said, ‘You have a huge problem in the U.S.’ The first intifada had broken out, and Israel was being viewed negatively. I told Netanyahu, ‘This needs to be put in a larger context, sir, and my company, RLP International, knows how to do that.’ And by some miracle, he said, ‘Come see me.’ ” The result of their subsequent meeting was a well-received documentary for PBS that explained the complexity of Israel’s situation. A call from HBO’s Michael Fuchs soon followed, inviting Plepler to join the network in 1992 as communications chief.

“From my first day [at HBO], I always felt like I was where I belonged,” Plepler said. “The people I’ve observed who have done the best feel they’re in the environment where they’re meant to be. Be in the place where you feel passionate about the work, about the mission.”

Neil Smit
Vice Chairman, Comcast Corp.

Growing up on a farm in Connecticut, Neil Smit didn’t have a clear idea of what he wanted to be when he grew up, but he knew what he didn’t want to do. Farming was at the top of that list; construction was second. “My father was in construction, and I didn’t necessarily want to be the second generation in the construction business,” he said. “I wanted to carve my own path.” He entertained notions of becoming an astronaut, but after graduating from Duke University, he ended up on sea, air and land as a member of the legendary Navy SEALs.

From his five-and-a-half years as a SEAL, Smit learned important lessons that he applied to his subsequent business career. “The first thing you learn in SEAL teams is, it’s all about teams,” he said. “If you’re not pulling together, you’re pulling apart, and you do everything together as a team. The other thing is that you communicate very directly from day one. And finally, you’re always developing your skills, your people, and you have to keep building new capabilities. More than anything, it’s about the teamwork.”

When Smit retired from the Navy as a lieutenant commander, he worked in hostage negotiations before moving into the corporate world. He held leadership roles at Nabisco and Pillsbury, and then moved to AOL and MapQuest. Along the way, he got to know Paul Allen, who invited him to join Charter Communications as CEO in 2005. Cable appealed to him. “The day-to-day diversity of things that we had to deal with was interesting,” he recalled. “We were in the internet business, the phone business, the video business, and it was an ever-changing environment.” Another plus: “The quality of the people was very high; there’s still an entrepreneurial spirit in the industry,” he said.

Smit joined Comcast Cable as president and CEO in 2010. He now serves as a vice chairman of Comcast Corp., working to develop future technology- oriented business opportunities. Active in his community, he recently left the board of trustees of Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, and continues his work with the board of visitors for the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. And his adventurous spirit remains strong. He enjoys boating, water sports and skiing, and recently took up ice driving with his son in northern Canada. “I’ll try about anything,” he said.

Bresnan Award Recipient

June E. Travis

June Travis retired from the cable television industry in late 1999. Since 1994, she had served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of the National Cable Television Association, the industry’s principal trade association based in Washington, D.C.

Prior to joining the NCTA, Travis was president and chief operating officer of Rifkin & Associates, a Denver-based cable television operator. Before that, she served in several executive positions at American Television and Communications, the predecessor to Time Warner Cable.

Recalling the days when cable was a much smaller business, Travis said the industry’s ethical core was apparent in the relationships between its leaders. The early entrepreneurs “were very competitive with one another, but if attacked from the outside, they circled the wagons and supported one another. The collegiality was palpable.”

Starting her cable career as a secretary, Travis noted the admirable leadership qualities she saw practiced by industry role models. “I kept thinking, ‘Gee, if I ever get into management, that’s how I would like to manage, that’s how I would like to be involved in the community, that’s how I would like to give back.’ ”

Travis has served as an officer and board member of a number of cable television industry boards, including CommScope, NCTA (now NCTA: The Internet & Television Association), C-SPAN, Cable in the Classroom, TeleCorps and Women in Cable (now Women in Cable Telecommunications). She chaired the industry’s political action committee, CablePAC, for nine years. She said such organizations made a tremendous difference to the industry’s employees.

She has been active in a number of Colorado organizations including the Greater Denver Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Colorado Forum, the Colorado Women’s Forum, the National Jewish Center, Inter-Faith Community Services, Young Americans Center for Financial Education and the Dumb Friends League. She recently stepped down as chairman of the board of the Daniels Fund but remains on that board and also serves as a trustee for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Travis believes in business leaders’ responsibility to their communities. “It’s huge,” she said. “And it pays back a hundred-fold. If you are genuinely in the community, not for the recognition, but truly caring, and participating, and supporting the community, you can’t buy that kind of customer respect.”

The second season of Good Behavior starts on TNT Oct. 15, and shows Letty and Javier trying to go legit. Letty is a con artist and Javier a killer, but they aim to provide a stable environment for Letty’s young son, Jacob.

Their attempts at wholesome living do not, by multiple accounts, last long. “Ten seconds in, she’s stealing, and he’s killing people,” said Michelle Dockery, who plays Letty.

Creator Chad Hodge said Letty and Javier’s gainful new lives go on a tiny bit longer than 10 seconds. Season two “is all about Letty and Javier trying to make a normal life for themselves,” he said. “That lasts for about 16 seconds.”

Hodge described season two as “sexy, funny, sort of absurd, sad for sure and cathartic.”

Dockery of course played Lady Mary in Downton Abbey. She said more and more people around Good Behavior’s Wilmington, N.C., base see her as Letty, not as the redoubtable Mary. Hodge notes how many Good Behaviorfans are surprised to hear Dockery speak in an English accent off the set.

Hodge described Dockery as a creative whirlwind. “My favorite thing about Michelle is, she tries slightly different things every take,” he said. “It’s such a joy to work with someone who’s willing to take risks.”

Both Dockery and Hodge take some risks in season two.

Still thinking about the shows we adored five years ago, esteemed TV critic Alan Sepinwall has published Breaking Bad 101: The Complete Critical Companion. It’s a review of every episode, along with other musings about the iconoclastic AMC series, and it features a foreword by series fan, and Lost co-creator, Damon Lindelof.

In his introduction, Sepinwall describes being holed up in a hospital room after his appendix burst, where he watched the famed “Ozymandias” episode from season five, which saw Walt and Skyler brawl, Walt take their baby, Hank get killed and the Nazis steal Walt’s barrels of cash. “As it turned out, the meds and sterile hospital atmosphere actually added to the experience,” he wrote.

Last year, Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz published TV (The Book), which ranked the top shows in TV history. Breaking Badfinished fifth.

It’s been four years, almost to the day, since Breaking Bad wrapped. But Sepinwall said plenty of viewers are just finding the series these days. Plus, spinoff Better Call Saulkeeps Breaking Bad top of mind. “A bunch of characters from that world are still out in the zeitgeist,” Sepinwall said.

He’s enjoying Saul and HBO rookie The Deuce, but said not much else on TV has the action, suspense and character that Breaking Bad offered. “There’s not a lot out there,” Sepinwall said, “that’s able to be all the things that Breaking Bad was.”

Sometimes nice guys finish first.

FX Networks and FX Productions CEO John Landgraf is the son of a preacher with the persona of a professor, and he is a rarity in the TV industry: the closest thing to a regular amount of ego inside of a Hollywood TV executive. And humble at times though he is, these days he’s got reason to crow — loudly. Last year, his flagship channel, FX, swept the Emmy Awards with 18 wins — second only to HBO — won an industry-high four Golden Globe awards and notched the top three shows on television’s collective Best 2016 Series list — Atlanta, The People v. O.J Simpson: American Crime Story and The Americans.

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Landgraf, who took the reins at FX 14 years ago, has built a television empire in what’s arguably been the industry’s most challenging and content-rich period. FX has thrived on his watch, generating hit after hit, from veterans such as The Americans and The Strain — both set to soon end their runs — to recent breakouts such as Donald Glover’s Atlanta and the Marvel Comics-inspired Legion. The series surge continues this summer with the John Singleton-produced Snowfall, chronicling the early days of the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic.

The 55-year-old veteran proiducer also revitalized the once-dormant anthology/limited series genre with successful shows like the Emmy Award-winning American Horror Story, Fargo and American Crime Story. And he’s struck comedy gold with freshman Emmy winner Baskets, as well as venerable series such as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Archer and You’re the Worst. Launched on FX, those shows now find their audience on comedy-centric sister channel FXX.

Related: HBO, FX Lead 2017 TCA Awards Nominations

All of Landgraf’s programming accolades have been achieved with a budget that’s a relative pittance compared with what deep-pocketed competitors like Netflix and Amazon spend on their scripted series.

With the Landgraf-coined “Peak TV” bubble of scripted series — now at more than 450 shows across broadcast, cable and digital streaming services — predicted to burst sometime over the next couple of years, Landgraf is playing the long game. His next move is repositioning linear channel FX into a multiplatform brand that can serve consumers’ changing viewing habits via digital video-on-demand service FX Now. Landgraf is also taking changing audience demographics into account — women and people of color comprise more than half of FX’s showrunners and producers.

In a conversation with Multichannel News editorial director Mark Robichaux and programming editor R.Thomas Umstead, Landgraf explained his Moneyball approach to production, the new dynamics of the TV business and how diversity drove FX to profit.

MCN: How would you rate the general health of the programming business today? Some people say this is just the downside of the cycle. Other people say it’s the edge of a cliff. You have famously called it a content bubble. What’s going on?
John Landgraf: The way I think about it is, there is a business model in television that has been successful for a long, long time, right? Sixty years, more. It’s called the channel. And it’s been an important organizing principle; it started with broadcast networks and then premium and basic cable networks, all built on the notion of a linear stream.

And these channels are still overwhelmingly how people who watch television consume their time. I think the reason that fact is often lost … I think if we dug into the data we’d find that still more than 80% of all time consuming television is on linear channels.

I think the amount of time spent watching linear television channels each year relative to the prior year and the percentage of the total consumption of television each year relative to the prior year is going down — very slowly going down.

And on the other side of the spectrum, there is an appreciating television asset, which we’d call, broadly speaking, nonlinear consumption, right? And I’m including in that VOD and TV Everywhere and FX Now and HBO Go and DVRs, as well as Hulu and Netflix and YouTube.

So it’s a vast bundle of nonlinear consumption. Mostly on-demand. Its main characteristic is it’s not that flowing linear stream.

Buzzfeed’s watermelon video thing was ludicrous because it’s not compelling to watch people put rubber bands around a watermelon relative to watching Silicon Valley or The Americans or the Super Bowl. It’s a tiny, tiny thing in terms of actual, concurrent streams or in hours of consumption relative to broadcast television.

Content on these powerful linear streams is still watched vastly, vastly more, in terms of current viewership, than anywhere else. … They are still far and away the best place to start advertising, better than a bunch of tiny little bits of consumption in a system rife with fraud and bots and all kinds of things. Not to say there’s no value there, but just saying the level of value is vastly different.

MCN: Do you think traditional programmers are adapting fast enough?
JL: It’s an evolutionary process. I think one of the reasons that we actually began counting the number of original programs, which led to identifying this phenomenon called “peak TV” is ultimately you’ve got to accept the background radiation of the competition, right? You can’t put your head in the sand and think that major-league pitching hasn’t improved in 30 years and think that you’re going to pitch the same way you did 30 years ago with the same result. You have to basically tool yourself to the batters you’re facing in the current market.

We just have to be better, because the only thing that will allow us to rise as opposed to fall in this environment is we’ve just got to get better.

MCN: How is FX adapting to the new environment?
JL: We have actually managed to be pretty flat in the last four years. We took the FX network, we layered on the FXX network and the FX movie network, FXM. We layered three networks’ worth of consumption on top of one, all under one brand, and then we also layered on a significant amount of nonlinear consumption.

Our COO [Chuck Saftler], who has been the dominant buyer of movies in basic-cable network for a decade now, bought a year of linear term for our channel. Now, for a major blockbuster, we got a significant number of months of nonlinear term. And so we accumulated a very large nonlinear bundle of movies.

We also did something first that no other channel had done. When a series airs, it immediately goes into the TV Everywhere space, into FX Now, and essentially you can consume it, you can binge it on-demand from the first episode to the end. So we have made really significant strides and we’re at the point now where we generate about 10% as many nonlinear streams as linear streams, even given the fact that we are programming 24 hours a day on three channels.

In the long run, I don’t think there is a fundamental way to counteract the fact that there is going to be modest decline. No matter how well you program a linear channel, you can’t execute your way out of structural change.

If you want your business and your brand to be stronger tomorrow than they are today, there is only one answer, which is you have to lean into the appreciating asset, where there is growth in the marketplace, and where that growth lies is in nonlinear consumption, period.

MCN: How would you judge your performance?
JL: Our point of view is that we’re proud of what we have done to date, but it’s not comprehensive enough, it’s not radical enough. But knowing that, just as we know that if we didn’t step up our programming game we were going to recede rather than grow, is a good thing. I think knowing the truth is the first key. Knowing the trends and accepting the truth of the future is the first key to being successful in anything strategic, certainly in business.

So what you’ll see from us, and I can’t speak to our competitors, is more radical and more aggressive moves in the future to transform our business into what I would call a multiplatform brand. I wrote a memo — it might have been five or six years ago — to a number of key colleagues here, basically suggesting that if FX is going to thrive as a business and a brand over time, it must transform itself from a linear channel into a multiplatform brand. [Part of that] was the formation of FX Productions in 2005, when we started owning our own shows.

It’s not as if I haven’t seen the writing on the wall here for a long time. We’re figuring it out.

MCN: Wall Street is already punishing programming stocks. What do you think the business fallout will be of this disruption and competition? Will this content bubble pop?
JL: There are two sources of capital, which rely on different capital standards, that are funding this. One is the capital that flows in through traditional media companies that are still mostly oriented around brands that develop from linear channels or their film studios, right? The metric that the market uses to buy and judge that stock is profit. It takes a multiple of profit.

Then there are these other companies; the leading ones in it are Amazon and Netflix. Netflix has said they are going to run at negative $1.8 billion dollars in free cash flow this year. So even though they will declare an EBITDA, that will be because they are pushing down the amortization of programming costs into subsequent years. Their actual revenue will be $1.8 billion lower than their expenses this year, based on their own statement.

So their metric is not profit, it’s customer acquisition, I suppose. And essentially investors are willing to extend them capital at a loss in essence on the assumption that their growth and subscribers will keep up with that trailing amortization and ultimately overtake it, and they will be able to sustain and grow profitability over time. Similarly, Amazon is a very different retail business with $130-plus billion dollars in top-line revenue, so its programming costs are kind of a rounding error. So these are really different businesses.

I think what we’re going to find when we roll up all the scripted programming made in America this year … it will be more original scripted adult series this year than last year, but then, in the aggregate, premium television channels, basic-cable channels … and broadcast-television channels will make slightly less content this year than they did last. I’m talking in the range of 5% or less from peak.

I think we are probably past the peak, in terms of the total volume created by linear television channels and their associated brands, at least at this point.

MCN: What is driving this arms race?
JL: It’s this massive amount of capital flooding into the market through Netflix and Amazon, and to some extent Hulu or YouTube Red or Apple and a few other buyers. And it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen, in the sense that it’s nonprofit expenditure. It does not drive profit. It actually drives loss, right? It drives growth in top-line revenue, but it drives loss.

So we’ve got to punch above our weight, and we’ve got to fight heavyweight fighters who are a lot bigger and have a longer reach than we do just in terms of physical gifts. You’ve got to be crafty and smart and have endurance.

MCN: On that note, you’ve largely been outgunned in terms of budget by some of these new entrants, namely Netflix and Amazon. Yet you’ve been exceptionally successful at picking hits. How?
JL: So you’re a coach. What you’re trying to do is create a winning environment. And in the case of television, every single TV show is made by a single individual person, or a couple or three individual people, who then accumulate around them hundreds of other individuals. It’s a personal thing, it’s a bespoke thing — it’s not done well, I don’t think, in a factory context. It’s not as if you create the machine that builds the machine, which is the Tesla factory, and then it builds these devices of uniform size and shape. Every single thing is a piece of art and business created by an individual artist/businessperson/ craftsperson.

And there is just no such thing as a one-size-fits-all formula. … I think a good coach, for example, is good at coaching players who have different styles and different needs and different quirks and different abilities. You’ve got to get good at doing that. Then what’s hard, I think in this business, is to stay singularly focused on that single thing because there are so many other things that are distracting.

You know the political maxim, “It’s the economy, stupid.” It’s like, “It’s the shows, stupid.”

The reason we built a studio is because we wanted to do all of it. We didn’t want to license it and do part of it — the marketing, the publicity — and leave the financial and business and production issues to someone else. We wanted to have a deep and abiding 360-degree creative/personal business relationship with the people that make television from top to bottom.

I built it as a former producer. I built an organization that said, “Well, if I were gonna make a decision about bringing a talented person, what would I want from the organization I brought that person to, to give that person the best chance at success and me the best chance at success?”

I think people do their best work here — it’s pretty simple. And then once they come here, they not only have the best experience of their career, they do the best work of their career, because they have a profound level of engagement and support from me and every person in this organization.

MCN:What’s your biggest fear for the business?
JL: I’m pretty bullish. I think this is a really exciting and dynamic moment in time and I think decisions are being made now that are gonna yield tremendous success and colossal failure because I think that it’s like doing what you did won’t get you where you wanna go, right?

But on the other hand, I think there is going to be a culling of the strongest businesses and the strongest brands. I think the strongest ones are going to emerge. It’s kind of like a forest fire, right? The strongest trees in the forest have more light and more room to grow in the aftermath of the forest fire. So you just have to be on the right side of surviving a transformation like this.

MCN: You’ve got the Emmy Awards coming up very soon. FX had a great, record-setting showing last year. What’s your expectation for this year? Can you repeat what you did last year?
JL: It’s crazy to me. I mean, I feel really proud of our entrants and I think it’s as strong a team as we have ever fielded.

I think a different metric would be that more than 80% of our shows that we programmed at FX made year-end top 10 or best lists. And I think for Netflix, that was in the 15% to 20% range. If you want to call that a batting average, it’s batting more than .800, relative to batting .150 to .200.

I think you’ve got to give a little bit of an advantage, maybe more than a little bit of an advantage, to the teams with the bigger payroll, because this is the Oakland A’s playing the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees in payroll terms, you know?

MCN: What is it that has helped you pick the right shows? Gut? Test audiences?
JL: One of the things I’ve realized as I’ve matured as a person is that a collective intelligence is always greater than an individual intelligence. So one of the things we do around here is that even though the final decision is mine, I really listen to this group of people that I’ve worked with for a long time and I really benefit from their individual intelligence. We can have a very agreeable disagreement and a very robust and honest debate, and I learn things through listening to those debates.

And I never forget I’m betting on a person. Television is made by people and their character, their talent, their intellect, their intent, how dedicated they are to that intent, how much stamina they have — how strong is their ego, not only in terms of willingness to be stubborn and intractable when they need to be, but strong enough to take criticism and tough criticism, strong enough to work through failure.

I get to know these people individually, I sit in a room and talk to them, I ask them questions, I get a feel for who they are as people — I know I’m betting on them. Yes, I’m betting on their idea and yes I’m betting on a pilot story, but I am, more than anything else, I am betting on a person, or people if it’s a partnership. And I never forget that.

You can’t fake love. You either have it or you don’t. And I love this. I love this and I love the people who do it with passion and do it well. And I really try to be someone who cares about, thinks about, the players.

I certainly am a wonky guy who does everything I can to develop technique in myself or others, and I will use any piece of data and I can get very buttoned up on the numbers. I mean, I am not someone who is not analytical and doesn’t believe in analysis.

But at the end of the day, I don’t think you can get to the highest level if you’re coming from an analytical point of view. I think you have to come in with your heart. I think you have to bring your whole heart to the enterprise because I think people feel that — they feel a level of dedication, passion and caring, if it’s there, that’s different than analysis.

MCN: Continuing on that thought, you have been very public in stating that you have provided more opportunities for people of color and women behind the scenes and on camera. How important is that to the overall success of FX?
JL: What I have been trying to do here is have a brand that isn’t manufactured from the top down … it grows from the grass roots up. And I don’t think that that brand then is about a particular demographic. I don’t think it’s about a particular gender or a particular ethnicity. I think it’s about fearless points of view and fearless innovation and fearless pursuit of quality.

So it’s been really important to me that [FX’s programming] wasn’t only a white, male thing, you know? Famously, and this is a testament to the fact that you’ve got to break some eggs to make an omelet, we developed Breaking Bad and I passed on it. So call that a really colossal mistake on my part, the beneficiary of which was AMC because we let it go. We had it, we owned it and then they wanted to make it, and we didn’t want to make it, so we let it go elsewhere.

But I made that decision because I didn’t want to put a fourth male anti-hero show on the air when we had three already — Nip/Tuck, The Shield and Rescue Me. We put Damages on the air instead — pretty good show, also nominated for an Emmy with Mad Men. It broke that glass ceiling, although Mad Men won and Damages didn’t. But that was a statement about the pathway we wanted to move forward, which was we wanted the best talent, not the best talent that wanted to write about white male anti-heroes — the best talent period, full stop.

The other thing I’ve said — and I mean it — is that as I’ve reflected with great gratitude on this tremendous opportunity that this career has given me, and the opportunity to run this wonderful brand and lead this team, I’ve thought about the mentors that had made that possible. A common theme in that list is white males. White, heterosexual males. And I’m a white, heterosexual male.

So how do I not recognize it as an unearned advantage that essentially I had some things that were tremendously in common with them in terms of my own gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation?

So I just said, “You know what, OK, so pay it forward.” And paying it forward for me doesn’t mean don’t hire a white man, because I do, but it means … work hard to overcome the tendency for that to be a self-fulfilling prophecy and really, really put your back into it, have your organization put its back into creating an outsized number of opportunities for women and people of color and people with different gender identities and sexual orientations. Act locally.

So we have been very, very aggressive at doing that. The last time we counted, 57% of our episodic directors [were] non-white males. And by the way, when we got called out by Variety, that was 12%. So we have gone from 88% white males to 43%. We halved that. And concurrently, we have increased the ratio of people who are non-white males directing by almost five times.

MCN: Why are you pushing back Katrina ? What’s happened with that show?
JL: After thinking about it long and hard, the [American Crime Story] creative people involved decided they wanted to focus the story in a slightly different way, and that required some rethinking of how we were going to tell it. And we already had Versace in production, and it’s going great. So in essence, we were like, “OK, well, we’ve got a little bit more time here to get Katrina exactly right.” And I’m even more excited about where we’re coming out on Katrina.

MCN: So will both appear in 2018? Katrina later in 2018 and Versace earlier?
JK: I would say that is likely, yes.

MCN: Is there anything you want to get off your chest?
JK: I think that analysts and investors and some of the people that write about our industry are counting us out, because they are looking at it as if we are and always will be linear television brands and channels, and therefore our potential as businesses only lies in how successful linear channels and brands will be in the future. And I think that’s a mistake. I think we are actually incredibly well-positioned to be profoundly successful nonlinear, multiplatform brands.

What’s on Tap This Summer
Networks set seasonal slate of studio-produced fare

The summer television season is upon us, and cable networks along with video streaming services are gearing up to launch new scripted series in programming genres ranging from comedy to horror and drama. Here’s a partial list of new original scripted series premieres from cable and digital subscription video-on-demand services from June 19 through Aug. 31.

JUNE 19
Loch Ness
Drama (Acorn TV)

JUNE 22
The Mist
Horror/drama (Spike)

JUNE 23
GLOW
Comedy (Netflix)
Free Rein
Drama (Netflix)

JUNE 25
Hotel Transylvania:
The Series
Animated (Disney Channel)

JUNE 27
Tales
Drama (BET)

JUNE 30
Gypsy
Drama (Netflix)
Little Witch Academia
Animated series (Netflix)
Danger & Eggs
Animated series (Amazon)

JULY 5
Snowfall
Drama (FX)

JULY 7
Castlevania
Animated series (Netflix)

JULY 10
Will
Drama (TNT)

JULY 11
The Bold Type
Drama (Freeform)
The Hollywood Puppet Sh!t Show
Comedy (Fuse)
American Ripper
Drama (History)

JULY 12
I’m Sorry
Comedy (TruTV)

JULY 14
Friends from College
Comedy (Netflix)

JULY 17
Loaded
Drama (AMC)

JULY 21
Raven’s Home
Comedy (Disney Channel)
Ozark
Drama (Netflix)

JULY 28
Room 104
Drama (HBO)

AUG. 2
The Sinner
Drama (USA Network)

AUG. 3
What Would Diplo Do?
Comedy (Viceland)

AUG. 9
Mr. Mercedes
Drama (Audience Network)

AUG. 13
Get Shorty
Comedy (Epix)

AUG. 18
Marvel’s The Defenders
Drama (Netflix)

AUG. 24
There’s … Johnny!
Comedy (Seeso)

AUG. 25
Disjointed
Comedy (Netflix)
The Tick
Comedy (Amazon)

When Vince Gilligan, the creator of AMC’s crime drama Breaking Bad, beat Netflix’s House of Cards for the Emmy Award, he made a surprising observation. Netflix, he told reporters, kept his show on the air.

Breaking Bad’s audience started small, but ultimately reached 10 million viewers for the series finale. Gilligan theorized that his show grew in popularity because as word of mouth spread, new audiences were able to find old episodes on Netflix, then join the growing realtime audience when it was back in season.

A few years later, the data has proven Gilligan correct. Viewers haven’t abandoned linear viewing in favor of non-linear, VOD and streaming options, as previously thought. Instead, the viewer path between the two distribution models points to a more complex ecosystem.

Some view cord-cutting as the trend that will kill television. The trouble with that assertion is that it runs contrary to the data. Millennials are the ones leading the cord-cutting charge, and yet millennials are watching more television than ever. So what’s really going on?

Put simply, we’re at the dawn of a new paradigm that reflects both a technological revolution in the way we distribute content as well as an equally powerful shift in consumer behavior. For now, it’s clear that cord-cutting is a nuanced and evolving phenomenon.

Consumers are already beginning to understand that networks typically reserve a show’s current season for linear broadcast, while at the same time making previous seasons available on streaming platforms like Netflix so that new audiences can catch up. Meanwhile, data shows that streaming originals have only added to a typical viewer’s queue, rather than replace network fare.

Historically, TV has been a zero-sum contest. Because programming was linear, a network won or lost the night; a show was a hit or it flopped. But that’s no longer true today because technology and consumer behavior are changing.

As we expand access to content through a variety of platforms, and consumers adapt to a new viewing paradigm, the nature of competition changes dramatically. Data shows that audiences find shows long after their initial release. Just as telling, shows like Netflix’s Jessica Jones and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D on ABC both brought in big audiences (4.8 million viewers and 6.8 million viewers, respectively) though they were released at the same time. In a linear TV world, two superhero shows would most likely split the audience. The data shows that new distribution methods enable viewing patterns that allow both shows to succeed.

These changes are good for content companies because they mean quality shows are more likely to find an audience sooner or later. What remains to be seen are the strategies content companies will develop to gather those audiences. In the meantime, the television industry must use data to tune in to the viewer path.

Charlie Buchwalter is president and CEO of crossmedia measurement firm Symphony AM.

AMC Networks has called for a third season of Better Call Saul from Sony Pictures Television. The network and studio said Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould will be back as co-showrunners for 10 more episodes of the noirish comedy drama, a prequel to Breaking Bad that stars Bob Odenkirk as the man who will become "criminal" lawyer Saul Goodman. The ensemble also includes Jonathan Banks (reprising his role as Mike Ehrmentraut, the "fixer" in Breaking Bad), Michael McKean and Rhea Seehorn.

Thus far in season two -- in which Odenkirk, as Jimmy McGill, tries to adapt to becoming a lawyer at a straight-laced firm in Santa Fe, N.M., while suppressing his natural con-man tendencies -- Saul has averaged 4.4 million viewers per episode over three days' viewing, including 2.7 million adults ages 25-54 and 2.5 million adults ages 18-49, AMC said. That ranks among the top current cable primetime dramas, though it's below the full-season average of 5.9 million viewers set in season one. Saul also received seven Emmy nominations in 2015. 

The wise owl in the classic 1970 "How Many Licks?" TV commercial declared it took three to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. At least that's how many it took before he bit into it.

Netflix wanted to know how many episodes of a TV show it takes before viewers bite into the whole season, and found that in most cases it takes at least three.

The OTT service analyzed global streaming data for the inaugural seasons of more than 20 shows -- Netflix originals and licensed fare -- across 16 markets between January and July and detected a pattern: an episode emerged from each show after which 70% of viewers went on to complete the entire first season.

Netflix calls that the "hooked" episode.

"It turns out that when commercial breaks and appointment viewing are stripped away and consumers can watch an entire season as they choose, you can see fandom emerge," the company said.

Among the cable and OTT shows sampled in the study, viewers were generally hooked by episode 4:

2 Episodes In
--Bates Motel
--Breaking Bad

3 Episodes In
--House of Cards
--Orange Is the New Black

4 Episodes In
--Better Call Saul
--Grace and Frankie
--Pretty Little Liars
--Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

For newly christened Best Drama Emmy winner Mad Men, it took six episodes for viewers to get hooked.

Click here for the full-sized graphic pictured.

"Given the precious nature of primetime slots on traditional TV, a series pilot is arguably the most important point in the life of the show," Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix, said. "However, we found that no one was ever hooked on the pilot. This gives us confidence that giving our members all episodes at once is more aligned with how fans are made."

International Variations
The "hooked" episode remained fairly consistent across worldwide markets, Netflix said, but some slight geographic differences emerged:
--The Dutch tend to get hooked the fastest, one episode ahead of most countries.
--Brazilians fell for Jimmy McGill in Better Call Saul one episode sooner than Mexicans.
--Australians and New Zealanders hold out longer than viewers in other countries, generally getting hooked one to two episodes after everyone else.

As for the original question, the Tootsie Pop commercial ultimately concluded "the world may never know" how many licks it takes to get to the chocolatey center, but three groups of student researchers have tried, with less consistency in the results than Netflix's study.

Did you ever want a pair of Walter White's glasses? What about Jessie's "Morning Dew" T-shirt? A haz-mat suit?

You have until 6 p.m. (ET) today to bid on items straight from the set of AMC's Breaking Bad; Sony Pictures Television is auctioning off guaranteed "screen-used" and "production-used" wardrobe pieces, props, set docoration and other memorabillia from the show at screenbid.com.

Apparently, no item is too trivial to auction. Alongside the show's more iconic items, like Walt's yellow rubber apron (bidding at $375, with 6 bids, as of 11:20 a.m. ET), are ephemeral items like Blake's Lotaburger paper bag (at $50 with two bidders as of 11:21 a.m. ET). All items sold come with a studio-certified seal to guarantee their authenticity.

More than 250 items from the Emmy-winning show are included in the auction, which began on Saturday (Feb. 14) at 3 p.m. (ET). ScreenBid has also conducted similar auctions for other shows that have ended recently, including FX's Sons of Anarchy, Showtime's Californication, and HBO's True Blood and Boardwalk Empire.

AMC’s Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul –benefiting from a huge Walking Dead audience lead in and the legacy of its predecessor-- set all-time ratings highs for a cable premiere in key demos, AMC said Monday.

Better Call Saul averaged 6.9 million total viewers and set premiere records within the 18-49 (4.4 million) and  25-54 (4.0 million viewers) demos, said network officials.  The 18-to-49 delivery surpassed the 4 million for USA's The Dead Zone, which bowed in 2002, while Saul matched the 4 million with the older group generated by the Anthony Michael Hall-starrer.

The series bow no doubt was aided by big lead-in from cable’s top rated series, The Walking Dead, which pinned down 15.6 million viewers for the second half of the zombie-themed series' fifth season.

The network’s post Walking Dead talk show series Talking Dead aftershow delivered 2.8 million viewers and 1.9 million 18-49 viewers, according to network officials.

“In a competitive environment that sometimes gets as much press as the shows themselves, it is gratifying to deliver programming that breaks through and reaches passionate audiences,”said AMC president Charlie Collier.

The second part of Saul's premiere event is scheduled for 10 p.m. on Monday, so AMC will get a better read on the popularity of the Breaking Bad prequel. Following a rundown of Breaking Bad's final season throughout Monday, last night's Saul pilot will air at 9 p.m. ahead of the series' second installment.

As we welcome in all the promise of the New Year, some viewers are preparing to bid farewell to their favorite series and stars.

A number of marquee shows have already announced they will end their successful runs over the next 12 months. Arguably the most celebrated series departing, after a stellar seven-season run, is AMC’s Mad Men. The Matthew Weiner-produced drama chronicling a 1960s advertising agency has received nearly universal critical acclaim for its storytelling, historical authenticity and style — not to mention terrific acting led by series star John Hamm.

The series has also brought home a ton of hardware — 15 Emmy awards and four Golden Globe Awards since its launch in 2007. The final seven episodes of the series will air this spring.

Other shows also saying goodbye in 2015 include TBS’ Courteney Cox starrer Cougar Town, which debuts its sixth and final season Tuesday (Jan. 5); Showtime’s Nurse Jackie — led by multi Emmy winner Eddie Falco’s portrayal of conflicted emergency room nurse Jackie Peyton — which ends its seventh season later this year; and FX’s critically-acclaimed drama Justified, starring Timothy Olyphant as no-nonsense lawman Raylan Givens. That series will begin its sixth and final season on Jan. 20.

Certainly the loss of these and other quality scripted shows will somewhat diminish what many observers believe is a “golden age” of scripted programming on cable television. Fortunately for the industry and viewers, a number of new series are coming that hope to reach the same lofty heights as those shows leaving the air.

E! and Pivot will both jump into the scripted ring in 2015 with dramas The Royals and Fortitude, respectively; newly branded Pop will roll out comedy Schitt’s Creek; A&E will tap the supernatural genre with Returned; Netflix will ride the superhero wave with Marvel's Daredevil; and AMC will debut the much anticipated Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul in the new year, just to name a few.

Some of these shows, along with a slew of other new and returning scripted, reality and limited series, will be showcased over the next few weeks during the upcoming Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif.; the cable portion of the tour begins Wednesday (Jan. 7).

While viewers will be sad to see a number of cable series mainstays leave their TV schedules, they should be encouraged to know that more than enough new series are launching to keep them entertained throughout the New Year.

Will AMC’s Breaking Bad’s finale season repeat as the outstanding drama? Can ABC’s Modern Family make it five comedy series wins in a row? Are Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black and House of Cards ready to break through?

Those are among the questions to ponder following Mindy Kaling and Carson Daly’s announcement of the 66th Primetime Emmy nominations, with the ceremony slated to air on NBC on August 25 from Los Angeles.  

To repeat, the concluding campaign of Breaking Bad will have to top HBO’s True Detective and Game of Thrones, and Netflix’s House of Cards. Moreover, Vince Gilligan’s final turns of the Walter White saga will have to surpass AMC stablemate and four-time winner Mad Men and PBS’s Downton Abbey.

For its part, Modern Family is looking to match NBC’s Frasier 1994-98 run with a comedy category five-peat of its own. CBS’s Big Bang Theory is in the hunt again, along with FX’s Louie and Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black. HBO is well-represented with Veep and rookie Silicon Valley vying for the statue.

Per usual, HBO set the nomination pace with 99, down from 108 for the 2013 season. CBS was second with 47, one more than NBC. FX, which had 26 last year, jumped into fourth with 45. ABC had 37 nods.

Streaming service Netflix continues to make waves among traditional providers and in Tinseltown, notching 31 nods, 17 more than a year ago. AMC accumulated 26, while Showtime garnered 24, seven fewer than in 2013. However, the premium programmer had an industry-best 11 actor nominations, including a half dozen among the main actor categories. Fox had 18 total nominations.

HBO’s biggest series ever, Game of Thrones, led all drama series with 19 nods, including two in the key acting categories: Lena Headey as best supporting actress for her portrayal of Cersei Lannister, and Peter Dinklage for his Tyrion Lannister.

For its part, FX scored very big, as miniseries Fargo earned 18 nominations, including nods for Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman as top thespians, while American Horror Story's "Coven" iteration earned 17. Breaking Bad had 16 for its farewell trek, the most for a basic-cable drama and the most in its run, as did the HBO telefilm The Normal Heart. NBC's venerable Saturday Night Live welcomed 14 nods, while Netflix streamed up a baker's dozen of nods for House of Cards, one more than Orange Is the New Black. HBO's True Detective also tallied 12 nominations.

The best drama actor nominees are topped by last year’s winner, Jeff Daniels in HBO’s The Newsroom. He will look to hold off fellow HBOers Woody Harrelson and Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey in True Detective. That marks the first time a cable network has three nominees in this major category.

Kevin Spacey earned a second nomination for Netflix's House of Cards. Bryan Cranston is in the running with his final turn as Breaking Bad’s high school chemistry teacher turned criminal Walter White, along with perennial contender, Jon Hamm’s Don Draper in AMC’s Mad Men.

Claire Danes will get a chance to add a third consecutive best drama actress statue for her work on Showtime's Homeland. The premium network also has another nominee with Lizzy Caplan in its Masters of Sex. Julianna Margulies for CBS’s The Good Wife and Kerry Washinton for ABC’s Scandal represent broadcast’s hopes here, while PBS and Netflix are represented by Michelle Dockery in Downton Abbey and Robin Wright in House of Cards, respectively.

Showtime matched HBO’s three drama actor noms with a trio among the comedy ranks with Matt LeBlanc for Episodes, William Macy for Shameless and Don Cheadle for House of Lies. Louis C.K. is also in the running for FX’s Louie as is Ricky Gervais for Netflix's Derek. They will all be looking to unseat Jimmy Parson, who has taken home three Emmys for his role as Dr. Sheldon Cooper on CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, including the 2013 statue.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus may score a comedy actress three-peat for HBO’s Veep. Her competition: Lena Dunham for HBO’s Girls; Melissa McCarthy for CBS’s Mike & Molly; Edie Falco for Showtime’s Nurse Jackie, Taylor Schilling for Orange Is the New Black; and Amy Poehler for NBC’s Parks and Recreation.

With the movies and miniseries categories divided again after three years of togetherness, cable captured more nominations.

Among miniseries, it's all cable with FX grabbing two nods for the aforementioned Fargo and American Horror Story.  Premium network Starz, which counted a record 11 nominations overall, is in this game here with The White Queen, along with HBO's Treme.  Then, there's the A&E Networks' presentation of Bonnie & Clyde, which was simulcast on Lifetime, A&E and History, but was submitted by and credited as one of the women's-targeted service's record 17 nominations.

Cable also has an 80% chance to take home the statue in the outstanding television movie mode: HBO has a pair of entries with the acclaimed The Normal Heart and Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight, while Lifetime's The Trip to Bountiful and Nat Geo Channel's Killing Kennedy also garnered nods. PBS's Sherlock: His Last Vow is the outlier.

Competition will be keen in what has been a cable stronghold: best variety show. Last year, The Colbert Report ended Comedy Central teammate The Daily Show With Jon Stewart's 10-year winning streak. Will host Steven Colbert gain another win over Stewart before he replaces David Letterman at CBS? Or does HBO's long-running Real Time With Bill Maher rise above NBC's stalwart Saturday Night Live, newcomer The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, or ABC's late-night entry, Jimmy Kimmel Live.

As to best reality competition series, cable has two cracks with Lifetime's Project Runway, nomimated for a 10th straight year, and Bravo's Top Chef. NBC's The Voice is looking to sing again about an Emmy win, while category kingpin, CBS's  The Amazing Race, looks to regain its throne. ABC's Dancing With The Stars and Fox's So You Think You Dance round out the nominees.

Mindy Kaling and Carson Daly announced the Emmy nominations.

The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards will air live on NBC, on Monday, August 25 at 8 p.m. (ET)   from the Nokia Theatre at L.A. LIVE In Los Angeles. Seth Myers will host, while Don Mischer, with a number of Super Bowl halftime shows, Olympic opening ceremonies and Oscars to his credit, will executive-produce.

Check out a list of the 2014 nominees here.