We continue our two-part Case Study of Jarrett Creative, the producer of Bio’s hit Celebrity Ghost Stories.
This week:
- Jarrett’s Key Success Factors for the Celebrity / Reality genre
- A new project: Why marry up with Mark Burnett?
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Secret Weapons
What are Jarrett’s secret weapons for attracting celebrity talent?
1. The Booker
- “Lesley Mallgrave is the best celebrity booker.”
- “She booked the Golden Globes and Academy Awards: she works at the highest level of booking.”
2. The Recommenders
- “We ask celebrities who have enjoyed working with us to recommend their friends.”
- Ileana Douglas lined up of her 11 friends.
- “20% of our celebs are referrals.”
Partnering Up
- “We met with Mark Burnett’s development team at Real Screen 2011.”
- “They said that they wanted to create a series in the Paranormal and Celebrity spaces.”
- “We had developed Haunted High, about real school students who had experienced a haunting at school.”
- “We had pitched it but at the time it was hard to find a buyer in the paranormal space.”
- “We worked with Burnett, and we eventually changed the title to ‘School Spirits’ to cover colleges as well as high schools.”
- “Burnett brought credibility – ‘muscle’ – and development expertise.”
- “We pitched to SyFy and they loved it.”
- “SyFy commissioned 6 episodes, and we’re waiting on word for Season 2.”
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Team Expands
Development
- Jarrett added Tracey Baker-Simmons as head of development in 2011.
- “She lit an explosion of commissions in 2012.”
- Tracey had worked in music and Television, including creating and serving as an Executive Producer for Being Bobby Brown.
- Tracey says: “I’m not afraid to approach celebrities. I know how to give them the space to be themselves.”
Other key team members:
- “Our attorney is an essential part of our team.”
- “We added others to help continue growth. For example, Maria Lokken is our head of production and Gregg Jablonsky is our head of finance.”
Projects in Development
- Jarrett is now testing children’s animation using celebrity talent voice-overs, and has optioned its first book to become a scripted series.
- There are 10+ projects in development, including at Syfy (2), TLC and History.
International
- A+E Networks International owns and is exploiting the international rights to CGS.
- Regional versions have been created for A+E’s affiliates in the UK.
- The show has aired in international markets such as Asia and Latin America.
Big Takeaways
Seth Jarrett and Julie Insogna Jarrett sum up their key success factors:
1. Over-produce / Over-deliver
- “Lots of our shows are recreation-driven.”
- “Seth is a Director first: ‘For all our unscripted series, I like to look at great films as inspiration in terms of storytelling. We always put story first, above the budget and above the politics. A great story will always catch on.’ “
- “That’s his # 1 agenda: to bring a cinematic feel to his shows, no matter what the budget.”
- “For us it is always about taking chances, especially with the talent we tie to our projects.”
2. Build from a Core expertise: In our case TALENT!
- “Seth had worked on Growing Up Gotti. He was known for his successful work with difficult talent.”
- “That was my job at Oxygen.”
- “We strike the balance between ‘kissing arse ‘ and ‘not losing your shirt!’ “
- “We always fight for our talent.”
- “We give them as much respect as we can.”
3. Hire a strong person in development
- “You can’t run a busy production company and develop shows at the same time!”
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Jarrett Creative: Output
Year | Network | # Eps | Length | |
2004 | ||||
Rocked with Gina Gershon / Season 1 | IFC | 6 | 30 | |
Total Hrs | 3 | |||
2002-2007 | ||||
Custom Concerts / Season 1 | Oxygen | NA | NA | |
Total Hrs | 20 | |||
2008 | ||||
Jonas Brothers: Living the Dream / Season 1 | Disney | 16 | NA | |
Total Hrs | 3 | |||
2009 | ||||
Celebrity Ghost Stories / Season 1 | Bio | 9 | 60 | |
Total Hrs | 9 | |||
2010 | ||||
Celebrity Ghost Stories / Season 2 | Bio | 18 | 60 | |
Jonas Brothers: Living the Dream 2 / Season 2 | Disney | 11 | NA | |
Total Hrs | 20 | |||
2011 | ||||
Celebrity Close Calls / Season 1 | Bio | 9 | 60 | |
Celebrity Ghost Stories / Season 3 | Bio | 17 | 60 | |
Total Hrs | 26 | |||
2012 (FY estimate) | ||||
Celebrity Ghost Stories / Season 4 | Bio | 37 | 60 | |
Boston Metal / Pilot | Nat Geo | 1 | 1 | |
School Spirits / Season 1 | SyFy | 6 | 60 | |
The Haunting Of… / Season 1 | Bio | 9 | 60 | |
I Killed My BFF / Season 1 | Bio | 17 | 60 | |
The Houston: On Our Own/ Season 1 | Lifetime | 14 | 30 | |
Boston’s Finest / Season 1 | TNT | 8 | 60 | |
Total Hrs | 85 |
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Peter Hamilton / DocumentaryTelevision.com
Markets Attending / Speaking Engagements
- WCSFP: World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, Washington DC, November 27-29
- Script DC/WIFTI Summit Workshop, Washington DC, November 30 (Workshop)
- ATF: Asia Television Forum, Singapore, December 5-7 (Keynote + panel producer)
- IMPACT Media Summit (formerly History Makers), New York, January 23-25, 2013 (Sponsor / panel producer)
- Real Screen Summit, Washington DC, January 27-30, 2013
- AIDC: Australian International Documentary Conference, Adelaide, February 25 – March 3, 2013 (Speaker)
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