Just weeks after “UnPrisoned” was canceled after two seasons on Hulu, Kerry Washington sounded off on shows getting axed “before they even [have] a runway” to find an audience.
“Unfortunately, we’re not getting a third season [of ‘UnPrisoned’] — They’ve made that decision based on two seasons, which is … 16 episodes, that is less than one season of ‘Scandal,’ ” Washington said Thursday at the Bloomberg Screentime Conference in Los Angeles, recalling her hit ABC drama created by Shonda Rhimes. “The first season [of ‘Scandal’] was a midseason replacement, but we got extended, and we were on the bubble until the end of our second season, so it took us close to 40 episodes before people thought, Okay, this show’s … going to work out [and] another season before we were really a global hit.”
Whereas “Scandal” was among the slew of shows with up to seven seasons a decade ago, Washington doesn’t believe the show would see the same fate in today’s Hollywood
When asked whether she campaigned Hulu for another season of “UnPrisoned,” which Washington starred in and executive produced, Washington said “we did,” and went on to note the difficulty to advocate for a particular series with a landscape that “is so rich with opportunity,” saying “there’s so much stuff to watch.”
“We feel like there could have been some different choices made around launch and how the show was put into the world, but you also have to know that in any business, you got to collect your nos,” Washington added. “Not everything’s going to be ‘Scandal.’ Not everything’s going to hit in the exact same way. We’ve had extraordinary successes, and we’re just going to keep moving,” she said, pointing to “Reasonable Doubt,” which Washington also executive produces for Hulu and Onyx Collective.
As Washington’s Simpson Street, which she runs alongside EVP of production and development Pilar Savone, looks to future projects, Savone noted how streaming has changed the game for the production company. “I shy away from broadcast to be honest with you,” Savone said. “People will call us all the time and say we have a broadcast idea and I’m like, ‘it’s not really for us … it’s not necessarily our strong suit.’”
Washington noted that some big names might be compelling to follow to broadcast TV, but Savone added that “if a writer doesn’t have that much experience. I don’t think we can serve them the best … There’s other production companies that are better at that than we are.”
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