Who got one of Netflix’s most popular original programs supplied by Amazon on their 2022 bingo card?
After completing its $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM, the Jeff Bezos-owned firm is now in charge of Wednesday, which has fast grown to be its rival’s second-largest English-language series.
The Jenna Ortega-fronted program surpassed the 1 billion hours viewed milestone in less than a month, becoming only the third program to do so. It passed Dahmer to overtake Stranger Things: Season 4 as the second most-watched program in the United States.
Though sources predict it will happen in the new year rather than before the year is through, a renewal is believed to be inevitable. Even though MGM has been reorganized as Amazon Studios under Jen Salke, no one anticipates that would impede future seasons. Producers are beginning to chat with writers about joining the writers’ room for season two and considering season two locations. Insiders anticipate that renewal negotiations will go fairly easily, notwithstanding some issues that the two new partners need to resolve.
The peculiar circumstances on Wednesday are a strong reminder that several of Amazon’s competitors now partner with MGM.
The Handmaid’s Tale for Hulu, Last Light for NBCU’s Peacock, Fargo for FX, Vikings: Valhalla for Netflix, and development projects for Starz and Paramount+ are all produced by MGM Television. On the unscripted side, it produces a variety of reality shows for cable networks, including The Voice for NBC, Shark Tank for ABC, and Survivor for CBS.
One insider praised the move as “a terrific signal to the community that [Amazon Studios] is serious about selling outside and making contributions elsewhere.”
It will probably spread even further once MGM enters its next stage. It already has a project in development with Apple: the thriller series Raising Wild, executive produced by Renée Zellweger and starring Cynthia Erivo.
According to reports, Amazon is presently searching the MGM archive for movies, and TV shows that it can revive and remake in the “not too distant future.”
James Bond is certainly included in this. There will be a 007 reality competition series. Still, suppose the production company can work out an agreement with Bond defenders Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. In that case, they may be interested in producing a scripted television series in the future.
One may speculate that some of these MGM collection remakes will potentially work better for other broadcasters besides Freevee or Amazon Prime Video.
Wednesday existed long before Amazon approached MGM for the first time in 2021. Before Netflix formally ordered it in February 2021, Tim Burton, Alfred Gough, and Miles Millar put the project out to market in October 2020.
The program’s executive producers include Gough, Millar, Burton, Steve Stark, Andrew Mittman, Gail Berman, Kayla Alpert, Jonathan Glickman, Tommy Harper, Kevin Lafferty, and Kevin Miserocchi. The program also features Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzman, Isaac Ordonez, Gwendoline Christie, Riki Lindhome, Jamie McShane, Fred Armisen, and Christina Ricci.
One source continued, “[Amazon] is in business with everyone and is expected to do that in various dimensions.
