Why This Matters: Plans to reinvent a network don't often work, but when they do, the industry watches carefully.
The Emphatic Showing by TNT in the recent Emmy nominations, with The Alienist in the running for a half-dozen trophies, was a noisy announcement that the network's strategy of offering more ambitious originals is paying off. With Kevin Reilly, president of TNT and TBS and chief creative officer at Turner Entertainment, calling the shots, TNT has swapped out closed-ended procedural original series, such as Major Crimes and Rizzoli & Isles, in favor of bolder serialized dramas that offer what Sarah Aubrey, executive VP of original programming, calls a deeper dive into story.
Those original series include Claws, Animal Kingdom and Snowpiercer. That's what audiences have an appetite for, Aubrey said.
Slowly but surely, TNT's originals slate is looking more like that of a premium cable network. Late last month, the Turner network picked up two more unique projects: Constance, produced by Robert Downey Jr. and starring Elisabeth Shue as a former beauty queen turned small-town bureaucrat; and Beast Mode, about a brilliant yet damaged female boxing trainer.
The Alienist, a look at a serial killer preying on street kids in late 1800s Manhattan, and the brainy gumshoes tracking him down, was first up in the TNT Suspense Collection. The series was based on the Caleb Carr novel.
The second series under the Suspense rubric is I Am the Night, debuting in January. That one tells the story of a teenage girl, played by India Eisley, given away at birth who starts to investigate the secrets of her past. She and a down-and-out reporter, played by Chris Pine, end up facing off with a Los Angeles gynecologist involved in dark debauchery. It's a very worthy successor to The Alienist, Aubrey said. It's really juicy storytelling mixed with quality acting.
TNTs "Animal Kingdom"
Spending Money to Make Money
As befits original series with premium cable ambitions, the newer TNT series have heftier budgets than their predecessors. Published reports had pegged The Alienist at $9 million an episode, before tax credits, which TNT did not dispute. Animal Kingdom and Claws, on the other hand, are very reasonably priced, according to Aubrey, who would not divulge figures.
We're very proud of how much bang for the buck we get, she added, and what we get on screen for what we pay.
Last month, TNT renewed Animal Kingdom for season four (Denis Leary was a guest star in the third season), and Claws for season three.
To be sure, not all of TNT's bold originals have found an audience. Will, a look at Shakespeare in London before he established himself as a pre-eminent playwright, did not see a second season after its initial run last summer. TNT has not decided whether Good Behavior, starring former Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery as ex-con grifter Letty Raines, will return for season three.
Ending their runs on TNT recently were Major Crimes, a spinoff of The Closer, after six seasons; and adventure drama The Librarians after four.
Aubrey, who was a producer on NBC drama Friday Night Lights, came on board at TNT in early 2015, months after Reilly took over. Among the originals she's excited about are Tell Me Your Secrets, a thriller about a woman who falls in love with a serial killer, and Snowpiercer, which stars Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs and starts next summer. She describes the latter as post-apocalyptic meets Willy Wonka.
Dr. Jeffrey Jones, executive director of the Peabody Awards, suggested the TNT shows are on his radar screen. Kevin Reilly is taking a lot more chances, he said. He's done a good job of leaning Turner into more aggressive programming.
Life of Reilly
Reilly is a well accomplished hit-maker. He started at Turner Entertainment late in 2014 after a run as entertainment chairman at both Fox and NBC. Reilly was an early proponent of cutting back on commercial loads at TNT, making the viewer experience a wee bit closer to that at HBO or Netflix, and elevating the effectiveness of the ads that do play. The newer TNT dramas see eight to 10 minutes of commercials. Aubrey notes that the 50 to 52 minutes of content is similar to what one might see on HBO. I think that's the sweet spot, she said.
The Alienist's Emmy nominations include outstanding limited series. It's not TNT's first series to get nominated for an Emmy; Aubrey said The Closer was previously singled out.
The common ground among TNT's new series, besides their serialized nature, is distinct characters. They're more complicated, Aubrey said. They're not all good and they're not all bad.
Why This Matters: Plans to reinvent a network don't often work, but when they do, the industry watches carefully.
The Emphatic Showing by TNT in the recent Emmy nominations, with The Alienist in the running for a half-dozen trophies, was a noisy announcement that the network's strategy of offering more ambitious originals is paying off. With Kevin Reilly, president of TNT and TBS and chief creative officer at Turner Entertainment, calling the shots, TNT has swapped out closed-ended procedural original series, such as Major Crimes and Rizzoli & Isles, in favor of bolder serialized dramas that offer what Sarah Aubrey, executive VP of original programming, calls a deeper dive into story. Subscribe for full article
Member Exclusive
Get Access to Our Exclusive Content
Learn MoreAlready subscribed? Log In
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
13/05/2026
New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs
Joel Pennington May 13, 2026
0 Comments
New NVIDIA RTX-accelerated features streamlin...
13/05/2026
Grass Valley announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass, featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras a...
13/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast production cameras, control units, viewfinders and monitors on stand 5D3-1 at Broadcast...
13/05/2026
FISE, working with the founding members of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA), Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and HBS, have collaborated to develop an immersive...
13/05/2026
Canon Unveils New EOS R6 V Full-Frame EOS Camera and RF20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ Bu...
13/05/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Honors Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton at Comme...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the latest developments on Nuke Stage. A purpose-built application for end-to-end virtual production and in-...
13/05/2026
A definitive portrait of one of Ireland's most influential musicians
New TV documentary airs Monday 18 May on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
Watch the...
13/05/2026
Agentic AI is changing the way users get work done. Following the success of OpenClaw, the community is embracing new open source agentic frameworks. The latest...
13/05/2026
Reinforcement-learning agents - AI systems that learn by trial and error - can c...
12/05/2026
Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Post-Hoc Analysis of NAB 2026 If NAB Show 2026 had an underlying theme, it was a quiet, industry-wide pivot from the high-energy sp...
12/05/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D), a Panoptec Technologies Group company, and CT Square, led by Chandresh Shah, have announced a joint venture to distribute G&D and V...
12/05/2026
With 30 days until the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the United States, has announced th...
12/05/2026
The NHL has announced the return of Stanley Pup for its third consecutive year, a 90-minute special featuring adoptable rescue dogs competing on a miniature rin...
12/05/2026
NBCUniversal presented its 2026 Upfront to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, detailing upcoming programming across NBC, Peacock, Bravo, and Versant properti...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced funding for the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Publ...
12/05/2026
TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March M...
12/05/2026
The European Football Alliance (EFA) has announced a content distribution agreement with Fubo Sports Network, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel ...
12/05/2026
For the first time, Spanish-speaking fans in the U.S. will have two separate tel...
12/05/2026
CP Communications led a comprehensive spectrum management initiative on behalf of Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, coordinating RF assets across the ...
12/05/2026
LiveU has announced a strategic partnership with DRONERESPONDERS, a 501(c)3 non-...
12/05/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BMC TV, a specialist in IP transport of broadcast content, has selected the Open Broadcast Systems 5G Flyaway solution...
12/05/2026
NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has announced it will deliver broadcast solutions...
12/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced continued collaboration with Ravensbourne University ...
12/05/2026
Stats Perform has announced the launch of Opta Pulse, an AI-assisted video creation and distribution platform for leagues, rights holders, and broadcasters. The...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced a collaboration with Sesame Workshop to integrate Sesame Street characters into FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 programming. Conten...
12/05/2026
To date, NHL Productions has produced 19 broadcasts with commentary in American Sign Language
NHL in ASL (American Sign Language) may be just one show, but the...
12/05/2026
Google's Brian Albert: creators, athletes, highlights, nostalgia, second-scr...
12/05/2026
A still from Past Lives by Celine Song, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | p...
12/05/2026
Spotify is where fans and artists come together, turning discovery into somethin...
12/05/2026
Features patented Marco-MMC clocking technology
Black Lion Audio's latest release combines the company's expertise in clocking with their renowned p...
12/05/2026
New Track Panel, sequencer upgrades & more
Following their recent public beta release, Reason Studios have announced the full release of Reason 14. With the...
12/05/2026
One month to go! SBS reveals expansive FIFA World Cup 2026 lineup beyond the pi...
12/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents its advanced solutions for power electronics testing at...
12/05/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, has developed a modified fund raising p...
12/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/05/2026
Tyrell Corporation, specialists in high-end live sports and entertainment broadcasts, was tasked with delivering compelling broadcast coverage of premier equest...
12/05/2026
Registration is now open for IBC2026 as the global media, entertainment and technology community prepares to converge on the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September ...
12/05/2026
Ross Video, a global leader in live video production technology, will present its latest innovations and integrated production workflows at BroadcastAsia 2026, ...
12/05/2026
500 selected leaders from around the world across start-ups, corporates, and venture capital. Over 50bn in assets under management among attending investors, a...
Why This Matters: Plans to reinvent a network don't often work, but when they do, the industry watches carefully.
