The Rise of Streaming Content And Female-Driven Stories

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It’s no secret there has been a huge rise in the amount of content available on streaming outlets. Remember when people starting raving about Netflix and you swore you’d never leave cable? Cut to many years later and I am eating humble pie. We dropped most of our cable outlets last year and only have the bare minimum tiered package. Any given night of the week you’ll find us watching Netflix, Hulu or Amazon.

My guest this week is a huge part of the reason why people have abandoned traditional cable outlets in favor of streaming. Carolyn Newman was the Executive In Charge of Development and Production at Amazon Studios before getting scooped up as the Vice President of Scripted Programming at Entertainment One (The Walking Dead, Fear The Walking Dead).

At Amazon Studios, she served as the point executive on such series as Bosch, Hand of God, Mad Dogs and Good Girls Revolt. Prior to Amazon Studios, Newman was VP Development and Production for Sphere Media, where she oversaw development and executive produced critically acclaimed series 19-2 for Bell Media in Canada.

Now at Entertainment One she tells me she’s using her experience to find and develop great content with female-driven stories. There’s been a big push in recent years to have more women working in front of and behind the camera, but Newman says it’s not enough. She wants to do more. She wants the gritty, unusual, unique stories that reflect the diversity of women in the world and she finds them in books, short stories and through established writers.

And as you can imagine having such a high level job in television development can create long hours and high pressured situations making balancing family life challenging. But Newman emphasizes what she does is no different from any other type of executive. She manages her schedule and makes sure she’s present for her kids when she can be. She also makes sure to have phone-free time when her kids are around because that’s important to her.

Honestly, one of the reasons I was excited to interview Carolyn is because she is a career-driven TV executive who has the opportunity to alter the narrative of public discourse when creating a new show and she does it all while also being a mom of 2. The idea that moms can’t be good moms and also love their jobs is passe and offensive. More and more women are proving that you can do both. Do things fall through the cracks? Sure. But that happens when you’re a stay at home mom or working part-time mom too. Carolyn is an inspiration proving that not everything in Hollywood is glitz and glamour and luxury play dates with celebrities. Sometimes it’s long hours at the office, back-to-back meetings, and hours spent searching for the next big hit that women will connect with.

You can find out more about Entertainment One and what Carolyn is working on at entertainmentone.com.