Bill Lawrence Shows How Much TV Has Changed with "Scrubs" and "Ted Lasso" — and How Much It Hasn't
When "Scrubs" returned in February with new episodes after 16 years, the rebooted first season had only nine episodes, compared with the 24-episode seasons of its original run. In an interview following an on-stage conversation, Lawrence said, "It might take us 10 episodes [at that point] to figure out what works and what gels."
The host spoke with Rob Caruso, senior vice president of consumer products for Ventura TV OS at The Trade Desk, on stage at New York Advertising Week.
When "Scrubs" returned in February with new episodes after 16 years, the first season of the reboot had just nine episodes compared to the 24 episodes of its original run.
"It might take us 10 episodes [at that point] to figure out what's working and what's gelling," Lawrence said in an interview after an onstage chat at New York Advertising Week on Oct. 6. Related Stories Mia Goth slams Instagram's 'incomprehensible' decision to post AI-altered selfies online
Lawrence appeared on The Trade Desk with Rob Caruso, senior vice president of consumer products at Ventura TV OS, to discuss the changes the TV industry has undergone over the past decade — and what it will undergo in the future to meet the demands of a fragmented audience. Popular in Variety
Lawrence's career reflects those seismic shifts. Today, he's balancing a line-up of shows including Shrink, Bad Monkey, and Ted Lasso on Apple TV. "Rooster" on HBO; "Scrubs" reboot; and "I Suck at Girls," which is slated to premiere on Netflix later.
The dynamic Lawrence mentioned – having limited time to engage an audience – coincides with the rise of streaming and other resulting industry changes. Caruso noted that the shows used to need mass appeal "versus now when you can write very subtle shows."
"You have no idea how daunting it was when I was first in the network business where we were putting out a show that would appeal to everybody," Lawrence added. "Then it got to the point where if you can make a particular show that appeals strongly to a small audience, that's the difference."
Today's television producers have to attract a smaller potential audience in a shorter period of time. The broader ecosystem is tasked with making it economically viable at a time when consumers are discovering content differently than ever before, while watching TV in more ways than ever before.
The operating system of the TV is very important in this regard. It is often the gateway to how viewers discover content and has become a fundamental component of how advertisers target and reach their audiences. For Caruso, perfecting the operating system means enhancing how value is returned to publishers and TV makers.
In the streaming age, the algorithms to handle these complexities have become incredibly sophisticated. But both Lawrence and Caruso cautioned that today's algorithms can also backfire by pushing content in ways that lose results.
"When you see something that's really personal to you, you don't necessarily realize it," Caruso said. "It's like a good ad. You don't necessarily think of an ad as an ad when it's entertaining, when it's targeted. When it's not, when it starts to get spammy, you tend to tune it out, and it usually has an adverse effect."
"Personal" is the million dollar word. Whether it's a niche show for smaller audiences or an ad that reaches the right audience, the future of the TV ecosystem may depend on innovation in how we find audiences, help them discover new content, bring them back, and monetize their engagement.
With that, streaming platforms seem to be embracing advertising more and more as a source of revenue, with most of the top major platforms offering ad programs in addition to subscription services. Advertising-supported free-to-air TV (FAST) services are also on the rise.
Lawrence is clearly no stranger to TV commercials. Onstage at N.Y. Ad Week, he shared that he's thinking about the format of the show soon, as well as a series about what he can support on ad networks or, conversely, sell on a subscription-based streaming service.
That said, he added that he no longer thought about whether viewers would watch a show on a weekly basis.
"'Bad Monkey' is a good example of a show that ends every episode on a cliffhanger, and if you're in the writers' room and you know that a third of the audience is going to watch it until the end of the season, you wonder if they're going to have the same experience [as weekly viewing]," he says. "I used to hang around about it, but I decided to just write shows that didn't feel like people were going to watch them all in a row."
It cannot be denied that streaming has given a new lease of life to the elderly. Lawrence suggested that the revival of "Scrubs" happened in part because fans rewatched the show and new audiences discovered it on the air.
Ted Leso also recently returned after a much shorter three-year hiatus between seasons three and four. But Lawrence emphasized that in both cases, there must be a story worth telling.
After all, that's the best way to attract an audience, right? In a fragmented television landscape, the right story must find the right audience. The economics of television have changed dramatically since "Scrubs" first aired, but one thing hasn't changed: Great stories bring people together and inspire the next generation of creators.