ABC’s (Way Too Early) Plans for the Grammys

Last week, we went deep with Walt Disney Television alternative TV chief Rob Mills, the reality guru in charge of shows such as ABC’s The Bachelor and Hulu’s The Kardashians and Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. But in addition to those soapy franchises, Mills’s portfolio includes ABC’s vast collection of live events, including iconic competition series American Idol, the Oscars, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. In part two of our conversation, Mills talks about the importance of these programs to Disney’s overall offering and why he’s looking forward to the addition of another big event to his calendar: the Grammys.

So ABC took a big risk by picking up American Idol in 2017 after it left Fox. The show’s ratings had faded, and NBC’s The Voice was on the rise. Eight years later, Idol is a cornerstone of the network’s spring schedule. Even though it’s a pretty expensive show to make, I’m assuming you’re happy with it? 
Well, yes, they’re definitely not cheap. I have to give a lot of credit to people who’ve been there since the days of the Fox franchise, like Fremantle CEO Jenn Mullin. As much as everybody was like, “Gosh, they’re picking up a show that Fox canceled,” there were a lot of suitors for that show. And Fremantle was looking for the right home and somebody who really was going to treat it as the asset that it is.

What do you think explains the show’s longevity and the fact that it’s still outdrawing competition like The Voice in key younger demos? At least so far this spring, it’s even bringing in slightly more total viewers.
Putting these big stars in these chairs — and I think our judges are the best on television — as great as that is, it is really about the contestants and making you care about their stories. We will continue to do that, and the way to ensure the longevity of the show is to evolve: How are we telling those stories, leaning into social media, making people care about this competition? Idol was at its peak not when it was Simon, Paula, and Randy on the magazine covers, but when you had an Entertainment Weekly cover that had nine squares, like The Brady Bunch, filled with the finalists, and people wanting to know who was going to win. That’s really what’s important. If you’re an aspiring musician, you realize Idol is the one that can really launch careers. Even Benson Boone …

… Who was only on for one episode!
Exactly. But somebody like Benson Boone chose Idol. And look, Benson Boone would be a star no matter what; he is absolutely phenomenal. But that exposure certainly helped people sit up and take notice. So, the fact that we’ve had that, we’ve had Gabby Barrett — the fact we still have stars coming from that show says this is still the real deal.

Any chance Benson Boone will return to Idol now that he’s a massive star?
We would love it. I’m sure he’s reading Buffering, so if I can use this column space to appeal to him: Benson, we’d love to have you come on any episode you want.

Idol also works for ABC and Disney as part of the company’s broader universe of music programming. Disney+ and ABC are now home to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and it recently used Idol to announce its new inductees. This is more of that Disney synergy at play, right?
This is the greatest job in the world because I touch so many things, but I was incredibly excited about the prospect of bringing the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction here. I think one of the things we really were able to entice them with was synergy. I remember talking to Hall of Fame chief John Sykes and saying, “We can absolutely livestream this on Disney+, but we have a broadcaster that will bring an entirely different audience.” I thought it was incredibly smartly scheduled by Ari Goldman, our scheduler, to put it on ABC on New Year’s Day, because one of our biggest nights of the year is New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, hosted by Ryan Seacrest. So we have that to use as a promotional thing for the Hall of Fame. So, yes, this was the best of what we can do synergy-wise.

And then in 2027, Mickey’s musical empire grows even bigger when the Grammys move to ABC. How big was it for you when your boss Dana Walden landed that show, which had been at CBS for decades?
It’s sort of a “pinch me” moment. Those things come along once a career, so this was incredibly exciting. Again, our big sell was, “Here’s what we can do on Disney.” What was important to them was, how do you keep the Grammy brand in the consciousness throughout the year? So we can do Grammy winner night on Idol. We can do a Grammy night on Dancing With the Stars. We could do a date on The Bachelor where they go to the Grammy Museum and a musical artist performs. And, of course, we have Jimmy Kimmel Live and Good Morning America. 

What we’re really excited about is what we’re referring to as the biggest event period in television history, and I don’t think that’s hyperbole. In the span of four or five months, we will have the 60th CMA Music Awards, we’ll have the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, we’ll have New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, we’ll have the Grammys, we’ll have the Super Bowl, and then we’ll have the Oscars. That’s in 2027, but we’re already thinking about how we can make all of these things work together? It’s hard to get more powerful than that in the big-event space.
 
Some folks saw Disney stepping up for the rights to the Grammys as sort of an insurance policy against the possibility that ABC will lose the Oscars after its deal expires in 2027. Do you think that was part of the company’s thinking? And how optimistic are you about striking a new agreement for the Academy Awards?
We have a couple years, and I obviously hope the Oscars stay here forever, right? Both as a viewer and as an executive, I’ve only ever known the Oscars on ABC. So I certainly hope there’s a path forward. I don’t think the Grammys were in any way, shape, or form bought as an insurance policy. A company our size absolutely should be making investments in things as great as the Grammys, but it’s amazing that those two will exist on the same network, at least for a couple years and hopefully more. We will see what happens.

This year’s Oscars did decently well in the ratings, and creatively, they really seemed to pop. Conan O’Brien got great reviews, and he’s already been locked up for next year, which makes a lot of sense. But I’m curious whether Conan doing two Oscars in a row means Jimmy Kimmel has decided he’s done hosting the show. Have we seen our last Kimmel-hosted Academy Awards? 
I certainly hope that we did not see his last Oscars two years ago. He said he needed a little break. And, I mean, the privilege of having done Oscars with Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O’Brien, who are two faces on late night’s Mount Rushmore, is amazing. When you do the job that Conan did, it’s worth asking, “Would he be interested in doing it again?” And we were lucky. I hope Jimmy’s hosting the Oscars, or something else, down the line. We have a litany of awards shows.

There’s always the Grammys.
That’s right.