ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the promotional function of the television showrunner, examining an evolving discourse shaped by the increasing public visibility of the television production process, and the demand for showrunners to function as public faces. Examining two case studies around the theme of transition and change, the chapter observes negotiation between showrunners and channel and network executives in constructing brand identities and managing narratives of conflict and collaboration. The first case study follows the multiple transitions of Ryan Murphy to chart the maintenance of his distinct author brand through his changes of genre and channels, and explore his relationship of ‘mutually assured promotion’ with his home networks in a challenge to narratives of the creative/suit binary. The second focusses on showrunner changes on The Walking Dead (AMC, 2010–) and shows how such changes are narrativised and made sense of by multiple parties, individual and network, in a public struggle to define the role and importance of the showrunner. Both case studies converge around the emergence of a new model driven by increasing need on U.S. television for publicly visible author figures: the megaproducer.
