Paramount Network President Kevin Kay Has Lofty Aspirations For Viacom’s Newest Channel: “We’re Trying To Compete With Netflix and HBO and Their High-Priced Shows”

There has been a subtle but significant programming shift in cable over the last few years with many of the marginal networks like Esquire and Pivot shutting down and dominant networks like TBS and A&E beefing up their original programming. What’s coming over the next several years is likely a continued move toward fewer channels with more robust programming slates.

Viacom, which owns Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, BET, VH1, MTV and other cable channels, is rebranding its Spike TV channel on Thursday night to Paramount Network and making it Viacom’s hub for scripted originals that it hopes will be able to compete with FX, AMC, TNT and USA for talent and viewers.

A handful of reality shows are coming over from Spike TV — Lip Sync Battle, Ink Master and Bar Rescue — but Paramount Network’s big brand will be scripted shows built around Hollywood film names like Kevin Costner, Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon and Alicia Silverstone in new series projects.

Kevin Kay, the president of Viacom’s Paramount Network, TV Land and CMT cable networks sat down with Decider on the eve of the big switch from Spike TV to Paramount Network for a discussion about many of the big changes that are coming.

DECIDER: Why are you changing the network from Spike TV to Paramount Network?

KEVIN KAY: Spike has gone through transitions and rebranding even before this. When we first launched Spike it 14 years ago, we branded it as “the first network for men.” We did a lot of programming aimed at the young male demo and were very successful with that through the years. Three or four years ago, we started to think about the advertising money drying up, console video games becoming more prominent and Hollywood making fewer blockbuster action titles. We started looking at whether there were opportunities to make Spike broader, bring women to the network and encourage co-viewing.

We’ve reached a place on Spike the last few years where shows like Lip Sync Battle, Ink Master and Bar Rescue had much more age balance and much more male-female co-viewing. Lip Sync Battle is actually about 65 percent female. We went from a demo that was 70 percent male in early Spike era to something closer to 55 percent male and 45 percent male today, and that’s more conducive to our advertisers need.

Does changing the branding but leaving everything else in the same place — the channel numbers on all the different cable lineups, the redirect to the new web address — make rebranding a lot easier than starting a network from scratch?

One hundred percent. Even before Spike, we had rebranded The Nashville Network to TNN and from TNN to Spike, and we were able to keep our channel positions through all of that. We don’t have to tell people to go somewhere else to find Paramount Network.

What current Spike TV shows will come over to Paramount Network?

Lip Sync Battle, Ink Master, Ink Angels, Bar Rescue and the original catalog of Cops is moving over to Paramount Network.

What about MMA?

Bellator MMA will definitely continue on Friday nights and Saturday nights on Paramount Network. We’ll actually probably have a little bit more of it on Paramount Network.

How many new scripted titles do you think you’ll premiere on Paramount Network through the end of this year?

Right now, we have five and I think we’d like to get to eight scripted series. We might not get to eight until into early 2019, but that’s the goal. We’ve got four non-scripted shows, and we’d like to increase that to script. And we’ve got a Trayvon Martin docuseries that will air in 2018. Plus documentaries throughout the year and mixed martial arts. It’s a robust slate when you look at everything.

Where does your scripted lineup put you among cable networks — something north of AMC but not quite as many as FX?

That sounds about right. FX will likely still be doing a few more originals that Paramount Network.

What’s the network brand for scripted? What are you looking to see from scripts and pitches?

We’ve done a lot of audience research on what Paramount means to them and what affinities they have to the Paramount brand. They believe Paramount stands for original productions, great characters, great cinematography, premium content. They think about Indiana Jones, The Godfather and Transformers. They think about big franchises. We want big stars in front of and behind the camera. We want original storytelling. We want specific and unique voices. We’re taking big swings, and we want them to look great and be great.

We’re going to do a lot of marketing and really get behind these new shows. If you’re a creator and you want people to have a conversation about your show, you can bring your show to Paramount Network. We’re going to put your show on weekly, and we’re going to drive people to those episodes. We’re not Amazon or Netflix, which do a great job but where you wind up being in a queue, where you never know when it’s on, and where you can’t talk to anybody about it because you’re on Episode 3 and they’re on Episode 10.

The first original out of the gate is Waco. That will have to be a limited series, I guess. There’s not much you could do for a second season!

I know. [Laughs.] When I was watching dailies of that, I kept thinking, “It’s a shame that compound burned to the ground.

That will be six or eight episodes?

Six. That premieres January 24.

I’ve seen the first three episodes of that. There’s a lot of aerial photography and a lot of sets. There’s a scene from the Ruby Ridge standoff that’s only in the first episode. You’re spending some money to make that look like a premium series.

We definitely are.

“We’re not Amazon or Netflix, where you wind up being in a queue, where you never know when it’s on, and where you can’t talk to anybody about it because you’re on Episode 3 and they’re on Episode 10.”

Will Waco be at the high end of what you’re budgeting for originals?

Every project requires its own budget. For Waco, we had to build the entire compound. That was the only way to do it. We’ve got an Academy Award nominee in Michael Shannon. We’ve got Taylor Kitsch. We’ve got John Leguizamo. It’s an amazing cast. When you put that together with everything that happened with the FBI, the ATF and the Branch Davidians at Waco, there’s a lot of action, and it’s a very expensive show. That’s one of the reasons we led with it.

Yellowstone with Kevin Costner and Taylor Sheridan is also very expensive. We shot it entirely on location in Utah and Montana. Big budget, Big Sky, big cast. We’re trying to compete with Netflix and Amazon and HBO and their high-priced shows. We don’t need to spend that amount of money on every show to get viewers and drive conversation. Waco and Yellowstone will be at the higher end of that.

With Waco and Yellowstone, I saw you aging up somewhat as cable becomes a somewhat older demographic, and then I saw the first episode Heathers and it was like getting knocked down with a firehose. It’s very young and extremely aggressive.

[Laughs.] Heathers is very special. It’s a unique, iconic title. When we did some audience research on the first two episodes, 18- to 24-year-old women loved it, 18- to 34-year-old women loved it. You know who else loved it? Shockingly, it was 35-plus males. They love the humor and the darkness. They thought it was shocking and funny the way South Park is shocking and funny. It may have a broader audience than we originally thought.

As the cable channels and streaming businesses have learned, the first hit defines the network. If the first hit is Yellowstone, we’re probably going down more of an hour-drama path. If the first hit is Heathers or American Woman, we may be going down a slightly different path. We’ll have the opportunity — because we’re putting on so much scripted programming — to see what the audience really wants from us.

There’s a scene in Heathers with a group of teachers that walks right up to the line of what you can say on TV and then slaps the viewer across both eyes. What did you think about that scene?

I think it’s amazing. I’ve seen all 10 episodes, and that’s just the beginning. [Laughs.] There are a lot of issues right now — LGBT kids, in particular — and teachers don’t always understand those students or their culture. This is a comedic and deeply dark take on high school. I have a 10-year-old son, and I would not want him to go to this high school, I can tell you that.

Nobodies is moving over from TV Land. Is that the only half-hour comedy you’ve announced?

Yes. Nobodies is coming over from TV Land, and we think there’s a big opportunity there. Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone are very invested in Season 2 — Melissa will be on more than half the episodes — and we love the show. If we can give it a big audience and Melissa and Ben promoting it as effectively as do with their projects, that’s a great bet for us.

Should I take that move as a sign that you won’t be doing as many originals at TV Land?

Younger has been a huge hit for TV Land, and Teachers continues to grow season over season. We’re developing for TV Land more along the lines of those shows. Nobodies had a tough start on TV Land, so this is an opportunity to give it a bigger, broader audience. At one point, TV Land was doing eight or 10 originals a year and putting them on at 10 or 10:30, and we decided to do fewer originals there and put more marketing behind each of them.

You’ve got American Woman starring Alicia Silverstone and Mena Suvari, which will be set in the 1970s. Tell me about that.

Tom Wells is the creator and showrunner and has an incredible track record with ER and other shows. Alicia plays a recently divorced woman with two young daughters, and it’s set in Beverly Hills in 1975. It’s a fun, dark story with a little bit of Sex in the City from her circle of friends that are very supportive of her. It was not easy to a single mother at that time and it’s not easy now, so I think it’s going to be a relevant show.

All of these properties have talent or creative or both coming from features. Is part of Paramount Network’s brand that you want to be viewed as part of the Paramount Studios brand?

I think that’s the audience expectation, and we have to deliver on that. It doesn’t mean we won’t have TV stars in our project, but reaching out to the film community and casting from that community is what the audience will want to see. That’s challenging and expensive, but seeing those faces on our billboards is a good thing for Paramount Network.

Viacom, which is your parent company, is one of the main investors in the Philo streaming bundle. Three of the most-watched shows on that service are The Walking Dead, Nightfall and Vikings — big, scripted shows. What do you think about Paramount Network as a destination network for new non-sports bundles?

That’s where we want to be. When Bob Bakish took over as Viacom’s CEO, we had a conversation about scripted across the different networks. There was one scripted show on Spike. MTV was doing one or two scripted. VH1 was doing one or two scripted. And we talked about aggregating that — not that none of the other networks would do scripted, but that we would have a network that would always be doing scripted. That will be a key for our success.

Our job is be on the platforms where people are watching scripted content and carve out a space for ourselves that’s different than what FX or USA or Turner is doing. If you look at Waco or Yellowstone, those aren’t going to be as dark as what FX is doing. If there’s an arms race to be the darkest network on television, FX wins that hands down. They do that better than anyone else on TV. We’re got to find a different space, and I think we’re looking for shows that will help us do that.

Do you have a host-driven late-night show in development?

We do not. I love late-night, but I think there are so many of those shows, and I don’t see audiences coming to Paramount Network for that show vs. all the other great shows that are out there. You’ve got Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel, Samantha Bee and several others out there, and the list goes on and on, so we’re focused on developing our prime-time scripted and non-scripted.

What will be on Paramount Network for the rest of your day parts. Are you buying off-network shows or mostly re-running your own programming?

Friends andTwo and a Half Men will come over from Spike, and we’ll have Cops running on Mondays. We have a big features library and the Paramount film studio has a big features library, so we’re looking to run a lot of those titles. So the weekdays will be sitcoms and reruns of our originals, we’ll have Bellator MMA on Friday nights, and the weekends will be heavy on movies.

How are you thinking about having an over-the-top service at some point?

Developing a lot of our own content makes it possible to launch an OTT or use those shows in other ways in the future, but we’re not doing that exclusively. American Woman is from Warner Bros., so we won’t have those rights, but it’s a great show and we’re in the great-show business.

A Viacom OTT service would be fairly comprehensive across demographics and across scripted and non-scripted. Will a Viacom streaming service eventually make sense?

That’s above my pay-grade and more of a Bob Bakish question. You’re certainly right that there’s a lot of content from Nickelodeon to TV Land to everything else reaching a lot of different demographics. We’ve got a millennial channel in MTV, we’ve got kids and family in Nick and Nick at Night, we’ve got comedy with Comedy Central, we’ve got African-American with BET, and hopefully Paramount Network will be a big, broad, general entertainment network. We also have affiliate partners and relationships to manage there too. I just make TV shows.

Scott Porch writes about the TV business for Decider, is a contributing writer for Playboy, and hosts a weekly podcast about new digital content called Consumed with Scott Porch. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.

Stream Lip Sync Battle on Paramount Network.