Producer extraordinaire Shonda Rhimes has been ruling primetime television for over 10 years following the birth of Grey’s Anatomy in 2005 and she’s opening up about her secrets to success in a new interview.
With the Shondaland empire set to get even bigger in 2016 and into 2017, the TGIT queen says it’s important to stick with the formula that her viewers have come to know and love.
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“It has been really important to find shows that feel like our brand, that sound like our brand, because I want audiences to continue to depend on the fact that if it is a Shondaland show, they know what they are getting,” she told Ad Age during a recent chat. “You are not going to wonder what this is going to be and be really disappointed because we have jumped outside the box.”
Speaking on her secret to success, Shonda credits her ability to keep her creativity flowing as the driving force behind continuously creating programs that resonate while still pushing the envelope.
“I honestly feel like I’ve kept doing things pretty much the same way. The secret sauce of the business that I can offer is my creativity, and in order to keep my creativity alive and fresh, I have to pretend that no one is watching the show, that there are no audiences, there are no ratings, I’m just telling a story.”
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Though she’s surely grateful to have all of her shows be so well-received with audiences for such a long period of time, Shonda admits she’s not depending on ratings to determine what she tries or doesn’t try next.
“I stopped paying attention to the ratings, I would say, maybe a year into ‘Grey’s’ when I realized I have no control over the ratings.”
Shonda’s newest show, Still Star-Crossed, is currently in the works and will join the Scandal season 6 return sometime in ABC’s 2016-2017 fall line up.
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