Thanks A Million – Premium Vertical Series Development & Partnering with Celebrities
I developed and Co-Executive Produced Thanks A Million, a star-studded unscripted social experiment where celebrities surprise someone important to them with $100,000, which kicks off a chain of giving across a community.
When I moved on to work at Amazon, the show earned second and third seasons. It won a few minor awards but my favorite honor was hearing Kara Swisher call it was her favorite new show on her podcast. It was originally with Paramount and Quibi before moving to airing exclusively on Roku.
Re-inventing formats for vertical and short-form
This all started with an initiative where I mined the development archives of long-form linear projects at B17 Entertainment, transforming the highest-potential ones into mid-form and short-form franchises for streaming services and creator platforms. Thanks A Million was originally a longform docuseries that went into reversion, which means one episode was fully shot as a TV show. I had to prove to a team of executives that the show could still remain premium while fitting in a shorter duration and a mobile/vertical format. To solve the problem, I re-developed the show with a new format, produced a short-form pilot to show it working and brought it to market.
Partnering with A-list celebrities
The most rewarding part of making this show was having the chance to pitch celebrities on participating in what was a very much unknown show at the time. It led to thrilling conversations with many more A-listers than we ultimately landed. I navigated talent agencies, PR firms, production companies and non-profits. I earned the participation of:
- Jennifer Lopez
- Kevin Hart
- Nick Jonas
- Kristen Bell
- Aaron Rodgers
- Yara Shahidi
- Tracy Morgan
- Anthony Davis
- Karlie Kloss
- Gabriel Iglesias
- Mark Cuban