Tom Farrell is the CEO of The WorkShop Content Studios, a sports and entertainment production studio based in Philadelphia. He is an Emmy-nominated and award-winning Executive Producer with over 30 years of TV production experience. The Real Screen Awards named their 2020 series Basketball or Nothing as the best non-fiction sports documentary of the year, beating out The Last Dance. Their productions have appeared on Netflix, Amazon, Vice, PBS, CBS, Peacock, and other networks. If you were watching any sports programs this past year, you probably saw some of their work as they had two popular shows running almost simultaneously: Pitino: Red Storm Rising and Belichick and Brady: The Verdict.
Q: In today's media landscape, live sports are dominating as the last bastion of concurrent viewing, and with that have come documentaries, podcasts, and other sports content. Do you expect that increasing trend to level off at all? Do you think it's just the insatiable demand from fans and viewers, or the media landscape’s appetite for sports content that is never-ending?
A: So I think it's a combination of things, Griff, everything that you just mentioned there, but I can say confidently that the demand for this type of programming isn't going away anytime soon. In fact, I think it's only gonna increase.
As we start to uncover the stories and the general public starts to consume different pieces of content, I think they're only gonna want more, especially in the sports world. And that's where we've really found a lot of success as these teams start to open up their doors more and more, and you start to find out things about players and coaches. With a team like Notre Dame football, if they can get a show, why can't Villanova basketball get a show? So I think the trajectory is only going upward with regard to the demand for this content, and I think as creators, and that's what we do as we create the content, we’re pressed to figure out different ways to present it.
An example like Hard Knocks did a really good job back in the day of getting inside with teams and giving you a look at what goes on off the field, and now that has become a huge trend in sports. People wanna know more about these players that they're watching in their lives and what makes them tick off the field. So as content creators, we continuously try to brainstorm different ways to come up with ideas that the consumer is gonna lean into
Q: How often does a team like Villanova basketball, for example, come to somebody and say, “We want to do a Hard Knocks-style type show”? Is that often for a certain type of team or brand, like a Villanova Basketball or a Notre Dame Football, or is that demand coming from creators, looking to find a story?
A: Yeah, I think it starts with the creators coming to the institutions rather than the other way around. But I think we're gonna see a seismic shift in that when these teams are thinking about different ways that they can generate revenue streams, I think documentaries and podcasts and series television is gonna start to be a conversation that's had at all these schools and these professional teams. If you create something that people latch onto, then that's only gonna generate more ticket sales, it's gonna generate more jersey sales, it's gonna generate more buzz about your team, so I think that's gonna increase rather than decrease. But for the most part, from our perspective, it's been us going to the universities or the pro teams and saying, “Hey, we'd like to do a show about your coach or your team or your fan base” but I think that's gonna change where a lot of of these institutions are going to start brainstorming and thinking of ways that they can create content
Q: Your work is kind of featured by both famous individuals as well as relatively or completely unknown stories. What sort of common elements are you specifically looking for that make it a good piece of sports content? Or do they just naturally crop up?
A: I think it all boils down to the character, the protagonist of the story that you're dealing with. Are they an interesting watch, and are they an interesting story that you're gonna invest an hour in, or possibly three or four hours into? So that's always our baseline is “Will I want to sit down and watch something about this particular person?” and if so, why? And then we start to storyboard that out.
Q: How do you typically come to like find any of these individuals or projects? Is there a standard method that you and your team go through, or is that often something like seeing a random potential story in a newspaper and you try and track it down?
A: Yeah, it's so random it's not even funny. We have development sessions every week here at The WorkShop, where we brainstorm different ideas and different characters that we've come across. I always say ideas are the lifeblood of our company, and the idea could come at a cocktail party, it could come at a basketball game that you're attending with a friend, or it could come from a family member. It could come from an outside source, who knows what you do for a living, and says, “Hey, you should take a look at this person”. I always, always, always encourage our people to take that look and don't just dismiss it out of hand because that next great story could be underneath that one rock that you didn't look under, so it's extremely random.
Q: What determines what style of project you're doing? What determines whether it's a film-length documentary, a multi-episode series, or something else entirely? Is there any sort of background that would immediately require any of those different media?
I think it all comes down to the layers of the story and how long you think you'll need to tell that story. Some stories can be told in 60 minutes. And that's all, is an hour-long documentary all at once on it.
Others are so multilayered that it's warranted to do a six-part series, and then the idea itself sometimes can warrant multiple seasons. So if you find a formula that works like a Hard Knocks, or like with our Pitino show that we did last year, Pitino: Red Storm Rising, it carried throughout the whole season. We see that Patino is such a strong character that it doesn't matter what season you're following them, you're gonna get entertaining content. So we're embarking on our second season of Patino now, just because he's such a great character.
Q: Do networks ever come to you beforehand, saying, “We're looking for a multi-episode series or like a feature-length documentary? Or is it always just once it's finished, then you go around shopping to networks?
A: It's a combination. Every month, we receive what's called “the mandates” from all the platforms. So whether it's Netflix or History Channel or ESPN, we find out what it is they're looking for, and then if there's something in our development pipeline that fits that need, then we pitch them that story or that series. Other ideas we develop completely 100% in-house here and then take it to market and try to shop it that way. So it's certainly a combination of the two things you mentioned there.
Q: You mentioned that you're starting up season two with the Rick Pitino: Red Storm Rising. I also saw that you announced season two of Basketball or Nothing, which obviously had a lot of awards success, as well as Traveling on the Spectrum, which was also nominated for an Emmy. With award success or just success in general, does that potentially change how you approach your second season? Do you build off the award or financial success, or do you try and maintain a sense of continuity in the production?
A: It really doesn't change our approach, especially if it's an award-worthy type of show. It just means that we're doing something right there, and so we may tinker with the formula a little bit, but we're not gonna make any household changes that would change what got us there in the first place. I try to stick to that mantra of if we just create and present the best possible story that we can and keep it authentic in nature, then the awards will follow, and so we're not gonna change our approach as a storyteller that much if we win an award for a show.
Q: How big a difference is actually winning an award for potentially getting bought by a different distributor or getting a bigger release? How often does that occur?
A: Yeah, it definitely occurs often because the more recognition you get around your project and the more success that a project has, that will translate into more eyeballs on the program. That's what every platform is looking for is multiple and successful seasons of a project, so if you're an award-winning show, then yeah, you're certainly gonna have options when it comes to season two or season three. However, if a platform is smart, they're gonna lock you up for a couple of seasons, just in case that does happen, so that you really don't have an option of going somewhere else
Q: Are there any newcomers to the game that are really trying to grab up a lot of content? It feels like every single streamer is trying to get some sort of sports rights for either live viewing or documentaries. Do you see, with any of these corporate shifts, are there changes in the winds with streamers and some of the sports content that they produce?
A: I do. I feel strongly that universities are gonna become networks themselves. And I think you're gonna see a big shift in that regard. You saw just yesterday with the announcement of private equity getting into the University of Utah, these universities are now gonna operate, as I would expect them to operate, as networks when it comes to entertainment. They know they have something really valuable; it's a matter of getting it out there to the masses, so rather than seeing the University of Pennsylvania doing a show on Netflix, I can see the University of Pennsylvania making their own program and pushing it out there strategically to the people that they wanna push it out to.
Q: Do you see those universities essentially having their own in-house studio systems, where they're generating all those things in-house?
A: Without a doubt, 1,000 %. I've seen it happen in the corporate world over the course of time, where everybody from Chick-fil-A to Home Depot has their own studios now, and I think the same is gonna happen with these universities. I think there's gonna be a boom in that area for sure.
Q: Are there any mistakes that you often see in sports content from either a business or editorial point of view? Are there any common mistakes that are a pretty obvious sign that they are a potential newcomer?
A: I would say the biggest mistake that I see is these newcomers trying to do it themselves. That often falls flat just because there's a reason why there are companies, like ours, that make professional content. It's because we've gone through all the pains and the growing pains of making content and learning what works and doesn't work, and I think a lot of times these newcomers think that if they just turn a camera on themselves or their world, that it's gonna be successful. And I see one after another just fail miserably because there's a reason why Formula One works on Netflix. Because it's produced professionally and entertaining and engaging in a way that you wanna just go back and watch one episode after another, and just because you're a brand doesn't mean that you necessarily are gonna be a hit if you turn a camera on yourself in a non-professional way.
My advice would be to always align yourself with professionals who’ve done it and continue to do it on a daily basis because you're gonna be able to learn from them. And then once you do that, if you wanna branch off on your own, great. But I would attach myself to a professional company at first and learn how the process takes place and then and then go off and try to do it yourself.
Q: What’s your best guess for the next big trend in the sports media landscape?
A: My prediction for the next big series is gonna women's volleyball. I think the sport itself is just exploding by the day, but a docuseries about a women's volleyball team is going to be the next big I think thing in sports media.
I mean, the way they filled up the football stadium at Nebraska is unbelievable. Matt Rhule is the coach of Nebraska football, and he said his daughters want women's volleyball tickets more than they want Nebraska football tickets. I thought that was such a telling comment. But yeah, like a Nebraska doc series of the women's volleyball team would be huge, I think.
Q: With the rise in popularity of women's sports, do you see a sort of title wave of media coming with potentially the Caitlin Clarks of the world, or like we just said, with Nebraska volleyball?
A: Yeah, I think tidal wave is the perfect analogy. I think it's coming. I think the Caitlin Clark example is a perfect one as far as what she has been able to do for the WNBA, and all it takes is one personality. So you think to yourself, “Who is the Caitlin Clark of the women's volleyball world?”, and attach yourself to her right now, and then you do the same thing with softbal,l and you do the same thing with, whether it's squash or swimming or things like that. I think women's sports will be, if not one to one with men’s sports figures and media, is gonna be much closer than it is today.
Q: Lastly, is there a piece of content coming out from The WorkShop that you're most excited about? Whether it's season two of Basketball or Nothing or something entirely new, what’s something you’re most excited for the world to see?
A: Other than some of the ones we’ve already mentioned, like Basketball or Nothing and Traveling on the Spectrum with both of their second seasons, we do have a Big East series that I'm pretty excited about. It’s Big East basketball, so something similar to what the SEC has done with Any Given Saturday. It's on Netflix. We were aligned with the Big East Basketball conference to make a series about all the different teams, which I think is gonna be pretty exciting to see.