Shonda Rhimes, ABC’s top producer and the creative force behind many of its hit shows, has revealed that she left the network for Netflix because an executive was too stingy to give her an extra Disneyland pass! While ABC may have saved a couple hundred dollars on the pass, they lost at least tens of millions of dollars by alienating the force behind hit shows that include “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal.”
The revelation was made by Rhimes in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
The incident took place when Rhimes and her family had planned a trip to Disneyland after obtaining an all-inclusive pass from ABC. Rhimes was able to negotiate an additional pass for her nanny but when she tried to get a third pass for her sister, a network executive made a fatal mistake.
Rhimes contacted a "high-ranking executive" for assistance but was asked, "Don't you have enough?" Furious, Rhimes hung up and immediately contacted her lawyer, insisting they find a way to get her to move to Netflix.
Rhimes shocked the entertainment world when she announced in August 2017 that she would be joining the streaming service. Prior to that, she said she had a candid conversation with Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix, about their expectations.
"The first thing I said was, 'You're not going to get another Grey's Anatomy — not Grey's Anatomy in a cornfield, Grey's Anatomy on a baseball field, or Grey's Anatomy at an airport, that's just not happening.' And he said, 'I'd never expect it to,'" Rhimes recalled.
"And then I said, 'I just want to be in a place where I can make stuff and no one's going to bother me or make me feel like I'm beholden,' and he was like, 'That sounds great to me.'"
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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