I Like My Agents—But I Fired Them Anyway

Last week, I completed my 20th week of a 20-week contract as executive story editor on an upcoming Netflix show: the live-action reboot of the anime series Cowboy Bebop. Don’t let the word executive in that title fool you; nothing about my job was managerial or supervisory. I am a grunt-level TV writer, in my third season on my second show, pretty far down the list of calls that my agents at William Morris Endeavor (WME) might make on any given day.

During this era of peak TV, with produced every year than have ever been produced before, and with more outlets appearing every week—Disney announced its streaming service, Disney+, last Friday—the men and women who create those, rather than taking the traditional 10 percent commission from their writers. The other, and perhaps larger, issue is the agencies’ more recent entry into the business of producing their own television shows and films through in-house content divisions, such as WME’s Endeavor Content and CAA’s Wiip.