Even a casual TV fan has seen the word "showrunner" thrown around. But what does it really mean and what is a showrunner in charge of?
When it comes to the making of a TV show, the showrunner is the top of the food chain.
"It’s a weird amalgam of a creative job and a management job that I’m sure exists in other industries, but I haven’t yet come across the equivalent of it yet. It’s pretty bizarre, I think," Remi Aubuchon, a veteran producer and the showrunner for Playstation Network's recently canceled "Powers," told Business Insider.
"Being a showrunner is basically like babysitting versus parenting," Bravo's "Odd Mom Out" co-showrunner Julie Rottenberg told us, "because suddenly the baby is yours, you can’t just leave at six o’clock when it’s time. And you’re pretty much responsible for every aspect of the show."
Most showrunners start out as writers, and she thinks it's a bit of a miracle that anyone fits the job description.
"I find it amazing that writers, who are often not well-suited for managerial roles, are the people who wind up running things," Rottenberg said. "I feel like if you find someone who’s a great writer, and then is also really great at managing people, it feels amazing to me that that happens as often as it does, because they’re really two very different parts of your brain."
Business Insider talked to several TV showrunners to shed some light on the "bizarre" but essential roles they play in the job:
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Showrunners are in charge of making the most of a budget.
"A lot of the showrunner’s job is figuring out how to balance the amount of money that you have, the time that you have with which to do it, and try to get the best product that you can out of what you’ve got available,"Aubuchon said. "I think if everybody had $10 million an episode, it probably would be a no-brainer, but that’s not how it works that I know of anywhere. If it does, let me know."
A showrunner has to make sure everyone feels valuable.
"A great showrunner isn’t a dictator, they’re curators," said Martin Gero, the showrunner for NBC's hit drama "Blindspot.""You’re working with all these creative people, you don’t want to be like, ‘Here’s what I want. You’ll do exactly what I say.’ You want it to be a collective, but at the end of the day, somebody’s got to have the final word, and the showrunner’s the final word."
Rottenberg agrees: "You have to both be a very clear and strong leader, but also very open to people’s ideas and making people feel that they’re a part of the process because they are. This is such a collaborative medium, where everyone I think looks better and does better work when they feel invested in the finished product."
A showrunner protects the show's creative vision.
"A showrunner has to advocate for the creative aspect of the show, and that’s harder than it looks sometimes especially when I have to sign the budget every week," Aubuchon told us. "And I have to be responsible and conscious, and 'Powers' is a really great example... There’s lots of elements to that show that could really jack up the cost of the show. And the tendency, especially in the production world, is to want to simplify and go for the easiest and less expensive version of that, and my job is to actually say, ‘No, no, no, I want it to be like this and we need to figure out a way to make it happen.'"
"Odd Mom Out" co-showrunner Elisa Zuritsky, who has known her partner Rottenberg since they were both in elementary school, said, "The toughest balancing act I think as a showrunner is knowing what you want and having a clear sense of the show you want to put out there while still allowing for other voices to change your perception or make it better, ultimately. It’s one of the most collaborative jobs, I think, a person could have."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider