Power Showrunners: Hollywood’s 50-ish Most Influential Writer-Producers of 2023

Jesse Armstrong

The Succession creator completed the TV equivalent of a triple axel in 2023. He made a hit show that became a network calling card, wowed critics with each of its four seasons, and, in a culture where legacies are cemented or destroyed by a writer’s ability to “stick the landing,” Armstrong delivered a series finale that managed to please almost everyone (Brian Cox, shuffled off-camera in those last episodes, perhaps excluded). Armstrong’s series leads Emmy nominations with 27 total, including a potential three-peat for best drama, and there are exceptionally high hopes for his likely-to-be-renewed overall deal at HBO. But, for now, consider his landing stuck.

Greg Berlanti

One of TV’s most prolific makers saw his roster take a hit with Nexstar’s gutting of The CW, but Berlanti produces three of the four originals (All American, spinoff Homecoming and a final season of Superman & Lois) on the evolving broadcast network. Elsewhere, Berlanti landed another series at NBC in the medical drama Dr. Wolf, which joins the rookie Found. On the streaming side, the former King of DC Comics has the final season of the Netflix hit You and the long-gestating adaptation of Amy Chozick’s The Girls on the Bus, now at Max. 

One silver lining to the post-Peak TV content contraction “Hopefully TV goes back to becoming more like TV and less like event miniseries. Longer seasons with our favorite characters, please!” 

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump “Jack and Bobby. Brilliant cast — including Patrick Adams from Suits guest starring in the first role I met him in.”

Quinta Brunson

The creator, star and executive producer of ABC’s Abbott Elementary continues to almost single-handedly keep broadcast in the awards conversation. After scoring three Emmy nominations in 2022, including a win for writing, Brunson and her sharp, socially conscious sitcom added honors including a Peabody, an Independent Spirit Award and a trio of NAACP honors. Abbott, which she runs alongside Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker, is up for eight Emmy nominations for its second season as its star also competes for a well-received hosting stint on Saturday Night Live. 

Strike goal that I never accomplished “Learning fluent Spanish.”

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump “30 Rock”

Gloria Calderón Kellett

The former One Day at a Time showrunner helped keep Amazon flush with originals during the two-strike summer, with the debut of drama The Horror of Dolores Roach and a second season of the rom-com With Love — which both stemmed from her overall deal with the streamer and studio. Unfortunately, those series got canceled on Thanksgiving eve, but Kellett maintains a busy development slate that includes, among others, the Taran Killam comedy Arranged for ad-supported Amazon offshoot Freevee. 

My priority issue for the next WGA contract “AI still has me worried.”

I’d use a burner social media account for … “Random acts of social media kindness. So many haters have accounts to troll — how about anonymous love?”

Joanna Calo & Christopher Storer

The Bear, created by Storer and run by Calo and Storer, is a TV rarity: a critical darling with tons of viewers. After breaking out as a watercooler hit with 13 pending Emmy nominations for its first season, the darkly comedic half-hour starring Jeremy Allen White returned in 2023 with a 70 percent viewership spike on Hulu. It now ranks as FX’s most popular original on the sister streamer, one reason it landed Storer a deal with FX Productions. The Bear’s success also helped Storer nab rights to the Sarah Harman novel All the Other Mothers Hate Me in an intense bidding war, while Calo (also under an overall with FX) and scribe Carlos López Estrada are adapting a This American Life segment for the network.

Ryan Condal

HBO seems to have found the guy to take Game of Thrones into the streaming era. Now the sole showrunner of House of the Dragon, a make-or-break gamble, Condal’s work on season one (assisted by Miguel Sapochnik, who’s since departed) earned a reported 29 million viewers and eight Emmy nominations. He also kept season two on track through the labor woes — its cast is Equity, not SAG-AFTRA — and is now working on another spinoff: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight.

One silver lining to the post-Peak TV content contraction “Curation is a good thing in any art form. Fewer shows, made excellently. Our industry badly needs this, and I think the audience badly wants it.”

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump “Deadwood. It doesn’t have any princesses in it, but it is the best western ever made for TV and sits right up there with the filmic greats. It would fit right in as some tonal counter-programming around the Yellowstone Cinematic Universe.”

Lee Eisenberg & Cody Heller

Anyone who expected the year’s most innovative comedy to show up on Amazon’s over-the-top service was not paying attention to Eisenberg and Heller. Freevee’s Jury Duty, co-created by Eisenberg (with Gene Stupnitsky) and showrun by Heller, blended reality and scripted comedy in a way that made it an unlikely breakout and a surprise Emmy contender. Producers are said to still be mulling whether a repeat of this unique concept is even doable, but Eisenberg already followed the project with Apple TV+’s much-anticipated adaptation of Bonnie Garmus’ Lessons in Chemistry, starring Oscar winner Brie Larson. 

Strike goal I never accomplished
EISENBERG “Lift a single weight.”
HELLER “Breaking the Guiness Book of World Records for holding the longest plank. I was only off by 4 hours and 10 minutes”

My priority issue for the next WGA contract
HELLER “That Zoom rooms suck. I firmly believe snacks and socializing are a big part of the creative process.”

If I could build my own Taylor Sheridan-style TV compound, I’d put it …
EISENBERG “Next to Taylor’s ranch in Texas, then start a land war with him, then adapt my own life story with Taylor played by Taylor and George Clooney playing me.”

Jon Favreau and Tony Gilroy

With Marvel becoming Disney’s very pricey problem child and Lucasfilm’s theatrical futures in limbo, the company’s geek-friendly IP is driven by two increasingly invaluable writer-producers. Favreau, who made Star Wars TV possible, continues to lure subs to Disney+ with The Mandalorian, while Gilroy’s critically lauded expansion, Andor, has given the franchise some much needed cultural cachet. The first batch of episodes scored a Peabody and a best drama nomination at the Emmys.

Mike Flanagan

Netflix said goodbye to a few overall deals in the past year, but few of those pills were probably as bitter to swallow as Flanagan’s exit. The horror enthusiast spent his tenure at the streamer delivering multiple hits in seven years — starting with The Haunting of Hill House and culminating in October’s The Fall of the House of Usher. Flanagan has taken his spooky business to Amazon, where he’ll likely start delivering more watercooler hits after completing his feature adaptation of Stephen King’s The Life of Chuck. 

IP I’m dying to get my hands on “For most of my life, the answer has been [King’s] The Dark Tower. Now, I’m going to say Dan Simmons’ Hyperion.” 

One silver lining to the post-Peak TV content contraction “Oof… could free up some resources for marketing, I guess?”

Dan Fogelman & John Hoffman

The duo behind Only Murders in the Building — Fogelman, the producer who helped put it together, and Hoffman, the showrunner who has managed all three seasons of Hulu’s most watched original comedy — have created perhaps the most A-list-friendly set on TV, adding Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep to the latest run. As Fogelman preps a high-profile reunion project with This Is Us pal Sterling K. Brown, Hoffman looks to season four — and another 11 Emmy nominations on the table at January’s telecast.

Strike goal I never accomplished
FOGELMAN “Abs.”
HOFFMAN “A full-body MRI.” 

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump
HOFFMAN “Wheel of Fortune. I know it’s still on, but I think the old ones would be easier to solve.”

Vince Gilligan & Peter Gould

Wrapping up a 14-year journey in 2022 with the end of Breaking Bad prequel series Better Call Saul, Gilligan and Gould take their final victory lap at the upcoming Emmys, where the Bob Odenkirk-led show is up for seven awards. (Saul is 0-for-46 to date.) Still, it’s already onto the next. Now that the strikes are done, the longtime Sony Pictures TV-set Gilligan is resuming work on his Apple TV+ drama starring Saul’s Rhea Seehorn. The project has a choice two-season commitment. 

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump
GILLIGAN “Man, there are a lot of them. Freaks and Geeks deserves its shot at a new generation of fans, and Homicide: Life on the Street (my wife and I were extras on that one!). Wiseguy, because it was awesome, plus America deserves to see Jonathan Banks with hair. And, selfishly, The Lone Gunmen.”

An unexpected Hollywood lesson from the strikes
GOULD “Disney and Paramount are both surrounded by lovely residential neighborhoods. Also, sidewalks and shade? They rock!” 

Scott M. Gimple & David Zabel

While the original iteration of The Walking Dead ended in 2022 after 11 seasons and more than a decade on the air, AMC is hardly ready to part ways with TV zombies. Gimple, the comic adaptation’s steward, successfully set up multiple 2023 spinoffs with Dead City and Zabel’s Daryl Dixon — a European-set travel piece that managed to lure favorable reviews back to the franchise. (Zabel’s entry has a 68 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic.) The stakes are even higher in 2024, however, when original series stars Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira return for miniseries The Ones Who Live.

One silver lining to the post-Peak TV content contraction
GIMPLE “Shows can disappear from a streaming service, but DVDs, Blu-rays and old videotapes are forever.”

IP I’m dying to get my hands on
ZABEL “The world of Mad Max.” 

Donald Glover & Janine Nabers

Watchmen alum Nabers teamed with veteran hitmaker Glover for Amazon’s Swarm, a fresh spin on the staid serial killer format that generated some of the year’s best reviews and most passionate online banter. It also earned three Emmy nominations, including one for writing for both executive producers. Glover, on the heels of concluding the FX magnum opus Atlanta in 2022, next releases his Mr. & Mrs. Smith update in February, in which he’ll star alongside Maya Erskine. Nabers and Glover both continue to develop new projects via their respective Amazon pacts, with the latter also having a carve out to write a Star Wars film.

2024 will be the year that Hollywood …
NABERS “Tries not to eat itself alive?”

My priority issue for the next WGA contract
NABERS “Support staff. Script coordinators and writers assistants should make a liveable wage and be part of the WGA. We owe it to them to pay it forward in a real way.”

Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman & Jenny Lumet

Kurtzman continues to shepherd Paramount Global’s ever-growing Star Trek strategy, which expanded to Netflix with that surprise platform jump for the animated effort Prodigy after it was dropped by Paramount+. There’s still a lot at the proprietary streamer, however. Even with Picard boldly sailing into the sunset after three seasons, the franchise has the Michelle Yeoh feature vehicle Section 31, the upcoming Starfleet Academy series, a fifth and final season of Discovery, the cartoon Lower Decks and the Nielsen streaming charts favorite, Lumet and Goldsman’s Strange New Worlds. We’d mention all the other Star Trek projects in various states of development, but we’d run out of space. 

My priority issue for the next WGA contract
GOLDSMAN “The different needs of feature and TV writers.”

2024 will be the year that Hollywood …
KURTZMAN “Remembers, despite our new reality, that an algorithm can be useful in determining how to reach an audience but can’t replace the poetic power and economic value of an original voice.”

IP I’m dying to get my hands on
LUMET “Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc by Katherine J. Chen. It’s on my windowsill, and I’m sitting here like a supervillain thinking, ‘You will be mine.’ ”

Alfred Gough & Miles Millar

These longtime writing partners (Smallville, Into the Badlands) have grand plans for their Netflix breakout Wednesday, which landed big on multiple fronts. The Addams Family reimagining, starring “It” girl Jenna Ortega,  quickly toppled Stranger Things to rank as Netflix’s most watched English-language original series of all time — no small feat at the dominant streamer. Aside from working on the quickest feasible turnaround for season two of the Emmy contender and helping pen the Ortega feature Beetlejuice 2, Gough and Millar are also thinking of how to eventually spin Wednesday into a multiseries universe for Netflix.

An unexpected Hollywood lesson from the strikes
GOUGH “Nothing ever gets solved in a 50-person group chat.”

Strike goal I never accomplished
MILLAR “Watch the entirety of the Criterion Collection.”

IP I’m dying to get my hands on
GOUGH “‘(Taylor’s Version)’ of anything”

Katori Hall

Viewership for Hall’s Starz drama P-Valley was up 23 percent in season two, with an average north of 10 million tuning in across platforms. That helped the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright’s stripper serial — which marked a rare TV lean into pandemic themes to show how it ravaged Black communities in the American South — earn a third season and survive a round of belt-tightening as the cable network axed four shows in the midst of the strikes.

My priority issue for the next WGA contract “Figuring out how to codify diversity. It has been a huge concern for my fellow writer-producers of color as many of us see our shows getting the hatchet during this ongoing contraction.”

I’d use a burner social media account for … “Lil’ Bad Cuzzin drops. My rap alter ego ready to pop her mouth off a bit…”

Jenny Han

Han successfully steered the adaptation her book series The Summer I Turned Pretty into a behemoth for Amazon. The second season ranks among the 10 most watched seasons of any show on the platform, and insiders cite it as the main reason the streamer is now aggressively leaning into YA. Funnily enough, Han’s book-to-film series To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before sparked a similar push into rom-coms over at Netflix. But this trendsetter is not content with just doubling viewership of her new flagship series; she’s mulling spinoffs as part of her overall deal with the ecommerce and media giant.

Strike goal I never accomplished “Write a new novel.”

I’d use a burner social media account for … “Live tweeting the Oscars”

Sterlin Harjo

​​Harjo and FX brass made the creative decision to wrap the groundbreaking FX/Hulu comedy Reservation Dogs after three lauded seasons — seriously, calm down, THR chief television critic Daniel Fienberg — which earned a Peabody, among many other accolades, despite no Emmy love to date. Harjo, who co-created the Oklahoma-set comedy alongside indie darling turned Midas-touch filmmaker Taika Waititi, continues to develop new projects via his FX Productions pact. Among them is a limited series from novelist Jonathan Lee that Harjo plans to direct. 

Strike goal I never accomplished “I thought I’d become an amazing fisherman. I’m still a shitty fisherman.”

2024 will be the year that Hollywood … “Quits acting like they know what’s best for everyone.”

Noah Hawley

FX’s erudite maestro of IP emerges from the strikes with a twofer of highly anticipated projects. His Fargo anthology, a recipient of 55 Emmy nominations over the years, kicked off a fifth cycle Nov. 21 with such new stars as Juno Temple, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Lamorne Morris — as well as American treasure Jon Hamm sporting pierced prosthetic nipples. Hawley says he still has a hankering for more Fargo, but he’ll start 2024 in Bangkok. That’s where filming on his serialized spin on the Alien franchise is set to resume after several delays. 

One silver lining to the post-Peak TV content contraction “Better director availability.”

IP I’m dying to get my hands on “Thanks, but I’ve got all the IP I can handle.”

Sharon Horgan

It’s easy to overlook that Horgan, perhaps best recognized for her acting work, is one of the most prolific and inventive idea generators in entertainment. The woman created the late cult comedy Catastrophe, recently starred and served as showrunner on Apple TV+’s Bad Sisters, sold the horror comedy Shining Vale to Starz (season three is said to already be in the works) and has the sitcom Motherland still running in the U.K. — all on top of a stacked development slate for her Merman production company.

Dallas Jenkins

The man behind of The Chosen may have launched his Bible series outside the system, but Hollywood has since swooped in. In fact, the most successful crowdfunded TV series of all time is now available not only on a cadre of independent apps — where it’s been watched 600 million-plus times — but also on Peacock, Amazon Prime Video and The CW. A full-blown phenomenon in many corners of Christian culture, the faith-based drama created and directed by Jenkins has spawned best-selling books, DVDs and loads of merchandise. Its fourth season will roll out first in theaters beginning in February. Lionsgate, which distributes The Chosen globally, has already lined up the suddenly red-hot Christian filmmaker to adapt The Best Christmas Pageant Ever for film.

An unexpected Hollywood lesson from the strikes “It’s hard to convince the public to care about us.”

One silver lining to the post-Peak TV content contraction “My streaming queue finally gets smaller than my email inbox.”

Rian Johnson, Natasha Lyonne & Lilla and Nora Zuckerman

Peacock bet correctly when it won the bidding war for Johnson’s contemporary spin on Columbo. Poker Face bowed in 2023 as the most watched original for the streamer, netting four key Emmy nominations in the process. But this comic procedural takes a village. Lyonne, for whom the series was specifically created, is also a writer, director and EP — alongside lead writers and showrunners, sisters Nora and Lilla Zuckerman. NBCUniversal brass were so pleased with their performance, season two was ordered almost immediately and probably would have already bowed were it not for the year’s labor woes. 

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump
JOHNSON “Moonlighting! [My wife,] Karina [Longworth,] and I just started a big rewatch, and the wild swings it takes are crazy.”

I’d use a burner social media account for …
LYONNE “Filthy, inappropriate memes.” 
N. ZUCKERMAN “Subscribing to deeply satisfying videos about powerwashing.”

Strike goal I never accomplished
L. ZUCKERMAN “I failed to organize my books, pantry and closet into a rainbow, which I guess we should all be doing.”

Mindy Kaling

Bidding farewell to Netflix’s Never Have I Ever (co-created by Lang Fisher) in 2023, the multihyphenate still has a full dance card with another run of Max hit The Sex Lives of College Girls and the animated foray Velma. Her Kaling International picks up its Warner Bros.-set development slate after a strike hiatus, and she’s also got two adaptations of Mindy’s Book Studio book club titles in the works at Amazon.

Strike goal I never accomplished “Memorize my WGA membership number.”

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump “Enlightened. It’s such a perfect show.”

George Kay

With so many writer-producers married to one platform these days, it’s legit news when one manages to spread the love — and hit big wherever they go. U.K.-set Kay, who co-created the four-territory Criminal series, delivered the final batch of Lupin episodes to Netflix (No. 1 in multiple countries) just a few weeks after the Apple TV+ behemoth Hijack gave Idris Elba his first bona fide smash TV vehicle since Luther. His third series of 2023, Brit drama The Long Shadow, is currently available for rent on multiple platforms and streaming on Tubi. 

Strike goal I never accomplished “Pretty much everything. Because writers are writers whether they are writing or not. You can never escape the mulling.”

IP I’m dying to get my hands on “Call of Duty“

David E. Kelley

While the Goliath alum no longer has any shows on broadcast, after decades of delivering hit after hit from L.A. Law to Chicago Hope and Ally McBeal to Boston Legal, perhaps it’s for the better. The prolific writer-producer only needs Paramount+ to complete his streaming bingo card after delivering The Calling to Peacock and Love & Death for Max in the past year. Next up are A Man in Full and season three of The Lincoln Lawyer for Netflix, as well as Apple TV+’s Presumed Innocent and the long-gestating second season of Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers.

2024 will be the year that Hollywood … “Gets over itself. Not!”

Chris Keyser

The now former co-chair of the WGA’s negotiating committee is celebrating the end of the writers strike with a global press tour for season two of his Max original Julia. Keyser, who reached strike-star status after personally reaching out to CEOs Bob Iger and David Zaslav to restart stalled contract talks, is also adapting Broadway’s Take Me Out for Peacock and readying a project with Melina Matsoukas, Khaliah Neal and Anonymous to be shopped to buyers in 2024. 

IP I’m dying to get my hands on “I’ve always wanted to try my hand at adapting A Visit From the Goon Squad. Also, I’d love to get The Society back from Netflix so that Marc Webb and I can finish the story we started.”

I’d use a burner social media account for … “Nothing. Unless you’re voting, if you have something to say, put your name to it.”

Michelle King & Robert King

The married showrunners continue to alternate between streaming and broadcast via their rich CBS Studios overall deal. After concluding The Good Fight on Paramount+ in 2022, the Kings kept The Good Wife franchise alive with a second spinoff. Elsbeth, starring Carrie Preston, will be among the first strike-delayed projects to debut when it premieres in February on CBS. On streaming, season four of Evil is poised to return to Paramount+ in 2024. That’s where the serial killer drama Happy Face is set to land as well.

An unexpected Hollywood lesson from the strikes
MICHELLE “The studios oddly think they can gain more from generative AI than they can lose — until the first major copyright lawsuit.”

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump
ROBERT “Huh, if only there were a law show with an ensemble cast that dealt with office politics and the love lives of lawyers.”

Eric Kripke & Michele Fazekas

The Boys is arguably among Amazon’s signature properties, with its third season topping 1 billion minutes watched, according to Nielsen. The college-set Gen V, a raunchy spinoff steered by Agent Carter alum Fazekas, became the No. 1 series on Amazon in more than 130 countries when it premiered in September and was quickly renewed for a second season. Sony-based Kripke continues to oversee the ever-growing franchise, including the animated offshoot Diabolical.

IP I’m dying to get my hands on
KRIPKE “Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. I’m obsessed with it. So insane and so grounded at the same time. Brian and Fiona, call me!” 

If I could build my own Taylor Sheridan-style TV compound, I’d put it …
FAZEKAS “How do you feel about wings, football, snow and a very big waterfall? (Buffalo. It’s Buffalo. Tom Fontana, let’s do this.)”

Bill Lawrence & Jason Sudeikis

Will there be more Ted Lasso? Warner Bros. Discovery — where co-creators Lawrence is based with a rich overall deal — has yet to confirm what’s next for its Emmy Award-winning franchise, but it’s a safe bet that the studio has no plans to leave the pitch after all that commercial and critical success. Star Sudeikis, for his part, is sticking to his guns that the story has run its course. Lawrence, meanwhile, reteamed with Lasso’s Brett Goldstein and delivered another hit to the studio and Apple TV+ with Shrinking. His next venture, the Vince Vaughn-starring adaptation of Carl Hiaasen’s Bad Monkey, marks No. 3 at the steamer for Lawrence.

Strike goal I never accomplished
LAWRENCE “I did keep my marriage going. My wife made me ‘go to work’ in a different room every day from 9:30-5:30.”

One silver lining to the post-Peak TV content contraction
LAWRENCE “That no matter how many times we try to label Hollywood, we never nail it. I’ve been around for the death of the sitcom, the death of the drama, the death of the sitcom again, and multiple rebirths. No one knows what they’re talking about.”

Lee Sung Jin

This veteran comic writer (Dave, Silicon Valley) came out of the gate strong with his first creator credit — the genre-bending revenge dramedy Beef. The Netflix limited series, which earned raves for stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, nabbed its showrunner a trio of Emmy nominations for writing, directing and best limited series. The streamer didn’t wait long after the strike to sign him to an overall deal. Oh, and he’s been tapped to write Marvel big-screen gamble The Thunderbolts — one of the few projects on the current slate that seems to be moving forward.

Strike goal I never accomplished “Become perfect in mind, body and spirit”

2024 will be the year that Hollywood … “Uses broadcast channels as syndication dumping grounds for streaming originals.”

Jonathan Lisco, Ashley Lyle & Bart Nickerson

Paramount Media Networks CEO Chris McCarthy cleaned house when adding oversight of Showtime to his purview, but the first thing the executive did was renew the breakout Yellowjackets for a third season before the second even dropped. It’s a show of confidence in married creators Lyle and Nickerson — who showrun alongside Lisco. Season two of the cannibalism dramedy ate up viewers and buzz for the fading cabler, scoring another Emmy nomination for best drama, and new brass are said to be putting on the pressure to further milk its success with a spinoff. 

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump
LYLE “Psych. Bring back all the blue skies, baby!”

Strike goal I never accomplished
NICKERSON “Finally reading the whale-science parts of Moby Dick.”

If I could build my own Taylor Sheridan-style TV compound, I’d put it …
LISCO “Next to Taylor’s. People already confuse our shows. Why not confuse our compounds?”

Chuck Lorre

Lorre buried the Two and a Half Men hatchet and booked Charlie Sheen to poke fun at himself in his first series for Max, the Sebastian Maniscalco starrer Bookie. He’s also revisiting another longtime relationship with a second offshoot of The Big Bang Theory, which brings the franchise to Max as well, while CBS is set to part ways with the original spinoff Young Sheldon after a seventh and final season — as well as Bob Hearts Abishola. The comedy kingpin, still at Warner Bros. Discovery, will be fine, though, as his focus shifts to vertically integrated streaming.

An unexpected Hollywood lesson from the strikes “People enjoy networking so much, they will walk in a circle during a heat wave.”

My priority issue for the next WGA contract “Someday streaming data needs to be completely transparent.”

Craig Mazin

Mazin has his hands on far more feature scripts than his already impressive résumé (The Hangover! and Parts II and III) reveals, but it’s been the move into TV that’s made him a bona fide kingmaker. After delivering the HBO Emmy-bait miniseries Chernobyl in 2019, he set about the daunting task of adapting beloved video game franchise The Last of Us alongside creator Neil Druckmann. The result has been an undisputed success. The series premiered to universal acclaim, awards love (24 Emmy nominations) and a welcome ratings boon for HBO and streamer Max. Warner Bros. Discovery brass claim more than 30 million watched season one. 

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump “Taxi. Still brilliantly funny, still gorgeously sad. The perfect sitcom.”

Strike goal I never accomplished “Finishing the D&D campaign I’ve been DM’ing for like three years now. We just can’t quit it.”

Danny McBride

David Simon (The Wire) might often get credit for being HBO’s most consistent showrunner over the years, but let’s take a moment to acknowledge the scope of McBride. The comic actor, writer, producer and director followed the cult classic Eastbound & Down with Vice Principals and now, going on four seasons, the ascendant Righteous Gemstones. Viewership and critical favor have increased with each season, the recent third season topping 5 million viewers — rare for an HBO comedy. Perhaps most surprising, McBride has done it all from South Carolina.

Patrick McKay & J.D. Payne

One does not get the keys to a $700 million season of television without a proven aptitude for planning. So while much of Hollywood was in a panic over production shutdowns during Hot Strike Summer, McKay and Payne had already laid the groundwork to complete filming on Amazon’s The Rings of Power when they had to step away for the writers strike. What’s more, production wrapped before the SAG-AFTRA strike. Not missing a beat ensures the streamer’s unprecedented gamble with The Lord of the Rings IP — which Amazon Studios boss Jennifer Salke says pulled in nearly 100 million viewers with 2022’s season one — will be back as soon as possible.

One silver lining to the post-Peak TV content contraction
PAYNE “While it’s obviously painful, scarcity also encourages adaptation and innovation. It forces us to be harder on our work — to dig deeper for ideas and reach higher for inspiration as we work to execute them.”

If I could build my own Taylor Sheridan-style TV compound, I’d put it …
MCKAY “On the bottom of the ocean, like Curt Jürgens in The Spy Who Loved Me.” 

Peter Morgan

As of press time, the first four episodes of The Crown’s final season are healthily perched atop Netflix’s Global Top 10 — logging tens of millions of views for the penultimate drop of the long-running and much-celebrated dramatization of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s life in power. Sure, there’ll be more awards runs after the final episodes drop Dec. 14, including six Emmys on the line for season five, but the real mystery is what’s next for Morgan. He’s still under a pact with Netflix, where he’s expected to deliver something non-royal but equally buzzy now that his saga has finally come to an end.

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump “Cracker by Jimmy McGovern.”

2024 will be the year that Hollywood … “Champions more international film and TV.”

Ryan Murphy

TV’s eccentric hitmaker has kept a low profile since the conclusion of his blockbuster $300 million overall deal with Netflix. Despite delivering two of his biggest hits there on the eve of the deal’s expiration — The Watcher and Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, each of which will now live on as an anthology — he’s expected to return to his old Fox boss Dana Walden (now co-chair of Disney Entertainment), where the American Horror Story and 9-1-1 franchises (to name a few) still thrive. He likely won’t be silent for much longer, however. The long-gestating Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, starring Chloë Sevigny, Naomi Watts, Diane Lane and Calista Flockhart, will bow on FX at the top of 2024.

Nkechi Okoro Carroll

The leader of the enduringly successful All American franchise — a rare non-cancellation for The CW, which enjoys a healthy second window on Netflix — has now done something that few ever have: showrun three shows on network TV at the same time. The Greg Berlanti protégé isn’t just responsible for half of what remains of The CW, she delivered NBC’s Shanola Hampton drama Found. It’s one of the only rookie shows to have completed production before the writers strike. And considering it’s pulling in more than 7 million viewers across platforms, a sophomore run seems likely.

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump “My So-Called Life. It’s still so crazy to me that the show only ran for one season.”

I’d use a burner social media account for … “A Joey and Pacey stan account.”

Tyler Perry

Despite theories that he may have been cloned, there’s only one Tyler Perry. And for all his sporadic claims of slowing down, the unparalleled multihyphenate continues to deliver on all fronts. In TV, he’s got nine series — including breakouts The Oval, Sistas and Zatima — under his Paramount Global deal to populate the BET streamer. Amid the promotional circuit for the authorized doc Maxine’s Baby, he signed an eight-picture, first-look deal at Netflix. And, as an actor, he was particularly vocal in calling for a resolution to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Oh, and his state-of-the-art studio compound outside of Atlanta remains a sought-after filming location for his and other projects.

Joe Port & Joe Wiseman

The Joes, as they’re collectively known, revamped the BBC comedy Ghosts into one of few recent broadcast shows to become a fixture in Nielsen’s top 10. With an average of 9.1 million viewers, 1.2 million of them adults 18-49, season two of the stateside iteration was quite literally the biggest comedy on traditional TV — meaning it will haunt CBS’ schedule for the foreseeable future. When the strikes hit, CBS doubled down on the show with a BBC pact to air the original series as filler before season three of its own version, heading back into production, bows in February.

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump +
PORT “Newhart. [Bob] is just such a comic genius and someone that younger audiences might not be familiar with anymore.”

My priority issue for the next WGA contract
WISEMAN “There should be a limit to the number of times a writing staff is allowed to order from California Chicken Cafe.”

Issa Rae

This Barbie is one of the most sought-after writer-producers in Hollywood. Yes, Rae may have made her biggest 2023 impression by appearing as President Barbie in Warner Bros. Discovery’s runaway hit film, but the Insecure frontwoman also wrote and produced on her Max creation Rap Sh!t alongside showrunner Syreeta Singleton, delivered that long-awaited reboot of Project Greenlight and continued to develop a busy slate under her Hoorae Media banner — which also recently launched talent incubator Black & Unlimited Digital Development.

Shonda Rhimes

Queen Charlotte further cemented Bridgerton’s reign at Netflix as the franchise now generates revenue from its themed live events as well. Next up, Rhimes returns to the White House for the first time since Scandal with The Residence, a murder mystery with a stacked cast: Uzo Aduba, Andre Braugher and Susan Kelechi Watson. Meanwhile, the McMoney Train continues at ABC as Grey’s Anatomy and the spinoff Station 19 head into their 20th and seventh seasons, respectively, with new showrunners at the helm of both.

Strike goal I never accomplished “Finish my reading list”

2024 will be the year that Hollywood … “Gets its shit together. Hopefully.” 

Shawn Ryan

The TV vet behind The Shield who’s been with Sony since 2011, delivered the studio a fresh streaming hit with The Night Agent. The FBI thriller opened big for Netflix, which handed out a swift second season. In a move that should be considered a precursor to the content contraction, Ryan rescued S.W.A.T. from cancellation at CBS after agreeing to do a seventh and final season on a drastically reduced budget. The Terriers and Lie to Me alum next is teaming with Jon Hamm to adapt the podcast American Hostage.

2024 will be the year that Hollywood … “Stops ignoring viewers outside the New York/Los Angeles bubble.” 

I’d use a burner social media account for … “Complaining about how bad my Chicago sports teams have been performing lately and badgering ownership of said teams.”

Taylor Sheridan

Fun fact: Sheridan actually wears that cowboy hat to shield his face from all the money that’s raining down on him. The mind behind Yellowstone  — and the spinoffs 1883, 1923 and, at some point, 6666 — launched two other series since he was last lauded on this list: Sylvester Stallone’s Tulsa King and Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman’s Special Ops: Lioness. Throw in another season of Mayor of Kingstown and the miniseries Lawman: Bass Reeves and it doesn’t take long to realize who’s keeping the lights on at Paramount+, where all of these series air. Some may fret about Sheridan’s future when the original Yellowstone takes a bow in 2024 — thanks for nothing, Kevin Costner — but he’s proved in a remarkably short time that he can churn out hits as long as that interests him. 

Darren Star

Star’s biggest hit may be on Netflix, but studio Paramount Global — where he has had an overall deal for years — remains as invested as ever in the man who has been delivering glossy dramedies (Beverly Hills, 90210, Sex and the City, Younger) for decades. When Netflix canceled the Neil Patrick Harris series Uncoupled, Showtime swooped in with the season two pickup. But for all the attention the move got, Emily in Paris is what’s keeping everyone in the Star business. The perennial MTV Studios hit baffles critics but bemuses viewers, who put it at No. 1 on the streamer whenever a new season drops. Its fourth should bow sometime in 2024.

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump “Younger. I would love to see all seven seasons on Netflix.” 

An unexpected Hollywood lesson from the strikes “The community is real. And writers love the opportunity to connect with each other.”

Nick Stoller

Another platform-agnostic player, Stoller — yes, the feature director — delivered three original series to three different services in the past 12 months. He followed Roku’s Panhandle with the Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen reunion (they both starred in Stoller’s Neighbors franchise) Platonic at Apple TV+. (A renewal sounds imminent.) As for future seasons, the situation is also optimistic for his third entry. A TV spin on the kid-friendly horror franchise Goosebumps, which aired on both Disney+ and Hulu, lured more than 4 million viewers to the streams in the first three days.

An old series that deserves a Suits-style bump “I mean, obviously, Cheers.”

2024 will be the year that Hollywood … “Really, truly goes back to the theaters.”

Charlotte Stoudt

For having the most expensive cast in TV history (see: Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon), The Morning Show has never had the most stable behind-the-scenes narrative. That changed in season three, however, when Stoudt entered the picture. The journeywoman writer-producer (Homeland, Fosse/Verdon, Pieces of Her) brought a bit of a creative reset, in addition to new castmember Jon Hamm, that quickly earned her an offer to return to run season four of what is again — so long, Ted Lasso — Apple TV+’s most high-profile original series. 

One silver lining to the post-Peak TV content contraction “More time to binge Beckham.”

2024 will be the year that Hollywood … “Thinks twice before trimming trees.”

Liz Tigelaar

In her second project for Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, ascendant adaptation whisperer Tigelaar earned raves for her limited series take on Cheryl Strayed’s Tiny Beautiful Things. It performed so well for Hulu that the platform was briefly considering ways to continue the story — but the Little Fires Everywhere showrunner already has a full plate. On top of adapting Taylor Jenkins Reid’s blockbuster novel The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo as a feature for Netflix, Tigelaar’s got the Riley Keough vehicle Under the Bridge (also at Hulu) and fresh development: the Lucy Foley mystery The Guest List is being eyed as a limited series.

Strike goal I never accomplished “Cooking dinner for my family every night and really deepening my relationship with my air fryer. Didn’t happen.”

I’d use a burner social media account for … “Aggressively DMing Days of Our Lives castmates from the early 1990s.”

Mike White

Having grown both his audience (viewership doubled) and Emmy accolades (nominations rose from 20 to 23) with season two, the White Lotus creator seems content to stay focused on his elites-behaving-badly anthology for the foreseeable future. That said, his audience will have to wait a bit for No. 3. HBO boss Casey Bloys recently revealed that the Thailand-set installment, which is set to begin production in late winter, won’t hit the service until 2025.     

Dick Wolf

If Bob Iger really is looking to unload ABC from the Disney portfolio, perhaps he should see whether Wolf might be interested in buying. ​​The power producer continues to supply struggling broadcast TV with the only thing that really works: procedurals — and lots of them. Wolf’s series load currently includes three three-series franchises, with NBC’s Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order Organized Crime on top of his three Chicago series. On CBS, he’s got FBI, FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International. Wolf’s not just a broadcast guy, though. The Universal-set creator is dabbling with half-hours, selling the abbreviated procedural On Call to Amazon Prime Video. 

• • •

Methodology THR selected its 2023 Power Showrunners from all writer-producers with live-action scripted series that aired original episodes in the U.S. between August 2022 and November 2023. With acknowledgment that roles and duties can vary significantly from show to show, each entrant is judged relative to slates, deal size, ratings, value to platform and studio, cultural impact, awards and, in some instances, industry clout gained during the WGA strike.

A vesion of this story first appeared in the Nov. 29 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.