CarterMatt Awards 2016: Marlene King, Mark Gatiss, Adam Horowitz among Favorite Showrunner nominees
Let’s face it: Being a showrunner is an incredibly difficult job sometimes: You have incredibly long hours, a number of difficult story decisions to make, and also the reality to face that it’s probably impossible to make every single fan of your show happy. Yet, at the same time it can be incredibly rewarding when your show gets recognized, hits a significant milestone, or you realize just how big a legacy it will have across TV history — and how you’ve helped out many cast and crew members along the way.
The reason why we created the Favorite Showrunner category at the CarterMatt Awards is to recognize people who rarely ever do get attention individually for their work, and in particular those who go the extra mile and find ways to communicate often with fans, whether it be on social media, at conventions, and in interviews. These are people who demonstrate their love for their work in a wide array of different ways beyond just making a product that they hope viewers will like.
One other exciting thing about this year’s crop of nominees is that we’re guaranteed to have a new winner this year! Bryan Fuller of “Hannibal” took home the award both in 2015 and 2014; before that, it went to Julie Plec of “The Vampire Diaries.”
Favorite Showrunner – The Nominees
Mark Gatiss, “Sherlock” (PBS) – You can maybe argue that Gatiss has a slight advantage given that he acts on the series as Mycroft (who we love and adore perhaps more than any other character on the show) to go along with co-creating it with Steven Moffat. Yet, we’re talking that out of the equation here and focusing more on his great work as a writer and producer. He also shares as much insight on the show as he really can online, while also being interactive both in terms of discussions and the convention scene. He’s got a lot of love for the show, and bonus points for him also writing episodes here and there of “Doctor Who.”
Marc Guggenheim, “Arrow” (The CW) – Marc co-runs “Arrow” alongside Wendy Mericle, and in some ways it’s hard to associate his name with just one show given that he has such a big stake in the entire CW superhero universe. Yet, we give preferential treatment to “Arrow” as the O.G. of the bunch, and seeing in particular the work he put in to the epic crossover event and the 100th episode of “Arrow” was remarkable, in between the social-media discussions and the interview push. Navigating a superhero franchise is no easy task, but he does it wonderfully and then some.
Adam Horowitz, “Once Upon a Time” (ABC) – Adam and Edward Kitsis work together to executive-produce the fairy-tale drama, though he is the far more active of the two online. Even when the show’s not on the air, he still doesn’t hesitate to share small script teases and answer questions from fans. We also find this job particularly challenging and worthy of some love, given that not only is he working perpetually with a whole score of established characters, but he’s also trying to think of new and interesting ways to incorporate new ones from either fairy-tale or Disney lore. That’s a lot of things to juggle!
Marlene King, “Pretty Little Liars” (Freeform) – For the past seven seasons, she’s done more than just create one of the most-popular shows in cable history; she’s also been a beacon of insight behind the scenes with photos, videos, teases, script updates, and almost anything and everything a fan could want. She also actively communicates and answers questions while working to slowly unspool the mysteries surrounding “A” and all the murders that happen to take place in the town of Rosewood.
Peter M. Lenkov, “Hawaii Five-0” / “MacGyver” (CBS) – Think running one show is hard? Earlier this year, Lenkov was appointed with the task of helping to run the new “MacGyver” for CBS, and he’s managed to tackle the job with the same sort of enthusiasm you’d expect. He’s brought over much of what you love from “Hawaii Five-0” in terms of its humor, heart, and incredible action, and along the way he’s somehow found the time to stay active and share a good deal of content about both shows on social media.