What was Variety trying to accomplish with its 61 top showrunners list?
It’s not a slow news day, and yet all I can think about today is about a truly daffy listicle published over at Variety.
I simply don’t understand anything about Variety’s list of the “top 61 showrunners of 2026.”
I’m left looking at the list and asking questions like:
The obvious… why ‘61’?
What qualifies a showrunner to make the list?
It says that it is a list of “television’s biggest shows of the last 12 months,” but it is only August. So, is this a list of September 2025 to August 2026? Or is it actually just 2026?
What even is the purpose of the list?
I can’t answer why 61 was the number chosen. I also don’t understand what qualifies a showrunner to be deemed one of the top. Is it based on viewership, buzz, an innate sense of belief by the Variety staff?
When you actually look at the list, you’re left noticing: a bunch of notable showrunners not on the list: Robert & Michelle King (showrunners of the upcoming Cupertino), Nick Santora (the very buzzy Reacher), Megan Park ( showrunner on the buzzy Sterling Point), Chris Mundy (showrunner of the buzzy Lanterns, debuting this Sunday), Jess Brownell (current showrunner of Bridgerton), and countless more.
And then there are inclusions of showrunners without a show released in 2026, like Megan Gallagher (All Her Fault), Howard Gordon (The Beast in Me), and Patrick Macmanus (Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy). These were all 2025 shows with no second season filming this year.
The list would also have some value if it gave the industry detail on which showrunner is signed with which agencies, where they may be under production deals, and other tidbits that might speak to the availability and perceived heat of these individual creatives.
What a waste of time and energy this list is. I’m sorry I even took the time to mention it.
News Desk
Ousted Disney chief Bob Chapek will publish a tell-all memoir, Behind the Castle Walls: My 30 Years at the Happiest Place on Earth, on 29 September, promising his side of the boardroom drama that ended with Bob Iger’s return. Read: The Hollywood Reporter
The real winner today is the recently exited Disney CEO Bob Iger, who, alongside, Josh Kushner (yes, brother of Jared) is buying the Los Angeles Lakers at a record $12.5 billion valuation. Read: Deadline
Sony has renewed its Seinfeld licensing deals, keeping the sitcom on Netflix globally for another five years and on Paramount’s cable channels for three more. The deal is global, but only exclusive in the US, with Netflix shaving cash off the value of the deal. Read: Deadline
Netflix is fast-tracking a The Lincoln Lawyer spinoff built around Cobie Smulders‘ character, Mickey Haller’s half-sister Emi, introduced in the show’s fourth-season finale. Read: Deadline
DC Studios has quietly shelved two long-developing series — the Viola Davis-led Amanda Waller show and Paradise Lost, a Wonder Woman prequel set on Themyscira — with neither now in active development. Read: Variety
Netflix’s animated Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory, with Taika Waititi voicing an out-of-prison Willy Wonka and Kit Connor as Charlie, opens in cinemas on 5 November 2027 before streaming from 22 December. Read: The Hollywood Reporter
Alden Ehrenreich has joined Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler in Joseph Kosinski‘s Miami Vice ‘85, Universal’s film revival of the ‘80s series, due in cinemas in May 2028. Read: TheWrap
Chicago P.D. alum Jesse Lee Soffer will star in Strike Force, a CBS drama in development from Jerry Bruckheimer about a DEA agent leading a multi-agency unit in Kansas City. Read: Deadline
Saturday Night Live UK returns for a second season on Sky and Now from 12 September, with all 11 original cast members back for six new episodes. Read: Variety
The BBC says just 285 Americans streamed the Panorama documentary at the heart of Donald Trump‘s $10 billion defamation suit over its edit of his January 6 speech. I did the math: That’s $35,087,719.30 per person Read: Deadline
Despite reports, the manuscript left by late Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke isn’t a score-settling memoir, but a history of talent agency CAA in the 1980s. Wasn’t it Finke who insisted: “Never be boring?” Read: The Hollywood Reporter
Trailer Park
The Paper returns for season 2 on Peacock Sept 9.
The Perfect Lie debuts on Netflix Sept 10.
Karen moves to the wealthy town of Bergen and joins an exclusive dinner club of seemingly perfect friends — until a villa fire kills one member and exposes the secrets and resentments their friendships were built on.
A Tale of Two Cities debuts on MGM+ Sept 6.
London, 1782. A young woman, Lucie Manette, has her life upended when she receives word from Paris that her father, assumed dead for almost 20 years, may be alive.
Untold: Raygun: Breaking Badly debuts on Netflix, streaming Aug 25
Charts the rise, fall and reinvention of Rachael “Raygun” Gunn, from her 2024 Olympic breakdancing debut through the viral memes and backlash that followed.
Neagley debuts on Prime Video Sept 16
Reacher’s former protégé Frances Neagley, now a private investigator in Chicago, goes hell-bent for justice when a beloved friend from her past is killed in a suspicious accident.
Crew Girl debuts on Netflix Sept 10
After a family scandal forces her to relocate, talented teen rower Teagan Tao joins an elite prep school’s all-boys crew team, where she must earn the team’s trust while navigating rivalry and romance.
Adults returns to FX for season 2 Aug 27
Stillwater, the best kids cartoon not enough people are watching, returns for season 5 on Apple TV, Aug 21
Ben Affleck’s Animals debuts on Netflix Oct 9
When their son is kidnapped, an LA mayoral candidate and his wife scramble to raise the ransom while making choices that could tear their world apart. Ben Affleck directs and stars.
Pyaar Prema Kalyanam debuts on Netflix Aug 21
A modern Tamil family entertainer built on a role reversal — a husband who chooses to stay and make his life within his wife’s family.
Four Hands, Two Sonatas debuts on Netflix Aug 29
Song Kang and Lee Jun-young star as two young pianists whose bond is built on youth and friendship.
The Detour with David Chang debuts on CNN Sept 20
A six-episode CNN Original Series following David Chang on the open road in pursuit of no-frills but unforgettable eats, with a different travel companion each week.
That’s the newsletter for the today.
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