How We Got to the Point Where Too Much Success is Scary.

So, you're reading this article because you're curious about what the f*** I'm talking about, right? What do I mean by "too much success"?

If you're in the entertainment business, especially Hollywood, you're probably wondering how the network's highest-rated and most popular show could get "cancelled" without a show's major stakeholders knowing?

Is too much success really that scary? Or is it just company greed?

Let's start from the beginning...

In my opinion, the 2010s were the Golden Era of TV, especially for Black Drama TV. It brought us shows like Scandal, Empire, How to Get Away With Murder, Power, and even black superhero shows like Black Lightning.

When you look at a product like Power, in particular, its massive success over the span of a decade has allowed Starz to take more risky bets on other projects.

But it wasn't always like this.

In the beginning, nobody thought it would have gotten this far. When you looked at the talent, there weren't any big-name stars. Omari Hardwick, aka Ghost, had some acting roles here and there but nothing major. I remember him being the guy who got "knocked out" in Beauty Shop. Naturi Naughton was a singer who used to be a part of 3LW. Michael Rainey Jr. was just a kid, and this was his first major acting role. Joseph Sikora had a few small roles but nothing major or memorable.

So it was affordable from a talent perspective.

The first season was slow-moving, but it slowly built up to an explosive season finale. Ratings were "meh" for that time for a premium cable show overall, but the second half of the season saw ratings starting to rise. It was only eight episodes, so it was low risk, low reward.

Then something happened over the span of a year.

It blew up like I'd never seen before. I don't know how it happened over the span of a year, but 50 must have been marketing it during the Power offseason. Everybody on Twitter was talking about when the next season was coming. New fans of the show were popping up out of nowhere.

Then seasons 2-6 happened. Each season saw record ratings that beat the previous season. It easily became Starz' golden jewel to the point where they developed spin-offs, creating a Powerverse aka Power Universe.

Success brings more money for everybody.

Normally, when a project is successful, especially in Hollywood, everybody wins. The network makes profits hand over fist, actors get paid more, and the writers get paid more. And premium cable shows are cheaper to produce than network television.

But here's the thing: The more successful a show becomes, the more expensive it becomes. Shows have bigger production budgets. Producers get paid more. Actors get paid more. The writers get paid more. Therefore, the network gets paid less because everybody else is getting paid more.

OG Power eventually became an expensive show to produce. I mean, just look at Omari Hardwick's wardrobe and tell me it's not expensive with all of those thousand-dollar suits.

We see success. The network sees success. Talent sees success. So what's the problem?

When we look at Power Book II: Ghost in particular, from the beginning, you had Michael Rainey Jr., Naturi Naughton, and Shane Johnson as series regulars from the original Power for season 1. After six seasons on Power, you know their paychecks had extra zeros in this spin-off. Then, there was Method Man and Mary J. Blige, two other series regulars who are very popular artists in hip-hop and R&B. Now, you know they won't come cheap. At last, there was Woody McClain, who was on his way up after his breakout role playing Bobby Brown in the New Edition and Bobby Brown biopics.

Just off that first season alone, Starz was spending a lot just on talent alone.

For seasons 2 & 3, Larenz Tate, who was a series regular in the OG Power show, a recurring guest in season 1 of Ghost, became a series regular.

So you have seven actors possibly getting paid top TV dollars.

For those who watch the show, you know those wardrobe budgets are top dollar, especially MJB's.

Also, the writers get better rates as well. Courtney Kemp, the series creator of Power, got a bag for the six seasons of Power, she definitely got a bag being the showrunner of Ghost for the first two seasons, but she also gets a bag from all of the other Power shows in the Powerverse as well. 50 Cent also gets a bag from every Power show that's created.

So, the problem is, the show has gotten expensive to produce.

As successful as Power is as a product, a studio/network makes less money on a show beyond season 4 because production budgets get too rich, and they're rightfully paying their creatives more.

Even Kemp admitted that Ghost was a very expensive show to produce, especially from a premium cable network perspective.

So is too much success a bad thing?

In Hollywood, it looks like studios believe too much success is a bad thing when expenses and payouts become very high. Just look at the MCU as an example. We we got to Avengers: Infinity War & Endgame, actors were getting $30-50 million upfront, and that doesn't even include a piece of the profits from the box office. Infinity War and Endgame's budget was in the $500 million range.

Networks likely would have to make nearly 3x or 4x the production budget to break even and pay the creatives their share of the show's success before they even see a dollar.

We're in the "era of efficiency", and companies are looking to cut costs to appease shareholders and investors. CEO of Starz mentioned that shows become expensive to produce when they get to a season 4 where he named Power in particular.

So you can say Power Book II: Ghost was a victim of its own success. It got cancelled not because the story sucked. It was the network's highest-rated and most popular show. It got "cancelled" because it became too expensive to produce and it comes on the heels of the Wednesday announcement of another Power project in development, Power: Origins, a show that will be centered around a young Ghost & Tommy. This was the show fans have been asking for since the OG Power series finale.

The f***** up part about it all...

The creatives didn't even know it was the final season until we the fans did. Twitter/X was on one when the first teaser trailer dropped yesterday.

Everyone involved in OG Power went into season 6 knowing it was the final season—from the writers, actors, and the suits. There was clear communication.

With Ghost, there wasn't. Everybody was kept in the dark. And because everyone was kept in the dark, now the question is, will the series finale leave us with more questions than answers?

That's what happened with Survivor's Remorse which I thought deserved a 5th and final season.