Shondaland and ABC had hoped for a different outcome. In addition to shooting Grey’s in LA for the last two decades, Shonda Rhimes, an executive producer on the new series, has filmed most of her projects in the city, including Private Practice, Scandal, and How To Get Away With Murder. Fellow executive producer Betsy Beers, who testified at an Assembly Committee hearing in North Hollywood last week, said she hoped their history in the city would give them a leg up. “How wrong we were!” she said. “We were denied credit due to the fact we were not providing enough jobs for the state to consider us an asset. None of our past history or track record were taken into consideration.”
“And then we were told, regardless of earlier messaging, there would be no chance to apply if you were a new show; returning, sure, not a new show,” Beers continued. “We lost personnel, we lost a lot of time, and we lost money trying to find a way to stay where we have always been. Now we are filming in Albuquerque, where they have been wonderful to work with, but we want to be here.”
California’s Film & TV Tax Credit program currently caps at $750 million. Governor Gavin Newsom hopes to raise that limit to $1 billion because declines in production in California over the last few years have devastated the local economy. However, state and local governments have yet to find a fix that would bring jobs back to California, where sound stages remain abundant and empty as shooting diminishes.
On a practical level, keeping productions in town keeps residents who work on these shows local, where they can spend money at local businesses and time with their families. “We assumed there was a long history of loyalty to the state, fighting to stay here when there were no credits to be had, and the fact the odds were—as they had been with every single show that Shonda has created or co-created—there would be at least six seasons for a wonderful crew and staff to keep working and to sleep in their beds at night,” Beers said. “It was also crucial since the co-creator and showrunner is also running Grey’s, and the geographical proximity was key to her ability to doing the job.” Unfortunately, it looks like a 12-hour commute to Albuquerque is in their future.
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