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June 04, 2014
Features

Esquire Net’s Manly Mandate

NBCU goes for the guys with a television network designed for the Esquire man.

Mike Flaherty

The Esquire Network holds promise for both of its synergistic partners.

For Esquire, the venerable men’s publication, a cable-TV incarnation provides a way to keep its brand vital. For NBC Universal, it is an opportunity to pursue broadcasting’s demographic holy grail — youngish men with money. Or, “the high-normal American man,” as described by Esquire editor-in-chief David Granger.

The channel, launched in September 2013, reflects the desire of NBCU to diversify its typically distaff offerings, like Oxygen, E! and Bravo. And in its search for brand partners, says Esquire Network president Adam Stotsky, Esquire — the magazine — turned out to be the perfect muse.

“They’ve not only got 80 years of creative insight into what makes this guy tick, they’ve got 80 years of incredible storytelling for us to mine,” he says. NBCU is contributing some stories, too, by repurposing some of its particularly male-friendly series, like Psych, Burn Notice and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

“A little bit more upscale, a little bit more affluent, a bit more educated” is Stotsky’s take on the target viewer. For Matt Hanna, the channel’s head of original programming, their viewer “is passionate about food, cooking, restaurants, cars, houses, design, fashion, clothes, women, entrepreneurship, money, business, politics, sports. We’re trying to find programming that matches all those passions.”

There’s not a lot of direct replication from page to screen, though the network wisely decided to adapt the magazine’s “Women We Love” profiles. Still, the print mothership serves as “our 1st filter,” Hanna says, and staffers from the magazine and the network attend a monthly meeting of minds.

So far, the network has mounted a dozen original series aiming to sate its viewer appetites. Among the offerings: Risky Listing, which follows a New York real estate agent searching for the next hot Gotham nightspot; How I Rock It, a profile of style-setters from sports and entertainment; and Horseplayers, about a trio of expert handicappers chasing their fortune in the sport of kings.

Many shows involve travel, such as The Getaway, in which a celebrity visits a beloved vacation spot; Brew Dogs, about craft-beer manufacturers aiming to fashion a brew that embodies the personality of a particular city; and Boundless, in which globetrotting athletes seek extreme physical challenges.

Although there’s currently no reflection of Esquire’s legendary literary pedigree within the network, the programming is shot through with a kind of considered masculinity — metrosexuals in search of their inner Hemingway — and a search for authenticity (or a reasonable facsimile) via conspicuous consumption. Knife Fight is its cooking-competition series, while White Collar Brawlers follows two average Joes (the “high-normal” variety) who settle a feud in a boxing ring.

At press time, nearly all of the series were unscripted. And while Hanna does not foresee original scripted series on the network’s slate anytime soon, news-driven programming and a homegrown game show are definitely on his mind. The network is also seeking a distinctive talk show.

“It’s a dangerous thing for us to chase something that’s been super-established elsewhere,” Hanna says. “Unless, of course, George Clooney wants to do one.”

Originally published in Emmy magazine issue no. 2014-02. 

 

 

 

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