When You’re Nobody’s Hero, Launching in a Pandemic Is a Smart Move
Christopher Potts and Jonty Nash (“Nailed It,” “Sugar Rush”) launched production label Nobody’s Hero in Spring of 2020, set an overall deal with ITV America and now have unscripted projects set with buyers across town. Cynopsis had to ask them…
What possessed you to launch a production company in the middle of a pandemic?
Chris Potts: Well, we would love to say we went all Sun Tzu and saw “the opportunity in the chaos,” but neither of us are that strategic. The truth is, we love generating original format IP and always knew that, upon launching a new shop, the first few months would mostly be about building a really fun slate. So in that sense, I guess there really was an opportunity for us to focus in on creative and take flight as productions began to slow down.
Also, with the proliferation of streamers and new platforms right now, there’s never been a better time to be creating vibrant new formats. There’s a genuine sense that every network and platform is looking for highly innovative and surprising original content, which is what truly excites us.
Are there strategies for adapting to the health crisis worked best, and what do you hope to never have to again?
Jonty Nash: Stress testing and deep creative format development become significantly more difficult when everyone is remote. One of our strategies in managing it all is to have those hard internal creative discussions as early in the day as possible, before moving on to the more mundane, to-do list items.
We’ve been developing a handful of really fun new gameshows recently, and hopefully, the days of “Zoom run-throughs” will soon be over. It’s always just so much more fun when you can see the game played out in person!
What’s your dream project?
Chris Potts: Our dream project is anything that sits in the Venn Diagram of nostalgia, subversion, performance and comedy. We’ve got something in the pipeline that hits the bullseye on all of those, and we can’t wait to unleash it on the world…
