Netflix's unscripted boss has found great success with reality TV, but he's not done with "phase one"

Vulture

Recent reality series The Circle, Cheer and Love Is Blind join past unscripted series like Rhythm + Flow, Nailed It!, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and Queer Eye as putting Netflix's reality division on the map. “With the volume of stuff that we aspire to get up on service, we haven’t even finished what I call our phase one of the unscripted strategy,” says Brandon Riegg, Netflix's head of unscripted programming, telling Vulture that Netflix is still trying to get a feel for the kinds of shows that play best with audiences and how they want to watch them. Still, Riegg hasn't found the same success with the talk show format. While David Letterman, Hasan Minhaj and Jerry Seinfeld have found success, other talk show hosts failed to catch on, including Michelle Wolf, Norm Macdonald, Chelsea Handler and Joel McHale. “The timeliness of the talk genre has been a challenge for us, especially for shows that are of-the-moment or have a short shelf life,” he says. “It’s a different viewing habit compared to what Netflix members usually expect from us as an on-demand service.”