Photo credit: Courtesy of Justice Network
“I’m kind of a voyeuristic type of guy and I like getting behind the scenes of real life.” Steve Schiffman.
Call them the Dream Team: Lonnie Cooper, Steve Schiffman, Barry Wallach, John Ford and Wendy Brown. These are the faces of the newly launched Justice Network who bring with them backgrounds from Bounce TV, National Geographic Channels, NBC Universal, Discovery Channel and CSE respectively. That’s a collective lot of great jobs to give up to start a new network, so naturally we wondered why they did.
Hollywood on the Potomac posed that question to new Justice Network CEO Steve Schiffman: “Actually, I spent three years initially opening up my own media consulting practice where I had a number of clients and one of them was The Washington Post, another A&E Networks and a variety of other companies. For the past three years, I’ve been the general manager of digital video here at The Washington Post and created a brand called Post TV which is the video arm of The Washington Post. I’m actually even speaking to you from The Washington Post as I transition out from this role to becoming a full time CEO of the Justice Network.”
Steve Schiffman
“In the case of John Ford, he was actually a private media consultant as well, consulting on programming with The National Geographic Channel, The Travel Channel, Retirement Living Television and a number of other ventures,” he explained. “Barry Wallach was also the former president of domestic distribution at NBC Universal for the broadcast group. He left a number of years ago and has actually been working with several companies and helping them drive distribution for some of their properties. In this sense, we all three were available. That’s just so you understand some of the key senior executives that I recruited for what I think is a pretty impressive management team in building this channel and I don’t think it’s going to be a coincidence why we’re successful.” Add John Walsh as a spokesperson and you’ve got the ultimate Dream Team. “Walsh’s personal crusade for justice touched so many Americans and will be a driving force behind our network brand,” said Schiffman, “public service announcements, and programming influences. Not to mention, our network will be full of the best crime, investigation and mystery programming that appeals to our wide-reaching audience.”
John Walsh
“Justice Network is a 24/7 broadcast television network that entertains and informs its viewers with gripping crime and investigation programming while making communities safer. Justice Network provides a first-of-its-kind public service initiative that helps catch fugitives, find missing children and provide safety tips for its viewers. Proud to be the only multicast network with non-stop crime programming and a public service commitment, the Justice Network recognizes crime affects everyone,” according to the mission statement.
“I like understanding what people are really doing and so I like 48 Hours and Dateline, or Cops. I like when they catch a sexual predator and I like investigative journalism. …… what’s going through that person’s mind and how these people are caught,” continued Schiffman. “To me it’s voyeuristic. People sort of like to see train wrecks and car wrecks and conflicts and good trying to catch evil and ‘can evil get away with it and what’s the storyline’? I just think we’re wired as human beings that way. Things like crime, mystery, investigation type programming, things like The Last State Trooper, Locked Up Abroad, Wild Justice, Lock Down, Inside The Mafia……. shows that had good story telling, good story art, high characters that kept consumers at the edge of their seat, really resonated. So I thought to myself, this would be a really good story genre to go after.”
“I think that there is this fascination with crime and I think we’re wired not just as Americans but as worldwide people to understand the world of a criminal mind and understanding when there is a crime committed, understanding how law-enforcement uses the pieces of the puzzle to solve that crime. I think that there is just a fascination, a voyeurism to understand the mindset of a criminal and the mindset of law enforcement to catch that criminal, and it’s like a cat and mouse game. That I think has created a feeding frenzy, which is capturing just a natural affinity for crime. I think it’s no different than when if you’re in a car and you’re on the Beltway and you see an accident and you see all the rubber necking. There is just a lot of different elements to that. That’s basically how I see it.”
“I also thought that if we were to do a crime investigation, mystery channel, we should find out how to also do some public good…… a spokesperson to help people to be welcoming to the channel.” Enter John Walsh. Hollywood on the Potomac interviewed Walsh last July when he launched The Hunt on CNN. The full interview here. Part of what we wondered was what kind of toll this takes on him emotionally when you’re constantly looking at things that are quite horrifying. He took the year off, went back to work with a company called Great Call, in San Diego. He told us: “I said ‘I’ve paid my dues’ – I will still continue to testify before Congress and work on legislation, do it in every single state and every state multiple times. I’ll concentrate on raising money for The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I thought I’m going to get out of that world of murder and violence. But, I’ve got a new granddaughter. I just couldn’t stay away.” We’ll be updating with Walsh this afternoon.
“John is essentially acting as a host of our network doing 30 second interstitial ads in catching the most wanted fugitives……….. every hour, on the hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” explained Schiffman on Walsh’s role. “We’re also doing 30 second ads to find a missing child and also doing local and national safety tips to make American families safer in their community as part of our societal initiative that makes our channel above and beyond just a really cool place to watch some of the best crime investigation and mystery programming.”
“As a new television entry, we’re going to have a lot of competition across both the multi cast space and the cable space,” concluded Schiffman. “To me what I think about is trying to have ourselves clearly branded, to have a clear point of view, to make sure that the consumer who’s interested in our content knows that this is a great home for crime, mystery and investigation and will not be disappointed. There’s clarity in what we do and John Walsh brings authenticity and credibility to us. We are a factual entertainment network providing what we hope to be the most engaging, entertaining crime, mystery, investigation programming, along with a really cool mission overlay.”
For programming and schedules, check you local stations here.
America is hooked on Justice:
