Latest news with #Zinman
Los Angeles Times
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
They built their careers in network TV. Then they started a production company for the influencer age
Jeff Kmiotek, Michael Zinman and Andrew Watnick have been in unscripted TV production for decades. Kmiotek became a producer after working in a variety of unscripted formats including game and cooking shows and garnered an Emmy nomination for his work on 'The Masked Singer.' Zinman has a background in visual design and creative producing and also received an Emmy nomination in 2014. Watnick got his start in casting before moving to development and eventually producing on shows like 'The Masked Singer' and 'The Amazing Race.' But a September 2024 encounter in Las Vegas led the three to take on a different kind of gamble than the city is known for: to break away from their careers in traditional TV and use their cumulative media production knowledge to create their own production company for online content. The three observed a changing tide in unscripted TV production over the last few years. 'Budgets are getting slashed, costs are getting slashed, and schedules are getting slashed,' Kmiotek said. Meanwhile, online platforms like YouTube have experienced an accelerated rise in popularity. 'I'd watch YouTube and there's such amazing content,' Kmiotek added. 'They don't have to go through the process that we had to go through on network TV with all the different cooks in the kitchen and executives and notes.' YouTube is experiencing a massive growth in revenue for creators who post videos on the platform. A recent ad revenue forecast by WPP Media found that online creator-driven revenue is up 20% from 2024 and is expected to double next year, while TV revenue is expected to increase by only 1%. YouTube also reached a 44.8% viewership share in May 2025, according to Nielsen, passing the figures for cable and broadcast TV for the first time. YouTube offers a lucrative benefit not available to those who work in network TV: the ability to own the rights to their own shows and exercise complete creative control. 'Working a hundred hours a week for a television show … you could be up at 3 in the morning and you're doing this for someone else. But when you're doing it for yourself, there's no bitterness,' Kmiotek said. Zinman owned an existing production studio in Downtown L.A., which was designed to do motion capture and virtual production for TV. That established space — dubbed Lulu Studios — became the home of Elixir, the trio's production company. They funded the venture with their own money, and Kmiotek quit his job as a TV producer to run the company full-time. Three weeks after that initial meeting in Vegas, the team was shooting its first shows. Elixir enters a booming space in the YouTube marketplace: online dating shows. Companies like Jubilee, nectar and Cut have built followings in the tens of millions across social media platforms with their unscripted content. Episodes easily reach view counts in the millions, sometimes surpassing the Nielsen ratings for recent seasons of 'The Bachelor.' And in January, the popular YouTube show 'Pop the Balloon' was even parodied on 'Saturday Night Live.' While scripted shows often require large budgets made possible by major entertainment companies, unscripted content can be filmed with pared-down resources and easily posted online. The Elixir team saw a gap in this growing market that their expertise in TV production could fill. 'Most of those shows are [filmed against] white stark backgrounds… But as a way to differentiate we said OK, what if we do those fun simple concepts… But we're giving it a better aesthetic,' Kmiotek said. That aesthetic shift is toward creating eye-catching visuals for their shows, whether that be romantic digital backdrops for their show 'Red Flag, Green Flag' or building a giant table for contestants to stick their heads through for 'Date on a Plate.' The company's goal: leaning into the weird and silly to create attention-grabbing content with a unique visual style to set them apart from competitors. At the heart of Elixir's goal is making shows that have a unique look. Their marquee series is 'Date on a Plate,' an idea that Watnick says comes from his pitch for a TV show that never made it to air. The visual of a dinner cart being wheeled out with three heads under cloches was transformed into an online dating show where contestants can only see each other's heads and compete in challenges. Unlike most YouTube shows, 'Date on a Plate' has embraced traditional media alongside online promotion. The trailer for the show premiered on 'Access Hollywood' and the team went on the show and had host Mario Lopez try out the concept. 'Date on a Plate' — and many of Elixir's shows — are also differentiated from most YouTube offerings by having professional hosts. For 'Date on a Plate' they have Nicky Paris, a longtime stand-up comedian and TV host. 'I prefer produced things,' Paris said. 'Anyone could hold a phone and [film], but in some ways I still enjoy the fantasy of when things are packaged and polished.' Elixir has a core team of roughly six people with additional crew members who come in for shoot days when the team films anywhere from two to seven episodes of a show. The company then slowly releases the episodes it films over the course of several months. 'Everybody wants to pivot to digital, but no one knows how to, and we're in [a] sense learning as well,' Zinman said. So the team is relying on feedback from Gen Z colleagues and learning the nuances of growing an audience on YouTube, like the key to a great video title or thumbnail that can make or break a video's success. 'We're at the mercy of YouTube getting us in the algorithm and you never know what can happen on these sites,' Kmiotek said. 'Our shows are developed in a way they can have life outside of social media platforms.' Another major motivating factor for the creation of Elixir was the current slowdown of film and TV productions in Los Angeles. The topic has been the subject of heavy coverage in the wake of the recent fires that exacerbated the need for the city's production workers to find stable jobs. 'In Los Angeles right now, the past three [or] four years, the landscape has certainly changed in television if you're anybody from a carpenter that's on a stage versus a showrunner. Work is leaving,' Zinman said. A major source of the decline is in unscripted productions, which are moving to other states and countries with more lucrative tax incentives since California's film and TV tax credit does not currently apply to unscripted TV. To help combat the decline, Television City has started an initiative to partner with online content creators to use the city's soundstages, which are currently experiencing record vacancy rates. Elixir is also seeking to put more production personnel to work in Los Angeles. The company's team and studio space can be contracted by other online content creators. 'If someone with a platform or with the following wants to do a show and they don't have a studio, come do it [here,]' Kmiotek said. 'Show up and we'll make your show and then we can work together to get it out there… [I can] make a bespoke show about you that looks really high-end with a professional crew.' The trio's backgrounds in traditional TV production give them a level of legitimacy to start forging relationships with influencers and expanding the company's mission. But they are able to take the lessons forged in network TV and apply it to a more focused group of projects. 'There being a company like Elixir, [creators' ideas] could really become the sole focus and become a priority to get it off the ground at the beginning, which is kind of exciting [to be] building something from the ground up,' Paris said. 'We're not necessarily making YouTube videos, we're making shows for YouTube,' is how Kmiotek described the team's approach to the company. Zinman said that they produce their YouTube videos with the same level of skill and scope that they used to produce network TV. But without network TV production budgets, the team is more resourceful with how they spend their money for the self-funded venture. They're choosing to invest in the physical space, quality props and craftspeople so Elixir's shows have a professional-looking quality. 'Part of our TV background helps because we were able to literally get the prop team from 'The Masked Singer' to build the table [for 'Date on a Plate'] for us,' Kmiotek said. The Elixir team is a part of a major shift in entertainment away from traditional mega corporations and toward a media landscape fueled by individuals and small teams creating their own content. And from conversations with former network TV colleagues, they are not alone in noticing the trends. 'High-ranking executives are calling us to say 'Hey, my contract is up this year, can I come do what you're doing?'' Kmiotek said. 'There were network executives leaving the network eight years ago to go to YouTube and you'd be like 'Huh?' Now you're like, these are the smartest people in the world,' Zinman added. Elixir has the same goal as any successful media company: to be able to innovate. The team is developing a live version of 'Date on a Plate' that they can tour, at a time when tours led by online content creators and podcasters have sold out major performance venues. They also are expanding beyond just dating shows and hope to create more content centered around comedy and game shows. Elixir is entering a market that has already proved its value. The start-up took the temperature of the media landscape and saw that online content creation is where audiences and advertisers are moving toward. The pressure is now on traditional TV and media companies to either adapt or face even sharper revenue and viewership losses. 'There's still a lot of network executives that probably think YouTube's a fad … the numbers are coming out and the data is showing that it's not true, so they're gonna have to catch up,' Kmiotek said. 'It's not going away.'
Hamilton Spectator
09-05-2025
- Health
- Hamilton Spectator
Canadian researchers reach ‘major milestone' in search for ALS treatment
TORONTO - Standing in an MRI control room packed with fellow ALS researchers, Dr. Lorne Zinman excitedly points to the brain scan on his phone. There's a white spot on the image, right where Bill Traynor's motor cortex is. The 70-year-old patient is lying on the MRI bed with his head inside a dome that sends focused ultrasound waves to his head in the experimental trial. The white spot signals that the immunoglobulin Traynor received intravenously has crossed the blood-brain barrier into the precise area the researchers wanted it to go. In an interview just before the procedure, Zinman talked about how significant this result would be in the search for treatment of the devastating neurological disorder. 'This is a major milestone,' the neurologist and director of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre's ALS clinic said Wednesday. 'Now that we have the capability of opening up the blood-brain barrier to exactly target where ALS starts, I'm really excited about the future.' Traynor is the first of six patients in a Phase 1 clinical trial to determine the safety of administering drugs through non-invasive ultrasound waves to ALS patients. He's the world's first ALS patient to receive a drug this way, said Zinman, who is co-lead investigator of the trial. Sunnybrook researchers have previously studied the experimental procedure, called focused ultrasound, for patients with Alzheimer's disease, and those with essential tremor, a neurological disorder that causes uncontrollable shaking. 'The blood-brain barrier is there to protect us, so it keeps viruses, bacteria (and) toxins outside the brain,' said Dr. Agessandro Abrahao, co-lead investigator of the clinical trial and Traynor's neurologist at the Sunnybrook ALS clinic. The problem is that it also blocks access to the brain for drugs that could potentially treat ALS. Temporarily opening the barrier to let those drugs through is a solution, Abrahao said, noting that it's critical that the barrier closes after the therapy is delivered. Traynor's day began with an intravenous infusion of immunoglobulin, an antibody therapy. He also received an injection of microbubbles. Researchers then placed a helmet, invented by Sunnybrook scientist Dr. Kullervo Hynynen, on Traynor's head. The helmet has 4,000 transducers that deliver focused ultrasound waves that cause the microbubbles to expand and contract in the small blood vessels in a targeted area. Those expansions and contractions open the blood-brain barrier in the precise spot where the immunoglobulin circulating in the blood needs to get through. Traynor laid down with his helmeted head inside an MRI machine so that the research team could see in real time that the focused ultrasound targeted the correct part of the brain. In future trials, they hope to eliminate the need for the MRI by personalizing a focused ultrasound helmet for each patient's brain where the target points are pre-set and the MRI imaging isn't needed during the procedure. 'MRIs sometimes are limited resources. They're (also) difficult for patients. Imagine being in a tiny tunnel for a long period of time,' said Abrahao. Traynor tolerated the whole procedure beautifully, both Abrahao and Zinman said. Afterward, his blood-brain barrier closed as hoped and he was expected to be discharged from hospital Friday. The researchers emphasized that this was a very early-stage trial and will not result in a treatment for ALS. Later stage trials, with more participants, will be needed. But it's an important step, they say, because it will allow them to start testing different drugs that show promise. Zinman and Abrahao are constantly reminded of the urgent need to find a drug. Their ALS clinic cares for about 700 patients. They're expected to survive about three to five years after their first symptom. 'ALS is a horrible, terminal, incurable neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive decline of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord,' Zinman said. 'Sadly, we have about three or four deaths a week in our clinic alone, and it's awful. Literally, thousands of patients have died on my watch. And I think about that every day and how we haven't yet had major interventions to change that,' Zinman said. For this trial, they decided to use immunoglobulin because it suppresses inflammation, he said. 'We know that the immune system is not normal in ALS. We know that it shifts to sort of a pro-inflammatory state where the immune system is assisting in the destruction of these motor neurons,' he said. Researchers actually tried immunoglobulin in the 1990s as a possible treatment for ALS, but it showed no effect, he said. But it wasn't given a fair shot, he said, because less than 0.01 per cent of a dose can cross the blood-brain barrier and reach the motor cortex. The researchers will be looking for biomarkers of inflammation in Traynor's blood and cerebrospinal fluid to see if the immunoglobulin had any effect, Abrahao said. They've cautioned Traynor that this trial is not expected to result in any form of treatment. But Traynor still sees the study as a source of hope. 'It's kind of exciting to be a guinea pig,' he said. He said his first symptom appeared about 10 months ago while walking down the street with his ex-wife. 'She said, 'Bill, your right foot is kind of like slapping the ground.' And being a guy, I said, 'Nah, it's nothing. It'll go away.'' 'It didn't go away,' he said, noting that he now uses canes to walk. Getting an ALS diagnosis felt like a 'death sentence,' Traynor said. But he's determined to continue living his active life and not give up. 'I'm one of these kinds of guys that I'm super positive.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2025. Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
Winnipeg Free Press
09-05-2025
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Canadian researchers reach ‘major milestone' in search for ALS treatment
TORONTO – Standing in an MRI control room packed with fellow ALS researchers, Dr. Lorne Zinman excitedly points to the brain scan on his phone. There's a white spot on the image, right where Bill Traynor's motor cortex is. The 70-year-old patient is lying on the MRI bed with his head inside a dome that sends focused ultrasound waves to his head in the experimental trial. The white spot signals that the immunoglobulin Traynor received intravenously has crossed the blood-brain barrier into the precise area the researchers wanted it to go. In an interview just before the procedure, Zinman talked about how significant this result would be in the search for treatment of the devastating neurological disorder. 'This is a major milestone,' the neurologist and director of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre's ALS clinic said Wednesday. 'Now that we have the capability of opening up the blood-brain barrier to exactly target where ALS starts, I'm really excited about the future.' Traynor is the first of six patients in a Phase 1 clinical trial to determine the safety of administering drugs through non-invasive ultrasound waves to ALS patients. He's the world's first ALS patient to receive a drug this way, said Zinman, who is co-lead investigator of the trial. Sunnybrook researchers have previously studied the experimental procedure, called focused ultrasound, for patients with Alzheimer's disease, and those with essential tremor, a neurological disorder that causes uncontrollable shaking. 'The blood-brain barrier is there to protect us, so it keeps viruses, bacteria (and) toxins outside the brain,' said Dr. Agessandro Abrahao, co-lead investigator of the clinical trial and Traynor's neurologist at the Sunnybrook ALS clinic. The problem is that it also blocks access to the brain for drugs that could potentially treat ALS. Temporarily opening the barrier to let those drugs through is a solution, Abrahao said, noting that it's critical that the barrier closes after the therapy is delivered. Traynor's day began with an intravenous infusion of immunoglobulin, an antibody therapy. He also received an injection of microbubbles. Researchers then placed a helmet, invented by Sunnybrook scientist Dr. Kullervo Hynynen, on Traynor's head. The helmet has 4,000 transducers that deliver focused ultrasound waves that cause the microbubbles to expand and contract in the small blood vessels in a targeted area. Those expansions and contractions open the blood-brain barrier in the precise spot where the immunoglobulin circulating in the blood needs to get through. Traynor laid down with his helmeted head inside an MRI machine so that the research team could see in real time that the focused ultrasound targeted the correct part of the brain. In future trials, they hope to eliminate the need for the MRI by personalizing a focused ultrasound helmet for each patient's brain where the target points are pre-set and the MRI imaging isn't needed during the procedure. 'MRIs sometimes are limited resources. They're (also) difficult for patients. Imagine being in a tiny tunnel for a long period of time,' said Abrahao. Traynor tolerated the whole procedure beautifully, both Abrahao and Zinman said. Afterward, his blood-brain barrier closed as hoped and he was expected to be discharged from hospital Friday. The researchers emphasized that this was a very early-stage trial and will not result in a treatment for ALS. Later stage trials, with more participants, will be needed. But it's an important step, they say, because it will allow them to start testing different drugs that show promise. Zinman and Abrahao are constantly reminded of the urgent need to find a drug. Their ALS clinic cares for about 700 patients. They're expected to survive about three to five years after their first symptom. 'ALS is a horrible, terminal, incurable neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive decline of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord,' Zinman said. 'Sadly, we have about three or four deaths a week in our clinic alone, and it's awful. Literally, thousands of patients have died on my watch. And I think about that every day and how we haven't yet had major interventions to change that,' Zinman said. For this trial, they decided to use immunoglobulin because it suppresses inflammation, he said. 'We know that the immune system is not normal in ALS. We know that it shifts to sort of a pro-inflammatory state where the immune system is assisting in the destruction of these motor neurons,' he said. Researchers actually tried immunoglobulin in the 1990s as a possible treatment for ALS, but it showed no effect, he said. But it wasn't given a fair shot, he said, because less than 0.01 per cent of a dose can cross the blood-brain barrier and reach the motor cortex. The researchers will be looking for biomarkers of inflammation in Traynor's blood and cerebrospinal fluid to see if the immunoglobulin had any effect, Abrahao said. They've cautioned Traynor that this trial is not expected to result in any form of treatment. But Traynor still sees the study as a source of hope. 'It's kind of exciting to be a guinea pig,' he said. He said his first symptom appeared about 10 months ago while walking down the street with his ex-wife. 'She said, 'Bill, your right foot is kind of like slapping the ground.' And being a guy, I said, 'Nah, it's nothing. It'll go away.'' 'It didn't go away,' he said, noting that he now uses canes to walk. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Getting an ALS diagnosis felt like a 'death sentence,' Traynor said. But he's determined to continue living his active life and not give up. 'I'm one of these kinds of guys that I'm super positive.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2025. Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
