How ‘Quiet on Set’ Helped Redefine Investigation Discovery Programming: ‘It Has Been a Fundamental Shift’

variety.com:

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Jason Sarlanis knows that for some people, the Investigation Discovery network has stood for one thing: murder mysteries, frequently gruesome in nature and usually told in self-contained hourlong episodes.

But with the success of docuseries “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” that perception is quickly changing. “It has been a fundamental shift for us,” says Sarlanis, who is president of TNT, TBS, TruTV and HLN in addition to ID. “It has brought a spotlight back to all the other things that are outside of the lane of what people expect an ID show to be.” Those include recent limited series like “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace” and “Jared From Subway: Catching a Monster,” as well as partnerships with producers Octavia Spencer (whose output for the network includes docuseries “Lost Women of Highway 20” and “Feds”) and Michael Bay.

ID just made waves with the Kevin Spacey two-part documentary “Spacey Unmasked,” which included new allegations about the disgraced actor.

And later this month, ID has the four-part event “Fallen Idols,” about the controversies and accusations swirling around Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter and his late brother, Aaron Carter. “When I joined the network, we looked at the name: Investigation Discovery,” Sarlanis says. “We realized that gave us the license to tell all kinds of investigatory shows, and really open the aperture beyond a myopic thinking of what a basic cable true-crime show could be.” The payoff came with “Quiet on Set,” which became a phenomenon for ID and Warner Bros.