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Others that specialize in those stories have continued the search for the next national obsession.
Turns out, thats also true when it comes to cable TV audiences.
So far in 2018, ID whose overall audience composition is about 60 percent female ranks as the No.
ID didnt invent true-crime TV, nor was it the first to find success with the genre.
But it does have a formula of sorts.
Were looking for high-stakes stories that have twists and turns and a satisfying resolution, Latman explains.
ID also tries to avoid cases of random violence chronicled on the nightly news.
What really resonates with our audience tends to be crimes between people who know each other, Latman says.
Youre gonna have more twists and turns in a story where there is a relationship and a backstory.
And where theres a clear motive, its not random.
Its not the actual crime, but the solving of the crime.
We look not so much at the how as the why.
What was the backstory?
I certainly dont look at Oxygen as competition, Schleiff says.
Theyre going about telling crime in a different way than we do.
Were far more interested in the fundamentals of great storytelling than the more prurient side of the story.
In a perfect world, youd have no competition, he quips.
But he also believes theres a possible upside.
The competition is almost a form of marketing for us, Schleiff says.
The way to look at it is, those networks have helped to popularize the genre.
They bring these incredible resources to the stories.
A lot of times we develop from the ground up.
Well send a producer an article, and say, Come back with some ideas about it.
Were in this enviable position, she says.
So we dont get into bidding wars often.
The Missing Evidence.The price went up cause someone else wanted it, Latman says.
But we got it.
I watch and listen to everything I can, Aissa says.
I listen to podcasts.
I scour the Daily Beast for its crime stories.
Oxygen rebranded as a 24-hour true-crime online grid a year ago, and its paying off.
Aissa added that Oxygen doesnt want its audience to be passive.
On these shows, he says, we want people to exercise their inner armchair detective.
The series follows the first trial, which ended in a hung jury, and its aftermath.
Emmy-winner and Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brothers KeeperandParadise Lost) is the executive producer.
They usually dont leave their babies behind, Aissa said.
Their response: What if shes still out there?
What if we can get justice?
The justice system is a very layered and tiered system, Aissa said.
It just makes these stories very immersive because its something we can relate to.
The stakes are so high there are no higher stakes than human life.
(TheTimesinvestigation focused on wealthy Orange County businesswoman Debra Newell, who married him.)
If you’re free to do that, its worth taking the viewer down that road again.
If its not, its probably not something we really want to do.
Were really lucky because we dont … have to fill a particular quota, Nishimura says.
Were driven by the quality of the story [and] we have the great liberty of time.
Nishimura argues such moral ambiguity leads to better storytelling.
Life is very rarely black and white.
Two people can be faced with the exact same scenario and make very different decisions.
What is that all about?
The exploration of that, I think, is endlessly fascinating.
Longform true crime didnt start at Netflix, of course.
HBOsThe Jinxbowed nearly a year beforeMaking a Murdererpremiered.
Avoiding the usual true-crime production suspects allows the streamer to differentiate itself from its linear rivals.
Theyre not looking to do sensationalistic, ripped-from-the-headlines,heres the gore, Nishimura says of her producers.
Their interest level is really trying to deeply understand each of their subjects.
Indeed, Netflixs standout true-crime projects have often been as much about the criminal justice system as specific misdeeds.
Anytime you look at anything thats a crime, the first question is always Why?
That answer is very seldom simple.
There are a lot of things at work.
All the different genres inside documentary will continue to see an increase in opportunity.
Is it too much to hope forWild, Wild Country: Sheelas Swiss Adventure?
Unlike its competitors, Lifetime focuses on telling fictionalized versions of true-crime narratives.
For that reason, unsolved cases dont play well on the web link.
Netflix releasedThe Keepers, a seven-part Emmy-nominated documentary about the case in 2017.
Last yearsI Am Elizabeth Smartfelt distinct because of its approach.
We wrestled with that one but, ultimately, the group said yes, said Lopez.
The reason I was disinterested is that she was just so stupid.
I dont mind a woman who makes bad choices and figures it out.
But I just dont want to be in the business of telling stories of women who are just dumb.
This article has been corrected to show thatThe Staircasefirst aired in the US on Sundance Channel.
