I have met Josh Sapan, and I admire his passion, insight and flair. I agree with him when he rails against analytics and the creative side of making content – I feel that he is absolutely right to state that the the future of content production should not be based on analytics, algorithms, and big data. What AMC is bringing to the market in terms of content is already great because thier creativity abounds. Creativity and flair has to be nurtured; it must be allowed to fly free. Content creation guided by algorithms and too much kowtowing to everyone’s opinion will see us end up with banal same-same productions that break no boundaries and do not push the envelope of imagination.
I loved ‘Mad Men’ but I could not get into ‘Breaking Bad’, unable to get past season 1, yet amongst my peers I was a complete outsider on this particular show; that does not mean it was not a great show, brilliantly done. Ultimately why the hell should my opinion count – I am a viewer not a creative writer of TV shows?
Who better for guidance in the scripting and content flow for future shows but the people whose job it is to come up with the goods – I wouldn’t ask the local butcher to write a show and I wouldn’t ask a hollywood storyteller to be a butcher – horses for courses I say and let’s please stop trying to give credibility to computer algorithms goddamit. NO I say! It should not be ‘Joe the plumber’, or ‘Fred, the banker’ or any Tom, Dick & Harry who has shouted out on Twitter or Facebook and the like, that should determine how a show plot is developed. Leave to the professionals.
Tvangelist 
Sorry but, some of the best storytellers are butchers and ordinary people. Sometimes professionals are like algorithms which in most cases do the same task over and over again. Perfect example is reality TV. They usually look for what’s trending and copy. Not all, but most of the TV and streaming content is boring. Same stories with a few changes and different characters.
Good point