“Calm on Set” helps Investigation Discovery expand its true crime brand

With the success of “Quiet on Set,” Investigation Discovery boss Jason Sarlanis says the perception of his true crime brand is changing. Next: “Fallen Idols” is dedicated to Nick and Aaron Carter

Jason Sarlanis knows that for some people, the Investigation Discovery channel stands for one thing above all else: crime dramas that are often gruesome in nature and are usually told in self-contained one-hour episodes. But with the success of the documentary series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” that perception is quickly changing.

“It was a game changer for us,” says Sarlanis, who in addition to ID is president of TNT, TBS, TruTV and HLN. “It brought the focus back to all the other things that are outside of what people expect from an ID show.”

These include recent miniseries such as “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace” and “Jared From Subway: Catching a Monster,” as well as partnerships with producers Octavia Spencer (whose production credits for the network include the documentary series “Lost Women of Highway 20” and “Feds”) and Michael Bay.

ID just made waves with the two-part Kevin Spacey documentary “Spacey Unmasked,” which featured new allegations against the disgraced actor. And later this month, ID has the four-part event “Fallen Idols” about the controversies and allegations circulating around Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter and his late brother Aaron Carter.

“When I came to the network, we looked at the name: Investigation Discovery,” says Sarlanis. “We realized that gave us the license to tell all kinds of investigative shows and really open the door beyond the myopic notion of what a simple true-crime show on cable could be.”

The success came with “Quiet on Set,” which became a phenomenon for ID and Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming platform Max. According to ID, the series generated the most weekly minutes of any title on Max, reaching 1.25 billion minutes for the week of March 17. ID reports that it is the highest-rated cable network without news or sports among women 25-54 so far this year. The series, which documented cases of misconduct behind the scenes of popular Nickelodeon children’s shows in the 2000s and showed what child stars experienced on those shows, had an immediate impact on public discourse. (Producer Dan Schneider has since filed a defamation lawsuit against the docuseries’ producers.)

“I knew ‘Quiet on Set’ would strike a chord,” he says. “I think the stories of what child stars have gone through resonate with every generation. And I also knew it would resonate because we were really the first of a commercial media brand to tell this story. It feels like these phenomena can help shed light on this and potentially do some good in the world. We’ve reached out to a new generation of millennial parents and given them some of the terms and tools to understand what grooming means for their kids today. That’s a powerful thing that not all TV shows manage to do.”

Sarlanis said it also became a good calling card for ID. “It showed filmmakers that if we’re in business with ID, we can achieve the elusive goal of getting a project to work on multiple platforms at once in this very complicated age of linearity and streaming,” he says. “Moreover, the kind of story we were telling is not what anyone would have imagined ID telling years ago. It allowed us to address more kinds of stories that the filmmaking community might not have come to us with.”

The development was not without its obstacles. Some of the people interviewed for Quiet on Set, for example, expressed disappointment that the documentary was released on ID, as they felt it had less prestige than if it had been a Max original. Sarlanis takes this disappointment in his stride.

“We have a lot of compassion for all the people who were willing to sit down with us on all of our different shows,” he says. “I’m just glad we were able to give them such a big platform to tell their story – even if it wasn’t the platform they had in mind. I’m still very proud of the product and hope they are too… ‘Quiet on Set’ was truly a phenomenon. And it feels like if you can help shed light on it, you can potentially do some good in the world.”

Sarlanis also points out that competition in the true crime space has increased dramatically as the genre now occupies such a large portion of the streaming world.

“Everyone wants their peace and quiet on set. It’s intimidating, to say the least,” he says. “At last count, I think there were 17 other buyers aggressively seeking true crime documentaries. So, yes, that’s daunting. But at the same time, none of them have the breadth of crime and investigation that we have.”

This includes some ID favorites that are currently selling well: “Crimes Gone Viral,” “Homicide Hunter: American Detective,” and “In Pursuit With John Walsh” return this month, and “Signs of a Psychopath,” “American Monster,” and “Late Night Lockup” return in June.

Sarlanis also points to “On the Case with Paula Zahn,” which has been part of ID for 13 years. “It’s something that’s been part of the network’s DNA from the beginning and it’s evolving better than it has in recent years,” he says.

Sarlanis cites the mix of crime and investigative series as the channel’s greatest strength: “Whether it’s these huge documentary events, these interesting insights into the psychology of crime, or the more action-based shows we do, we’re constantly reinventing what a true crime show is. The sheer volume of content we have to produce is part of what helps us be competitive. And because we have so many opportunities, we invest in the next generation of filmmakers. Because of the nature of our shows, new filmmakers come to us first. They might have cut their teeth on a season of ‘On Case with Paula Zahn’ and then become the next big documentary filmmaker to call our home. That’s a huge competitive advantage.”

Sarlanis says he’s especially proud of “Fallen Idols,” which premieres Monday, May 27 at 9 p.m. ET on ID (and streaming on Max). “I think the show will speak for itself, but it does a very compelling job of not only talking about what these incredible survivors are bravely trying to tell from their perspective, but also analyzing the family dynamics of a family that has captured America’s attention for two decades,” he says. “There’s a lot in there that I think will be eye-opening. And moving for an audience that has loved the Carter family for a very long time.”

Here’s a first look at “Fallen Idols”: