Steven Kane Went to Cologne to Tell Hollywood to Stop Letting Algorithms Write TV

At Seriencamp in Cologne, showrunner Steven Kane stepped up and said the quiet part loud: "Don't let data drive the creative." It was less a panel observation and more a plea — directed at the industry gatekeepers in the room who increasingly treat engagement metrics as a creative compass.

Kane knows both sides of this. His credits include The Last Ship on TNT, Season 4 of Jack Ryan on Prime Video, and the Paramount+ adaptation of Halo — three very different shows, three very different sets of pressures. He's not a writer who's been insulated from the realities of modern television. Which is probably why his argument landed with some weight.

The core of his concern is what happens when data stops being a tool and starts being the boss. "When it becomes cynical is when you let the data drive the creative," he said. "It's when you are told the algorithm says the script is boring because ChatGPT says so." He drew a contrast between Nielsen's old notebook-based measurement — imprecise, human, slow — and the granular engagement tracking that platforms like Netflix now run. Neither system is perfect. But one of them can tell a writer their scene is boring before a single audience member has seen it.

His analogy for the over-reliance problem was straightforward: "I used to use a map but now I just put the GPS on." The convenience is real. So is the atrophy.

He's not anti-data, exactly. "It is useful but you have to be mindful that there is messiness and there is time to be pensive. It's a double edged sword." What he's pushing back against is the specific pressure that comes from real-time audience behavior being fed back into creative decisions mid-stream — the note that says you can't let a scene breathe because someone might check their phone. "How can you pander to that?" His position is that showrunners have to hold both things at once: "They have to have the authority to be the author but also can't be blind to the data."

The other half of Kane's Seriencamp appearance focused on adapting video game IP, which, based on his Halo experience, he described as a particular kind of pressure. "If you read a book and saw the movie version then said, 'I like the book better,' well that pressure is times a billion with a game." Halo came with, as he put it, "20 years of history and a transmedia world that already existed" — a fanbase with strong and divergent ideas about what the property is and should be. "Everyone has their own take on what Halo is. So now you are beholden to the IP and don't want to screw it up."

His read on the fan dynamic was pragmatic rather than defensive. "The fans will hate everything you do at first. You have to accept that comes with the territory and the game company doesn't want to destroy the IP either — it's a lot of pressure. There is a huge responsibility to the fans."

On the broader question of IP adaptation in television, Kane was candid about the commercial reality. "Selling shows is 1,000% easier if IP is involved." He cited Succession as an example of IP done well — loosely based on King Lear, in his characterization — to make the point that working from existing material doesn't have to mean cynicism. "You realize the relevance. You are not just pandering, not just reselling something."

Which brings him to his current moment. Kane has just sold a new, unnamed show to ABC, and his pitch reportedly included the line: "If this is successful it could be franchised." The show's subject matter hasn't been disclosed, and it's unclear whether it's based on existing IP or an original concept. What's clear is that Kane is thinking about how to build something with longevity — "You have to convince them there is a world in this, it can be something big" — while still arguing, in Cologne, that the humanity behind the storytelling is the part you can't afford to lose.

[Original Source](https://deadline.com/2026/06/steven-kane-on-adapting-halo-and-pressure-from-fandoms-1236952350/)