4 ms·

Last I heard Louie CK was in debt after self-funding his last series. Could have been different production values / unusual business model though. http://varie

• bisby 10y ago
  horace and pete was great, but it was definitely not for his core audience. it's not comedy or really a show. It's more like a filmed stage performance. A lot of people I know bought the first 1-2 episodes thinking it would be hysterical and never bought more after they realized what it was, and never even gave it a chance since it caught them off guard.
• slg 10y ago
  That whole story was a case of reporters not knowing what they were talking about. Every television/movie production is in debt at that point of the process. All the money is spent up front and it takes a while to recoup those losses and turn a profit (the whole long tail thing). The difference was this was self financed so the debt was his and not some studio's. It is very similar to what happens at startups. No one expects revenue from day one but the losses can start immediately. Louie CK basically founded a startup and decided not to take any VC money. That means when it came time for his IPO (the digital streaming deal he signed with Hulu), all the money went directly to him making the entire endeavor profitable.