Shondaland (stylized as ShondaLand from 2005 to 2016 and shondaland thereafter) is an American

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and v ...

founded by television writer/producer Shonda Rhimes. She founded it to be one of the production companies of her first series ''

Grey's Anatomy ''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series that premiered on March 27, 2005, on ABC as a mid-season replacement. The series focuses on the lives of surgical interns, residents, and attendings as they develop into s ...

'' in 2005. It has since gone on to produce Rhimes's other creations, ''Grey's'' spinoff '' Private Practice'' and the widely popular political drama ''

Scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...

'', and her other productions—the short-lived '' Off the Map'', the

Viola Davis Viola Davis (; born August 11, 1965) is an American actress and producer. The recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards, she is the only African-American to achieve the Triple Crow ...

-starring

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. ...

thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

'' How to Get Away with Murder'', and the

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...

thriller '' The Catch''—all of which are co-produced with

ABC Studios ABC Signature is an American television production studio that is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a division of Walt Disney Television, which is part of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Company. ...

and air on ABC. As of 2017, it has a partnership affiliation with

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

, and before that

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

- ABC.

History

Programming block

In 2014, the ABC network programmed its entire Thursday

primetime Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

lineup with television series produced by Shondaland, then branded the Shondaland-filled programming block as "Thank God It's Thursday," also referred to in its shortened form, TGIT. This echoes ABC's former TGIF branding of its Friday night family sitcoms and NBC's Must See TV promotion of formidable Thursday night television hits in the 1990s. Thursday is an especially important night for American television networks because it is the last chance for advertisers of weekend purchases, like movies and cars, to reach a large TV audience, and networks schedule highly rated programming for the night to attract those advertising dollars. The Associated Press called Rhimes' reign of an entire night of network television "unmatched in TV history."

Productions

The first series produced by Shondaland is ''

'', which premiered on March 27, 2005, and currently is broadcasting its eighteenth season. In 2007, '' Private Practice'' premiered, and lasted for six seasons, until its final broadcast, on January 22, 2013. The third installment, '' Off the Map'', was created by Jenna Bans and lasted for only one season, in 2011. ''

'' and '' How to Get Away with Murder'', premiered in 2012 and 2014, respectively, with ''Scandal'' airing its final episode on April 19, 2018 and ''How to Get Away with Murder'' airing its final episode on May 14, 2020. The

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

-driven

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and comb ...

'' The Catch'' aired for two seasons and received generally positive reviews from critics. The

period drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romance film, romances, adventure f ...

Still Star-Crossed ''Still Star-Crossed'' is an American period drama television series developed by Heather Mitchell and based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Melinda Taub. The series is produced by Shonda Rhimes's Shondaland and ABC Studios, and aired on A ...

'' premiered on May 29, 2017, and was cancelled after one season. The legal drama '' For the People'', created by Paul William Davies and set to premiere in the 2017–18 television season, is the eighth television series produced by Shondaland. In May 2019, it was cancelled after two seasons. It was announced on January 3, 2018 that ''Scandal'' and ''How to Get Away With Murder'' would crossover with one another in Shondaland's first crossover event (excluding spin-offs).

Website

In 2017, Shondaland launched the lifestyle website Shondaland.com in partnership with Hearst.

Initiatives

Shonda Rhimes shares her knowledge with aspiring screenwriters and producers through ShondaLand and initiatives for her MasterClass.com program. Shondaland partnered with Seriesfest in 2019 to launch the Women's Directing Mentorship, a competition designed to discover aspiring female directors. The Seriesfest panel included Shondaland's Head of Fiction Alison Eakle, Akua Murphy, Katie Lowes and Anna Deavere Smith. The first Shondaland Women's Directing Mentorship was awarded to Rachel Myers. In January 2020, it was announced that Shonda Rhimes had partnered with iHeartMedia to launch Shondaland Audio.

Shondaland overview

Recurring actors

Some actors appear in more than one television show produced by Shondaland. Currently,

Liza Weil Liza Rebecca Weil (born June 5, 1977) is an American actress. She is best known for her starring role as Paris Geller in the WB/ CW comedy-drama series ''Gilmore Girls'' (2000–2007) and its Netflix revival series '' Gilmore Girls: A Year in ...

Mimi Kennedy Mary Claire "Mimi" Kennedy (born September 25, 1948) is an American actress, author, and activist. Best known for her roles in television sitcoms, Kennedy co-starred in numerous short-lived sitcoms before her role as Ruth Sloan on '' Homefront'' ...

, John Getz, José Zúñiga,

Cynthia Stevenson Cynthia Stevenson (born August 2, 1962) is an American actress. She first played a leading role in the syndicated parody comedy series ''My Talk Show'' (1990–91), before starring in a number of sitcoms, including '' Bob'' (CBS, 1992–93), '' ...

and Anthony Hill are the only actors to make appearances in four shows. : = Main role = Recurring role

References

External links

*
Shondaland.com
{{Hearst Television production companies of the United States American companies established in 2005 Mass media companies established in 2005 2005 establishments in California Companies based in Los Angeles Entertainment companies based in California Privately held companies based in California