Chiney Ogwumike is placing a big bet on the women’s sports boom pushing its way into scripted entertainment.
The former WNBA star-turned-ESPN TV analyst has launched her own women-focused production company, Victorious. The first project from the new company will be a scripted comedy series based on the WNBA called The W. Carly Mensch and Liz Flahive, the creators of Netflix’s hit series Glow, will serve as the showrunners on the project, with Ogwumike and Victorious co-founder Allison Galer acting as executive producers.
Pointing to successful male sports-focused series such as HBO’s Ballers, Ogwumike said in a phone interview, “We have not seen the women’s point of view.”
She credits Penny Marshall’s 1992 film A League of Their Own with showing the possibilities of the genre. “We’re going to see a modern rendition,” Ogwumike said. “This is the first ever [series] for women’s basketball. We’re going to see what the league looks and feels like and what these women do to be successful.”
The W will be loosely based off the relationship of Ogwumike and Galer, who has been her agent since she was drafted first overall out of Stanford in 2014. Helen Estabrook, Lajoie St. George and Jodi Hildebrand from Conde Nast’s Glamour Studios will also serve as executive producers. NBCUniversal’s Peacock will be the studio for the series.
Peacock’s involvement coincides with its parent company’s overall growing investment in the women’s sports sector. NBCUniversal’s 11-year media rights agreement, part of the WNBA’s $2.2 billion media rights package signed last year along with Disney and Amazon, calls for distributing WNBA regular season and playoff games on its outlets, including NBC.
Ogwumike is banking on the sustainability of the current women’s sports boom as she navigates a crowded space of athlete-led production companies vying for backing from major studios. She’ll also be dealing with a reduction in entertainment productions in the aftermath of last year’s industry strikes. But the two-time WNBA All-Star is confident the “unparalleled interest” in women-led projects like The W will carry her company, which will also produce branded content.
Victorious is preparing to announce other projects spanning television, film and audio in the coming months. Ogwumike, who re-upped with ESPN last year, is the first Black woman to host a national daily sports radio show, and she already has experience in documentary production. She was behind ESPN’s 144 doc that chronicled the 2020 WNBA season, played in the COVID-19 pandemic bubble. The Emmy-nominated story was a career milestone but also a lesson; she says she realized she and Galer could have earned more had they worked separately from ESPN.
“Not only did we not get what we felt like we deserved, but people looked to us after accomplishing that and (acknowledged) that we know the stories that matter,” Ogwumike said.
Ogwumike, whose sister Nneka is the president of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, said she and Galer, whose uncle is L.A. Dodgers executive vice president Lon Rosen, have put that documentary experience to good use, selling a show in a difficult industry environment in their initial attempt.
“This was our first time selling a scripted show, and we got it,” Ogwumike said. “Someone said it’s like not knowing how to play baseball and hitting a home run during your first time at-bat.”
