In this time of great division in America, one thing we can all agree on is that Rob Lowe is a national treasure. Comedy, drama, hosting game shows — the man can do it all.
But one thing you may not have known until recently is that Lowe has to commute more than 5,000 miles from his home in Los Angeles all the way to Limerick, Ireland, to film each season of his Fox game show, “The Floor.”
We’re not talking about Christoper Nolan needing to shoot “The Odyssey” in Greece for historical accuracy. “The Floor” could theoretically be filmed on Fox’s own production lot in Century City, or on any of the hundreds of vacant stages across L.A. And yet the math suggests it’s still actually cheaper for Fox to fly its host and dozens of American contestants all the way to Europe.
Unfortunately, Fox isn’t flying in set builders, carpenters, sound technicians, makeup artists, truck drivers, security guards and other valuable off-screen workers to join Lowe and the contestants. Ireland’s skilled laborers are providing those services instead, leaving thousands of American crafts and tradespeople who are so important to making shows happen behind the scenes out of work and with no moves to make.
That doesn’t even take into account all the support jobs that are lost because ready-to-use studio space in our country is left empty. This is how bad the state of filmed production has gotten in the United States.
I should know. Along with Donna Gigliotti, I recently began serving as president of the Producers Guild of America, which represents more than 8,000 producers and has been working hard to keep these projects home.
And recently, I was also executive producer of an NBC dating show that shipped 12 eligible American bachelors from the U.S. to London to appear in a pilot with host Anna Faris (another national treasure).
But when it came to the production crew, the British had it covered.
The proposed Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Actcould help change that. Because, as it turns out, studios aren’t shifting their productions to Europe so Lowe and other American talent can enjoy a nice holiday abroad — they’re doing it because Ireland and 64 other countries around the world offer incentives that make it cheaper for American studios and networks to shoot there instead of here.
The U.S. has never offered a national incentive. That’s why the current competitive landscape for filmed production in the states is so bleak.
A recent study conducted by EY Quantitative Economics and Statistics looked at the change in the locations of film and television productions from 1999 to 2024, and the decline is humbling: The share of studio budgets spent on TV episodes with significant U.S.-based production declined from 94% to 64% over that span.
Meanwhile, the share of budgeted money spent on films with significant U.S.-based production declined from 74% to just 42%. Unfortunately, the study failed to disclose how many eligible American bachelors are flown to Europe every year in search of love.
As bad as it is, there’s a solution at hand.
The U.S. must finally pass a federal production incentive to spark a nationwide movement that brings production back home. While states across the country currently provide production tax credits, they’re no match for the national incentives provided by 65 other countries. The proposed federal incentive would stack on top of existing state-level incentives, allowing studios to be competitive globally and providing a level of consistency and certainty for productions filming on location in any town across the country.
The proposed legislation also offers bonus incentives for independent productions, those that film in underserved rural areas and productions that bring jobs to communities in federal disaster zones, creating additional economic benefits.
All told, according to the Motion Picture Assn,. the proposed incentive could inject an estimated $250 billion into the U.S. economy and deliver nearly 145,000 new jobs every year across all 50 states.
The moment is now. The amount of change that creators, distributors and audiences have had to contend with in the digital age is breathtaking. Our entertainment industry needs a federal law to allow local production to compete in an increasingly global environment, incentivize local TV and film production and keep jobs here at home.
This plan can work, and it can benefit the entire country.
When our government passes the federal production incentive, they will be sending a clear message to the rest of the world. It’s time for 145,000 people (and one Rob Lowe) to get back to work here at home.
Mike Farah is a president of the Producers Guild of America and producer of film and television, including “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” and “Between Two Ferns.”
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