Some of the greatest shows in history - 'Seinfeld,' 'Everybody Loves Raymond' and 'House' - had puny starts but the benefit of schedule protection, increasingly scarce in today's DVR world. Cable nets can tolerate small ratings, building hits in progress like 'Breaking Bad,' or marathon their way to a 'Duck Dynasty.'
Kevin Reilly
The 10 million views on YouTube are... worthless to us as a business.
NBC, for me, is like the crazy ex-wife that I can't get away from.
I've respected the people that I've worked for, and they've been supportive and respectful of me.
TV has so many access points, so many availabilities. DVR, binge viewing.
Fox was the challenger to cable before there was cable.
'The Walking Dead' is an extraordinary thing.
It used to be a given that the talent and the talent agencies would line up around the broadcast pitch season first and then take whatever was still available out to cable. I hate to say it, but it's just not going down that way anymore. There are things that are bypassing the broadcast networks altogether.
Pilots are useful. You just learn things during a pilot - the piece of casting that just wasn't right or things about the storytelling nature.
When you get these franchises with some built in profiles and anticipation... I think the anticipation and the buildup can can exceed the delivery.
Nobody watches commercials if you ask them. Nevertheless, they watch commercials.
The resilience of narrative storytelling and people's love affair with television is impressive.
People love television; they're watching a lot of it in a lot of ways.
Before there was cable, Fox was cable.
Producing a one-hour show that has to reinvent musical numbers, and interpret those musical numbers with a large cast, is difficult.
I, for one - I'm not a believer that, now that the Facebooks and Googles and everyone is entering the content fray, that it's a foregone conclusion that they're just going to get it right and be amazing at it. It's really hard.
Unfortunately, there is no 'X Factor U.S.A.' without Simon Cowell.
How people watch and the different ways they connect to TV - you're going to see some expansion and radical transformation.
It's really the rare creator who can tell you where he's going to end the season of 22 episodes. That's not bad. That's part of the creative exploration.
The biggest move that put Fox on the map, from an entertainment perspective, was when 'The Simpsons' moved to Thursday night, and that was paired with 'Martin' and 'Living Single.'
One of the things I truly enjoy about my job is the dynamic nature of having a foot in each world - the world of the talent, who create our product - and the world of our business in which we market, distribute, and monetize that product.
The one thing that I'm really obsessed with is multi-camera comedy. It is a form that is unique to network television.
Narrative storytelling is wired into our humanity.
It's always a good problem to have to hear people saying they want to see more.
I'm a believer in broadcast.
When you start to feel you're not coming to work with the same enthusiasm, maybe you shouldn't hang onto that job.
There are not going to be hundreds of cable networks doing original programming; they won't be able to sustain the model.
One thing that cable has done is trained the audience that, when a TV show is on, it should be on.
'Surviving Jack' was actually a really nice show that was very well-run creatively.
Every television show is hard to do, but when you're in genre and you're recreating worlds and mythologies, they're particularly hard.
I love TV. Always have. Since my mother told me to stop sitting so close and watching so much.
I remember coming up in the business and seeing how the grind turned some executives into grizzled cynics. And I vowed to never become that guy. I have always believed it's incumbent upon network brass to bring a wide-eyed optimism to the chairs they rent. Talent deserves that. And frankly, the jobs are just no fun otherwise.
While I felt like we potentially had something really huge in 'Gotham,' you're always nervous that it won't live up.
Trying to make programs that are all things to everyone is not going to work.
I've spent a lot of time encouraging, corralling, protecting, and sparring with creative people.
I love talent because they are passionate. They can be emotional and irrational and unpredictable... and that's okay, because all we want is something exciting on the page and on the screen.
Success is often built on the shoulders of failure - from which new configurations emerge.
If what you're doing today isn't vital, you're certainly not going to have a seat at the table in determining what's going to happen tomorrow.
I still love a great pilot as much as I did the day I started at NBC.
Whether Amazon is good at making and sustaining an entertainment business remains to be seen. But they certainly are 100% focused every day on optimizing the consumer experience and reducing friction.
As the media landscape continues to evolve, 'Conan' will continue to lead the evolution of what a talk show will be in the digital age.
We're in the culture business. You are constantly monitoring cultural shifts, current events, shifts in mores, things that reflect society, and, at times, we try to drive it.
Rather than make 20 things and throw them at the wall and hope you get 6 that maybe feel like keepers, why not focus?
I'm trying to be a broadcaster and have a big cultural impact.
Trying to find big hits has always been a needle-in-a-haystack endeavor.
It's very nice to be part of an organization that you enjoyed and respected.
'Friday Night Lights' was never a break-out hit; I'll never regret doing that show.
I love my job, but I'd really love my job if I didn't have to live and die by ratings every day.
What the hell is pilot season? It's an artificial boundary that makes no sense, and it makes you do things under duress.
You always want to trust talent; that's the best thing.
