TV has so many access points, so many availabilities. DVR, binge viewing.
— Kevin Reilly
As an industry, when you're in the talent business, we are way too obsessed on the competition with each other and not enough with the consumer.
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.
Producing a one-hour show that has to reinvent musical numbers, and interpret those musical numbers with a large cast, is difficult.
I always believe that if you stick with quality and give people a chance at the time, that people eventually get on board with it. It's been my experience more than not. Once in a while, there's a show that you just can't seem to break through on.
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.'
TV has always been a dog-eat-dog game.
I've respected the people that I've worked for, and they've been supportive and respectful of me.
What the hell is pilot season? It's an artificial boundary that makes no sense, and it makes you do things under duress.
It's always a good problem to have to hear people saying they want to see more.
'Friday Night Lights' was never a break-out hit; I'll never regret doing that show.
Nobody watches commercials if you ask them. Nevertheless, they watch commercials.
I'm a believer in broadcast.
Narrative storytelling is wired into our humanity.
'Surviving Jack' was actually a really nice show that was very well-run creatively.
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.
I still love a great pilot as much as I did the day I started at NBC.
NBC, for me, is like the crazy ex-wife that I can't get away from.
'Fringe' has been a point of pride. I share the passion for the show that the fans have.
Is The 'X Factor' the mother of all shows? Absolutely!
Producing a drama is particularly difficult.
I do believe that the audience is capable of embracing quality. But a lot of times, they'll be like, 'Why isn't there ever anything good on TV? Put something good on.' 'Uh, if you watched this, it would help.'
Creating more direct relationships with consumers, utilizing the resulting data and insights, is increasingly more valuable - and an evolution of the traditional competency of ad-supported television networks.
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.
People love television; they're watching a lot of it in a lot of ways.
I love my job, but I'd really love my job if I didn't have to live and die by ratings every day.
The 10 million views on YouTube are... worthless to us as a business.
One thing that cable has done is trained the audience that, when a TV show is on, it should be on.
How people watch and the different ways they connect to TV - you're going to see some expansion and radical transformation.
Trying to find big hits has always been a needle-in-a-haystack endeavor.
Rather than make 20 things and throw them at the wall and hope you get 6 that maybe feel like keepers, why not focus?
There are not going to be hundreds of cable networks doing original programming; they won't be able to sustain the model.
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.
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.
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.
Creative content is challenging, no matter what, and animation is particularly challenging.
'Glee' is produced with three people and written by three people. In my mind, I don't believe there's any other show on television that was written by three people. The fact is there are shows that have 14, 15, or 16 people writing them.
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.
The way television is done, you're kind of set on a certain path, and then episodic directors come in every week to try to recreate that.
The resilience of narrative storytelling and people's love affair with television is impressive.
You always want to trust talent; that's the best thing.
Fox was the challenger to cable before there was cable.
When you start to feel you're not coming to work with the same enthusiasm, maybe you shouldn't hang onto that job.
The one thing that I'm really obsessed with is multi-camera comedy. It is a form that is unique to network television.
Every television show is hard to do, but when you're in genre and you're recreating worlds and mythologies, they're particularly hard.
It's very nice to be part of an organization that you enjoyed and respected.
I'm trying to be a broadcaster and have a big cultural impact.
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.'
'The Walking Dead' is an extraordinary thing.
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.
