Sue Naegle Quotes

You can have a great script, and it can be a great show, but for whatever reason, it just doesn't take the public's interest.

You can make a feature that makes millions but only so many people see it. With a hit TV show, every week you'll have 16 million - 20 million people watching you.

Both 'Oz' and 'Homicide,' they're critically admired, so it's not like they're really neglected, but I wish they'd found bigger audiences.

There are obviously people who want to be very niche, but I think for the most part everybody is trying to reach a larger audience.

Films do seem prestigious and glamorous, but when you create something, you want people to see it. TV still reaches so many more people; it still really appeals to me.

The viewing figures for 'Lost' were huge. I don't think the viewing figures for 'The 100' are up there with 'Lost'; hopefully, they will be.

What's more important to 'SNL': comedy or buzz? To the writers, players and guest hosts, it's probably the former; to Lorne Michaels and the suits at NBC, it's ultimately probably the latter.

I am broadcaster's biggest cheerleader because I genuinely believe in it. Where else can you get 20 million people a week watching 'NCIS' or 'American Idol?' Where else can you get 120 million watching the Super Bowl?

A lot of factors go into the longevity of a show.

I think 'Shameless' is more of an everyman's show, whereas as great as I think 'Girls' is, it's got a smaller audience.

I never, ever pay attention to the ratings. I stopped paying attention to the ratings somewhere around season two or three of 'Grey's.' It's something I have no control over, so I don't even pay attention.

But the whole viewership of 'Balika Vadhu' is more than all shows of mine put together. The show has a lot of reach and that has worked for me.

I want to be read. When you write a TV show like 'The Wire,' you've got three to four million readers watching your work. Even Grisham doesn't sell that many books.

With 300 million people in America, you can fail to impress 299 million of them and still go platinum.

In our first season we had a 22 rating. Today Seinfeld, a hit show, gets a 15. Lost in Space actually had a bigger audience than Star Trek got at that time.

There are certainly laws and elements that make a film more accessible to mainstream audiences. If you've got Tom Cruise as a strongman, I'm sure it would have larger audiences, but it wouldn't have the same substance.

To me, in retrospect, it was amazing that 'Seinfeld' was a show that had such mass appeal. At first it was a disaster in the ratings, but then it became a cultural phenomenon. I don't know if that's possible anymore, but I don't try for that.

Selling millions of albums is a sign you've infiltrated the culture.

When you are producing for ABC, you are producing for a big tent network. So when you are thinking about your story lines and characters, you are thinking about broad appeal. When you are producing for a niche interest, you are producing for a different audience.

More than four thousand programs produced and consumed. Some of them were pretty good, a great many of them were forgettable; but a handful may even be worth a book.

The show I did in England catered to a broad range of people. I like that. I don't want nouveau cult status, though I know we've got that sort of audience in the states.

I never know why shows succeed or don't succeed, which is why I look at it as, 'I'll do the best work that I can', and if the fans and people respond then I'm always really flattered and honored, and if they don't then I'll try and do something next time that they like better. But I have no idea what makes a hit show, I really don't.

I've often talked about that, and I've been asked that a couple of times and my feeling are that if you have a good show, a bad host will not even hurt the show.

Little did we know it would be watched by millions of people and break viewing records.

'Lost' did alright, you know. Not that I didn't get into it - I just never watched enough of them; but the uphill battle is that you've got to stay tuned.