The 'X Factor' is the biggest show on TV and the other shows are just copying us with their silly chairs. Simon Cowell is the king of TV and if he's not involved then it's not good.
They say getting a show on the air and having it be a success, literally, the odds are like winning the lottery. For me, I've won the lottery several times, so I've been awfully lucky.
I don't regret putting 'The Apprentice' on television.
I think NBC got a little reluctant to get behind single-camera shows after 'Scrubs' didn't do what they thought it was going to do following 'Friends.'
I've met big-name actors doing Hollywood films, and they've said that all they want is an in at HBO and their own show.
Television showrunners are a foolishly optimistic bunch.
I developed the pilot for 'Entertainment Tonight' with Jack Haley, Jr. and Al Masini, who became my business partner in 'Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous,' 'Runaway' and several other shows and specials.
I don't watch much British television at all. I mean, it's ironic because I used to work in it for years.
Television is a huge industry, and actors down south are aware of it.
I've never seen American Idol but I am grateful to them. That show is one of Fox's biggest moneymakers, and some of that money goes to pay for shows like Prison Break. Simon Cowell's been signing my paychecks and for that I say thanks.
Hollywood's best producers and directors are in film, not TV.
When TV companies stop coming up with ideas, and I've got to go and do 'Celebrity Big Brother,' I don't want that to happen.
It is harder to get adult, character-driven material on television than it used to be, but there are lots of other places that you can go to sell it. If you can do it for basic cable or pay cable, we have those outlets.
Television is a tough business. It's not that easy to jump shops.
I have respect for anyone who helps a creator put a great television show on the air.
In the U.S., there are around 300 shows in different networks, so there's a lot of work here.
Making good television is what Simon Cowell does. That's his business.
Fortunately, I happened to go east at a time when live television was centered in New York.
The problem is that television executives have got it into their heads that if one presenter on a show is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed heterosexual boy, the other must be a black Muslim lesbian.
Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg are fantastic producers and showrunners, and they lead a very, very positive, fun, creative environment to work in and to work with.
As far as my contribution to this industry, I want to be like Dean Devlin, John Rogers, and Chris Downey. I want to give people jobs and put them on great shows. I want to create careers for people.
In television there are only about 12 people who do what I do.
Not many people get to create a television show that actually makes it on the air.
I am a creator of TV shows. 'Lifestyle' ran for 14 years... that was pleasurable. We also had 'Runaway' for eight years. We did two years of a show called 'The Start of Something Big', and we did a network series called 'Fame, Fortune and Romance.'
TV showrunners have become known entities to people who watch television in the way that movie directors have been known to filmgoers for a long time. When I started out as a writer and producer in television, I never had the slightest expectation that fame would be part of the job.
