“’Friday Night Lights’ was never a break-out hit; I’ll never regret doing that show.”
― Kevin Reilly
“Success is often built on the shoulders of failure – from which new configurations emerge.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“When you start to feel you’re not coming to work with the same enthusiasm, maybe you shouldn’t hang onto that job.”
― Kevin Reilly
“I’m trying to be a broadcaster and have a big cultural impact.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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
“I love TV. Always have. Since my mother told me to stop sitting so close and watching so much.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“While I felt like we potentially had something really huge in ‘Gotham,’ you’re always nervous that it won’t live up.”
― Kevin Reilly
“When you get these franchises with some built in profiles and anticipation… I think the anticipation and the buildup can can exceed the delivery.”
― Kevin Reilly
“Unfortunately, there is no ‘X Factor U.S.A.’ without Simon Cowell.”
― Kevin Reilly
“Before there was cable, Fox was cable.”
― Kevin Reilly
“Trying to make programs that are all things to everyone is not going to work.”
― Kevin Reilly
“I’ve spent a lot of time encouraging, corralling, protecting, and sparring with creative people.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“I still love a great pilot as much as I did the day I started at NBC.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“’The Walking Dead’ is an extraordinary thing.”
― Kevin Reilly
“There are not going to be hundreds of cable networks doing original programming; they won’t be able to sustain the model.”
― Kevin Reilly
“’Surviving Jack’ was actually a really nice show that was very well-run creatively.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.’”
― Kevin Reilly
“Rather than make 20 things and throw them at the wall and hope you get 6 that maybe feel like keepers, why not focus?”
― Kevin Reilly
“Narrative storytelling is wired into our humanity.”
― Kevin Reilly
“Trying to find big hits has always been a needle-in-a-haystack endeavor.”
― Kevin Reilly
“I’m a believer in broadcast.”
― Kevin Reilly
“It’s very nice to be part of an organization that you enjoyed and respected.”
― Kevin Reilly
“How people watch and the different ways they connect to TV – you’re going to see some expansion and radical transformation.”
― Kevin Reilly
“Nobody watches commercials if you ask them. Nevertheless, they watch commercials.”
― Kevin Reilly
“Every television show is hard to do, but when you’re in genre and you’re recreating worlds and mythologies, they’re particularly hard.”
― Kevin Reilly
“One thing that cable has done is trained the audience that, when a TV show is on, it should be on.”
― Kevin Reilly
“The one thing that I’m really obsessed with is multi-camera comedy. It is a form that is unique to network television.”
― Kevin Reilly
“The 10 million views on YouTube are… worthless to us as a business.”
― Kevin Reilly
“It’s always a good problem to have to hear people saying they want to see more.”
― Kevin Reilly
“I love my job, but I’d really love my job if I didn’t have to live and die by ratings every day.”
― Kevin Reilly
“What the hell is pilot season? It’s an artificial boundary that makes no sense, and it makes you do things under duress.”
― Kevin Reilly
“Fox was the challenger to cable before there was cable.”
― Kevin Reilly
“People love television; they’re watching a lot of it in a lot of ways.”
― Kevin Reilly
“I’ve respected the people that I’ve worked for, and they’ve been supportive and respectful of me.”
― Kevin Reilly
“You always want to trust talent; that’s the best thing.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“TV has always been a dog-eat-dog game.”
― Kevin Reilly
“The resilience of narrative storytelling and people’s love affair with television is impressive.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.’”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“Producing a drama is particularly difficult.”
― Kevin Reilly
“Producing a one-hour show that has to reinvent musical numbers, and interpret those musical numbers with a large cast, is difficult.”
― Kevin Reilly
“’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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“Is The ‘X Factor’ the mother of all shows? Absolutely!”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“Creative content is challenging, no matter what, and animation is particularly challenging.”
― Kevin Reilly
“’Fringe’ has been a point of pride. I share the passion for the show that the fans have.”
― 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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“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.”
― Kevin Reilly
“NBC, for me, is like the crazy ex-wife that I can’t get away from.”
― Kevin Reilly
“TV has so many access points, so many availabilities. DVR, binge viewing.”
― Kevin Reilly
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