Kevin Reilly Quotes

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.’

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.

‘Surviving Jack’ was actually a really nice show that was very well-run creatively.

Rather than make 20 things and throw them at the wall and hope you get 6 that maybe feel like keepers, why not focus?

Before there was cable, Fox was cable.

The one thing that I’m really obsessed with is multi-camera comedy. It is a form that is unique to network television.

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.

When you start to feel you’re not coming to work with the same enthusiasm, maybe you shouldn’t hang onto that job.

‘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.

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.’

The resilience of narrative storytelling and people’s love affair with television is impressive.

‘The Walking Dead’ is an extraordinary thing.

It’s very nice to be part of an organization that you enjoyed and respected.

When you get these franchises with some built in profiles and anticipation… I think the anticipation and the buildup can can exceed the delivery.

One thing that cable has done is trained the audience that, when a TV show is on, it should be on.

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.

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.

Trying to make programs that are all things to everyone is not going to work.

I’m trying to be a broadcaster and have a big cultural impact.

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.

Is The ‘X Factor’ the mother of all shows? Absolutely!

TV has always been a dog-eat-dog game.

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.’

I still love a great pilot as much as I did the day I started at NBC.

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.

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.

Producing a drama is particularly difficult.

‘Friday Night Lights’ was never a break-out hit; I’ll never regret doing that show.

‘Fringe’ has been a point of pride. I share the passion for the show that the fans have.

Trying to find big hits has always been a needle-in-a-haystack endeavor.