Craig Plestis

October 2007

It has been a good year for NBC on the unscripted programming front. Deal or No Deal emerged as the game-show hit of the season, while America’s Got Talent was the highest-rated network series of the summer. Alternative programming is expected to continue to play a key role on NBC’s schedule, particularly under the new cochairman of entertainment, Ben Silverman, the former Reveille chief who is a veteran of the international formats business. Guiding all of NBC’s unscripted programming efforts is Craig Plestis, as executive VP of alternative programming, development and specials at NBC Entertainment. He speaks with TV Formats about what has worked so far, the importance of international formats and some of the new shows that will be rolling out in the months ahead.

TV FORMATS: America’s Got Talent was a huge success for you this summer, with higher ratings than in season one. What were some of the key changes you made for the second outing?

PLESTIS: Definitely the addition of Sharon Osbourne [as a judge]. Sharon is just gold on The X Factor in the U.K. and certain personalities that work there can absolutely work here. Putting her on was a no-brainer, and she was the secret ingredient. Also, bringing Jerry [Springer] on as host brought a new perspective and life to the show. And then just learning from our mistakes from the first season, all the little nuts and bolts that make it a better experience. We’ve learned a lot from this season and we have very ambitious plans for season three.

TV FORMATS: What can you tell me about your latest pickup, American Gladiators?

PLESTIS: I’m excited about every show, but this is one I’m really excited about. I’ve been fighting to bring this show on to NBC for a year. There’s nothing like it on the TV landscape. [The original] American Gladiators was a great show. [So was the] U.K. version. Every time I go over to the U.K. it’s always on, and I’m in my hotel room and then all of a sudden I’m glued to it. It’s been a passion project.

Part of our buying strategy here is to look for things that are not on the other networks. We were the first network to take a gamble on doing a game show [in prime time again] and we opened up the floodgates to game shows.

TV FORMATS: What’s been the key to Deal or No Deal’s success?

PLESTIS: It is the gold standard of game shows and nothing will come close to it. We have a lot of great game shows that will be coming up and [Deal or No Deal] is still the one to beat. It’s such good comfort food. And Howie [Mandel] is an exceptional host. I just watched the first three episodes [of the new season] and they’re so good. We have Donald Trump as the guest banker in the first episode. And in the third episode we are going to give away $1 million to someone at home. All they have to do is call in or go to NBC.com to register for free. On that Wednesday episode, someone in America will get a knock on their door, live, and be presented with a million-dollar check. And no [other game show] has ever done that on network television. So it’s breaking new ground—just by watching a TV show you can become a millionaire.

TV FORMATS: What are your plans for the new season of The Apprentice?

PLESTIS: It’s going to be a celebrity version. It will all be for charity. This goes to the influence of the U.K. market. I loved watching the celebrity The Apprentice that was done there. It was so much fun watching these celebrities compete on the level that civilians had done before, but doing it for a good cause. I thought, we can do this in the States as well. It was a natural step for The Apprentice.

TV FORMATS: The Singing Bee emerged as one of your best performers this summer.

PLESTIS: That show strikes many chords. One of them is, it doesn’t matter how well you sing, as long as you know the words. Not everyone can be on American Idol, but they can be on The Singing Bee. Everyone thinks they know the words to a song. We have thousands of people who want to be on it [but] they don’t want to do it to win the money, they just want to be on the show to be The Singing Bee champion. It’s a really interesting perspective compared to some of these other game shows, where they want to win the million dollars. It’s all about bragging rights for this show.

TV FORMATS: Last Comic Standing and The Biggest Loser have been on for quite some time. How are you keeping those shows fresh season after season?

PLESTIS: With The Biggest Loser, it’s just a relatable subject matter. And then there’s the sweat equity that goes into this transformation in the series—they’re not doing plastic surgery, so you really see the evolution. And they are just incredible, heartwarming stories. As for Last Comic Standing, it’s really simple—people want to laugh. Honestly, there aren’t enough comedies on network television. This is one way that people can tune in and laugh for an hour and have the competition element as well, which builds during the course of the series. This year we opened up the world vote element. We have [viewers voting from] Canada, the U.K. and Australia. We’ll see what we can do for the next season. That show is a personal favorite of mine. I fought really hard, when it was off the air for a little bit of time, to bring that one back, and luckily I made the right bet.

TV FORMATS: Can you tell me anything about your new game show from Mark Burnett, Amne$ia?

PLESTIS: It’s relatable subject matter—how well do you know your life? [For example] in 1963, when you had your 11th birthday, what was the number-one song in America that summer? There will be lots of play-along as well as just great moments with the contestants. I can’t give away the ending yet, but it’s one of the best game-play endings I’ve ever been pitched. I’m really excited about filming it because it’s going to have all of America going crazy.

TV FORMATS: What do you look for when you’re evaluating new ideas?

PLESTIS: [It has to be] something that’s not in the marketplace. And then the other element is [it has to be a] new experience on a familiar genre. To use an example, Dancing with the Stars [on ABC] and So You Think You Can Dance [on FOX] are two dance shows, but both of them have a unique experience. Those two shows, if they aired at the same time, would both do exceedingly well. It’s more difficult to get a new experience in a proven genre, but we still try to do that. The hardest is, how do you do a new experience on a singing show? There are a few things I have in development that I think we might be able to [achieve that] with.

TV FORMATS: How does your casting process differ for a game show as opposed to a reality series?

PLESTIS: You won’t believe this, but we spend more time casting our game shows. On the game shows, our characters have to pop in one hour and go away. In a show a la Age of Love or the regular The Apprentice, those characters are not going to be shining in the first episode, but by episode number five you get to know them and love them and they’ll grow on you. On a game show they have to work from the get-go.

TV FORMATS: You’ve talked about keeping an eye on the British landscape. What about other international markets?

PLESTIS: I look at all the European markets. I have on my desk right now about 30 to 40 tapes from around the world. I go blogging at night to see what people are writing about in different countries. As much as we like to do internal development, I won’t overlook anything, even if it’s from a small market.

When I was at MIPTV, we walked away with [the new series] Phenomenon, which [is based on] The Successor format from Israel. I was watching it on the monitor at one of the booths. Uri [Geller, the illusionist featured in The Successor] was there and I started talking to him and I said, this is a great show, I want to buy this. There’s a lot of great stuff that can come from going to MIPTV and meeting these personalities. I had read about the show beforehand but it didn’t quite register until I was there and I sat and talked with Uri. At that moment it was a done deal.

TV FORMATS: As The Singing Bee launched, a show with a similar premise rolled out on a rival network. How do you deal with copycat ideas?

PLESTIS: All we can do is do the best job possible. With The Singing Bee, we knew all along that they were going to get a show up and running, so we secretly had ours geared up ahead of time. We would have put it on in the fall, but I’m not going to let anyone beat us to the marketplace ever on a show. That’s the important thing.

TV FORMATS: How important is it to have some kind of interactivity on all of these shows?

PLESTIS: Very important. It’s not the reason I buy a show, but once I buy it, interactivity is incorporated. It just makes the viewer more connected to the show. Phenomenon will probably be the most interactive show we have ever done.

TV FORMATS: There have been several hit game show and variety formats recently and not as many new reality successes. Has there been a shift in the market?

PLESTIS: I think there’s room now for other new formats. With Phenomenon, you haven’t seen a competition of illusionists yet. It’s going to be big and on a grand scale, unlike anything anyone has seen in a competition show before. You’re going to say, Is that real or is that fake? We’re never going to tell anyone what side of the belief system to go on. You make that determination yourself. If you believe in it, great. If you don’t believe in it, you’ll ask, How did they do that? You win both times. And with American Gladiators, again, that’s not a game show, it’s a big competition.

We just have to push ourselves. It’s easy to follow the other leaders and do more game shows. It’s harder to try something different. But I’d rather try something different and fail than copy someone else.