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SECOND ACT FOR A BADBOY
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"I had been fired from Fox about the same time he left Fox, so it was only natural for us to keep in touch through that period."

Q: How are you being financed?
A: It's actually private and complex, but I have a negative pickup arrangement with Fox. That's the nature of the deal.

Q: How does a negative pickup work?
A: Just because it's a confidential business issue, I won't go into it any more than that.

Q: What can you tell me about your television project?
A: I'm doing two things right now. One is I have the movie production deal and the second thing that I'm doing is helping start up and produce shows for Q2, which is another cable channel for QVC. It will start airing on what is currently a fashion shopping channel, and, if all goes well, Q2 will become its own second channel.

Q: Will Q2 integrate many of the home-shopping attributes of QVC?
A: It will be fundamentally shopping. The point of departure is that it appeals to people who are not QVC shoppers, which is obviously a huge universe. It'll be aimed at a more active audience. Initially it will target people who buy from catalogs, but don't buy from Home Shopping Network or QVC. That's a pretty large stroke of people.

Q: What kind of programming will that be?
A: The innovation of this will be more in the type of merchandise that will be chosen. From a broadcasting and production point of view, we'll try to make it as interesting as possible, but I wouldn't mislead the audience because at its most minimalist, it will be a person trying to sell goods in real-time on television. It will resemble Home Shopping Network and QVC unequivocally. It will be differentiated by its merchandise.

Q: I've heard that Qs will feature segments like "How to Create a Bachelor's Kitchen" and "Finding a Computer That's Meant for You." Is that the type of stuff you're working on ?
A: Those are indicative. I haven't outlined specifically which categories of things I'll do. Hopefully, the categories that I do will have a signature to them that would be typical of the sensibility I hope to bring. But it's too early to tell. We're really talking about an air date in the second quarter of next year. That's really quite a bit of time between now and broadcast.

Q: How did the Q2 project come about?
A: I've been very much in touch with Barry Diller (the CEO and chairman of QVC) since he departed from Fox. I had been fired from Fox about the same time he left Fox, so it was only natural for us to keep in touch through that period. The thing I'm doing with Barry is starting up a satellite Los Angeles operation for Q2.

Q: Were you surprised that Diller chose QVC as his next project?
A: I had discussions with him and I knew which way he was going. From that point of view it wasn't a surprise. I thought it was a great choice.

Q: Do you think it's a great choice because he stands to make billions from QVC?
A: No, I don't think that's why it's a great choice. If you view business and commerce as merely to make money, I think you're destined for unhappiness or failure. I doubt that money is really a factor for him. It's certainly part of the game, but it's only one element. I think it's a great choice because it's an opportunity to change the viewing and buying habits of America. That's a really fun challenge. There aren't many situations in life where you can take a company and have the potential for really changing the way people do things.




Q: What about these rumors we've been hearing that you and Diller and planning to mastermind a fifth television network called Best TV?
A: They're inaccurate. Honestly, I don't know what Best TV is. I have no idea where that rumor comes from, so I can't speak to it because it's a mystery to me. It's like savying I'm going to marry Princess Di. It's an invention of somebody's, not mine.

Q: Michael Linder, the creator of America's Most Wanted, said you have a way of looking at television like you had just arrived from Mars. Why is it necessary to view TV like a being from another planet?
A: It's very simple. It's a burden to have too much knowledge of the way television is made or film is made. You can't think about it too much. It has to come naturally and organically, and hopefully, from an original point of view. When that happens you have a tremendous probability of success. You also have a tremendous probability of failure, but at least you have raised the odds of success by trying to break convention. Frankly, in all stages of business, you should try to counter-program, to do something that is different. If you try to do something the same, you're up against somebody who's doing the same thing -- and better and bigger. There's no point in that.

Q: Recent surveys indicate that people are getting tired of reality-based television. Do you sense that reality programming, which you helped pioneer at Fox TV, is starting to wear thin?
A: I should hope so. The shows that I developed and put on the air at Fox are now literally four or five years old, namely America's Most Wanted in 1988 and Cops in 1989. At that point in time, there wasn't the tag "reality television". There wasn't any category -- there were just interesting programs. I would agree completely. I would have agreed in 1990 that these categories are getting tired. That's why when I was at Fox I didn't seek to produce any more reality programs after America's Most Wanted and Cops. PAGE 3

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