Billion Dollar Game: How Three Men Risked It All and Changed the Face of Television

by Peter Bazalgette

Book Overview

Cash Mountain. Survive. Project X. In the mid-1990s, these three innovative television shows had hit a dead end before they had even made production. Rejected time and again by the networks, they seemed destined never to reach the screen. But thanks to the brilliance and determination of three men, not only did they get made, they became the biggest and most successful shows on earth: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Survivor and Big Brother. BILLION...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316729159
• ISBN13: 9780316729154
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Educative, interesting, highly recommended

I've learned a lot from this book, not just about the TV show business but about human nature, even about myself. I agree with the other reviewer, I was also less interested in the detailed accounts of merger meetings, IPO details and stock fluctuations, but without them the book would be incomplete - these are all an integral part of the story. There are many general business lessons and a few specific negotiating tips in them pages. Reading through the three intertwined stories of perseverance and rivalry, I even got a few ideas that could be turned into a few new reality TV shows. Now I need a book that will teach me how to protect my ideas before disclosing them to production houses and TV executives. Pity Bazalgette does not address that in his accounts of the pitches and negotiations. That would be my only gripe about this interesting and useful book.