Advocating for Your Work in a Competitive Industry with Dave Noll

2022-02-08

Have you ever wondered what needs to happen to take an idea and turn it into a TV show? All of the TV that we watch starts as an idea someone had, that they then had to develop and advocate for to finally get it on TV. Sound familiar? What needs to happen to get a show on TV isn’t all that different from what we need to do as business owners to take an idea out of our heads and turn it into a business. Today, I’m speaking with Dave Noll, the co-creator of the hit reality TV show Chopped. We’re diving into how he and his colleague first devel...

Have you ever wondered what needs to happen to take an idea and turn it into a TV show?

All of the TV that we watch starts as an idea someone had, that they then had to develop and advocate for to finally get it on TV.

Sound familiar? What needs to happen to get a show on TV isn’t all that different from what we need to do as business owners to take an idea out of our heads and turn it into a business.

Today, I’m speaking with Dave Noll, the co-creator of the hit reality TV show Chopped. We’re diving into how he and his colleague first developed the idea for the show and what they needed to do to get it to 75% there, to on the air.

Dave Noll has created, sold, and produced over 60 series and over 3,300 episodes in the US and around the world. He has won two Emmy Awards, two Gracie Awards, a James Beard Award for Best Television Series for Chopped, and a platinum album from the Recording Industry of America.

In This Episode:

How years of paying attention to the 4, 3, 2, 1 format finally turned into the idea for Chopped
Why the premise, title, and tagline got them 75% of the way there, and the final 25% of development into production took two years
How feedback from the network overcomplicated the premise and almost killed the show
How Dave and his team got back to their original pitch and got Chopped on the air

Learn more about Dave Noll: