Preston Beckman Quotations

NBC doesn't have the big shows now. We do. ABC does. CBS does. We weren't intimidated. NBC is vulnerable.

Fox has a history of launching shows in the summer season.

Fortunately for us, we didn't feel we needed to go overboard like we did last year on short-order unscripted shows.

Because we have 'Break,' 'House' and 'Bones,' we have clear targets for our dramas. Our development was informed by those shows.

The overwhelming number of people who are watching the Olympics don't watch Fox. For us to run away from it is goofy.

I think what's happened is we are at a maturing phase for reality programming. It used to be you could put on any reality show and get a rating. That's not the case anymore.

I think the Super Bowl is going to be in the next couple of years the difference between possibly winning or losing a season.

I think the thing with Thursday night is, it's not the daunting night it used to be. Everyone feels they can go in and make some noise.

I think we're relieved and a little shocked that it's showing such growth this year. For us, having maintained the ratings we had last year would have been a plus.

Yes, that's true. It's all part of the ongoing evolution in TV programming how to work with these facts, and events like the World Series and college (football) bowl games, and still maximize the appeal of our schedule.

With several shows like 'American Idol' and '24,' we have a commitment to the viewer to run them every week. We think it would be a disservice to the fans of those shows to put them on hiatus just because the Olympics are on.

The Olympics aren't as daunting as people think they are.

Ratings for an event like the Olympics aren't necessarily drawn from the usual prime-time television audience. For us to suddenly program differently for those two weeks would be a mistake for our network.

It's going to be an extremely competitive season.

Idol' has performed better than we expected against the Olympics, but we never took the Olympics into consideration. 'Idol' has momentum all by itself.