Executive Meddling/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Executive Meddling: ruining great TV shows since the dawn of time.

Fiction

  • Dark Angel, to the sadness of its fans, was canceled after the cast were informed they got a third season. Jessica Alba was even in the airport to fly out to film the series when she got the call. And then, irony upon irony. Fox replaced it with a show that lasted only one season (Firefly, also sunk because of Executive Meddling), causing an outbreak of fan wars on the internet.
  • Virtually all American television shows produced before the late 1960s were subject to a particularly malevolent form of Executive Meddling. It was common at the time for stations in the Southeastern United States to edit shows to remove black characters who weren't in stereotypic roles (maids, criminals, sharecroppers, etc). If the black characters were pivotal to the story, then the episode, and in some cases the entire show, would simply not be broadcast in the southern market (one station in Jackson, Mississippi, WLBT, lost their license because of this and even the outright refusal to carry their network's newscasts because of their critical coverage of the Civil Rights Movement). There was therefore a tremendous amount of pressure on producers to not cast a black actor unless the character he or she was playing was a demeaning stereotype, because losing out on the southern market meant losing out on a lot of money.
  • Lois and Clark suffered from two instances of executive meddling:
    • The first instance was between seasons one and two, when ABC forced the writers to retool the show. They added more action (the show was about Lois and Clark, not so much about Superman), more sex (because men are pervs), less Cat Grant (despite being a nymphomaniac gossip columnist, they'd rather sex everyone else up than have an extraneous character in a show that was becoming less and less about the Daily Planet), and they switched Jimmy Olsen out for a younger actor (some fans think it was because the first guy looked too much like the lead; it was likely both).
    • The second instance was their insistence on removing focus from the relationship. Clark couldn't reveal his Secret Identity. They could only kinda sorta hint that she already knew. When he proposed to her, they gave them a whole arc devoted to their wedding. The executives made them switch Lois out for an (evil?) clone at the last minute. They finally got married towards the end, and found a foundling. And the Execs canceled it because it had "run its course." It would not have "run its course" if not for the fake-out wedding, after which they lost a large amount of their viewership.
  • The Nickelodeon Sci-Fi series Space Cases had two examples of Executive Meddling in the Season 1 finale. First off, Catalina was meant to be killed off. However, Nickelodeon decided that was too dark for kids and had the writers add a new ending at the last minute that showed that she had survived by being shoved into another dimension. It's an understandable change, but it completely ruins the scene before it and death had already been brought up on the show before, so the logic behind the decision is a bit questionable. The second change was the removal of the character Elmira. You see, following Catalina's Disney Death, the creative team was going to bring Elmira to the show as a full-time cast member. This made perfect sense as she was already introduced in the past season, had a connection to the crew and the central story line and was liked by fans. However, Nickelodeon felt she was too alien and would keep kids away from the show. So instead, they brought in Suzee, a character previously only seen by Catalina and was utterly unlikable. Fans hated these alterations, and Season 2 is widely viewed as inferior to the first because of them.
  • Arrested Development had attempted Executive Meddling all over the place. After a first season in which it won Best Comedy at the Emmys, the ratings still weren't good, so they asked the writers to dumb it down. David Cross angrily rants about this in the DVD commentary, saying that if the show is so critically acclaimed and won awards, and it still doesn't have enough viewers, maybe they should market it better.
  • Executive Meddling almost stopped the Daleks from ever appearing on Doctor Who. Sydney Newman, one of the several creators of the series and the then-head of drama at The BBC thought that bug-eyed monsters like the Daleks smacked of lowbrow Sci-Fi rather than the more cerebral Science Fiction approach he wanted. The series' first producer, 28-year-old Verity Lambert, remained steadfast and the Daleks appeared.
    • For his part, Newman admitted during an interview years later that opposing the Daleks hadn't been one of his better ideas, contrasting it ironically with his reputation as a "brilliant" TV producer.
    • Originally the Doctor would merely have a young companion, but that might seem "improper" unless they had a familial relationship, so Susan turned into his granddaughter.
    • Ironically, a few years later, however, Newman's boss, the head of BBC TV, suggested the 12 episode story featuring the Daleks, allegedly because of his mother liked them so much, much to the displeasure of Verity Lambert's replacement, John Wiles.
    • Modern Doctor Who isn't necessarily free of this, by all accounts; it has reportedly been mandated from above that every story must feature some kind of monster, regardless of whether it is appropriate to include one. The episode "Father's Day" was reportedly meant to not include any monsters at all, before this executive degree mandated the inclusion of the Clock Roaches that power the plot.
    • Michael Grade, BBC Controller in the mid-eighties, is the king of Executive Meddling. He openly hated Doctor Who and decided to have the show put on hiatus for 18 months... scrapping pre-production on an entire season of the franchise, including three fully-scripted and partially-cast episodes. The series was allowed to come back at a drastically reduced episode count (14 episodes at twenty-five minutes each, compared to the 13 45-minute episodes they had the season before the hiatus, and the 26 25-minute episode count of most earlier seasons) and with a lower budget. For years afterwards he claimed that one of the reasons he hated the show due to the lousy effects, despite the fact he could have allocated more money to the show. Eventually, he fired Colin Baker from the role of the Doctor and forced the producer to recast the role. The series survived to have three more seasons on the air... but Grade placed the show against another network's incredibly-popular series without bothering to note it to the general public... and then the series was put on hiatus one more time in 1989 until the 1996 movie and the 2005 revival series.
      • Michael Grade has become infamous for both this and his actions later on when he became head of rival Channel 4, where he continued his meddling. Chris Morris pretty much said all that needed to be said in a few frames of Brass Eye.
        • And chew on this: All of the controllers of the BBC have been knighted... except for Grade. The Queen is a huge fan of Doctor Who.
  • In the pilot episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the character Willow wears drab clothing that her mother picked out for her. Network execs told creator Joss Whedon that they wanted Willow to "look more like Buffy" who wore brighter, preppier, and more stylish clothing. This had a positive result, however, as Whedon decided to give Willow colorful, if geeky clothing, leading to the famous fuzzy sweaters and silly clothes.
    • Willow's character was the subject of a lot of meddling. In the unaired pilot, she was played by Riff Regan, who actually looked like she could be a geeky social outcast, as opposed to... say... Alyson Hannigan. She wasn't recast for this reason, however... she frequently flubbed lines and generally played the character as too nervous.
    • But the most famous example of Buffy meddling involves The WB's notoriety for jumping to ridiculous conclusions about what would upset the audience (see also the X-Men: Evolution example below). Remember when the "Graduation" season finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer almost didn't air in the wake of the Columbine tragedy? True, it involved the image of a class full of students coming to school armed to the teeth... to fight a giant demon-thing in a showdown between good and evil that had been set-up as the climax for the entire season. This was apparently considered Too Soon. Yeah...
      • The WB also postponed the Buffy episode "Earshot", as the episode involved a plot to mass-murder students (with a Red Herring that it would be by shooting). It was supposed to be the next episode to air following Columbine, so the network instead aired a rerun of "Band Candy". The irony is that Buffy keeps the character Jonathan from killing himself in "Earshot", which makes it all the more significant that he is the one to give her the Class Protector Award in "The Prom", the episode that was originally to air after "Earshot". Out of Order like that, it makes little sense.
      • To be fair to The WB, these examples aren't entirely as ridiculous as they're made out to be. Both involve potentially or actually violent confrontations involving members of the student body armed with lethal weaponry in a school, one of them has very very strong hints throughout the episode of setting up a school shooting (to the extent that Jonathan's suicide attempt arguably looks like a little bit of an Ass Pull to set up the Red Herring Twist; he's planning to kill himself with a sniper rifle in a clock tower for cryin' out loud), and the other of which involves the heroes actually blowing up the school, albeit as the only way to kill an extremely powerful demon. The mood immediately after Columbine (when both these episodes would have aired) was very on-edge regarding both media violence, especially material involving violence in schools. This public mood can be understood given that a lot of kids and teachers had only recently been murdered in one. In light of the content of the episodes, and the likely reaction of the Moral Guardians, the WB likely saw the postponements as the safe thing to do.
      • Joss Whedon's comments regarding the decision to postpone "Earshot" indicate that he agreed with it wholeheartedly. However, Joss was very angry about the delaying of the Season Finale, to the point of advising fans to "pirate the damned thing", a rare (maybe unique) instance of a producer encouraging fans to pirate copies of his own show. A key difference was that "Earshot" was not significant in the seasonal arc (likely why Whedon was okay with its postponement), but making viewers wait months to see the payoff of the season-long Story Arc was pretty cruel. TV would be much better without the Moral Guardians.
    • Whedon has confirmed that the "Buffy Working At A Fast Food Place" plotline would have been taken further in Season 6, due to network worries that it would alienate advertisers... and thank God for that.
  • Angel, in order to get a fifth season, changed location, changed their jobs from detectives to powerful corporate executives, shifted from a Arc based format to a Monster of the Week setup (for the first one third of the season; after that they managed to have at least somewhat of a Story Arc), and transplanted Breakout Character Spike from Buffy into the show. It worked to some extent, as the fifth season was better received than the previous one, though not enough so to bring about a sixth season.
    • I'm pretty sure[please verify] it was a Screwed by the Network that kept Angel from having a sixth season. Joss Whedon basically asked for a renewal early or cancellation causing the cancellation.
  • FOX insisted that Firefly have a "space hooker" and required Joss Whedon to write a second pilot because they wanted more action and less drama. They also threatened to pan-and-scan crop, no matter how it was shot, necessitating reshoots. Then they aired the episodes out of order and pre-empted a bunch of them for baseball. The series didn't even get to finish its first season.
  • The first season of Dollhouse was heavily meddled with. The pilot was reshot because FOX found it too confusing. They also saw it prudent to make the writers focus on a Monster of the Week format for the first five episodes. They also decided not to air Episode 13, which is perhaps the most critically acclaimed of the series.
    • Arguably though, Executive Meddling saved Dollhouse. When notice came of Dollhouse's second season renewal, the press release stated that Dollhouse wasn't axed because FOX didn't want "floods of emails".
    • Fox didn't "decide not to air episode 13." Whedon's contract with Fox was worded in such a screwy way that the unaired pilot actually counted as a 13th episode, meaning that Whedon was only contracted to air 12. The DVD distributors, however, needed a thirteenth.
    • And now that the original pilot has been seen, one can understand why it was redone.
  • The John Larroquette Show started off as a quirky off-beat comedy focusing on the main character's 12 Step recovery from alcoholism. Network executives forced the producers to eliminate the 12 Step material after the first season, which took much of the original unique and edgy flavor away from the show.
    • From there, it turned into another "single people with relationship problems" type of show, the exact sitcom stereotype the series was trying to stray from. John Hemingway also lost his cool, brooding, intellectual demeanor in the process.
    • Larroquette himself despaired when they moved his character, who worked as a night-shift bus station manager, out of his rat-trap boarding house to a nice apartment that he obviously couldn't afford with a couch facing the cameras. The Hooker with a Heart of Gold character had to find another career, too.
  • Spock's pointed ears on Star Trek: The Original Series were almost the victim of panicky NBC executives, who were afraid that superstitious hordes of TV viewers would think he was Satanic. They went so far as to airbrush the points out of a number of promotional photographs. Gene Roddenberry managed to save Spock's ears by promising plastic surgery for the character if audience response was poor. As we know, it was anything but bad. After Spock's popularity was established, no one at NBC would ever admit to being anything but for pointed ears.
    • Similarly, Roddenberry's original plan for perfect 50-50 gender equity among the crew of the Enterprise was scuttled by nervous suits who said, "Don't you see? It makes it look like there's a lot of fooling around going on up there!" It was only with great effort that he was able to retain a 30% female crew.
    • Uhura, the most visible female character, was denied a chance to command the Enterprise in one episode because an executive flat out told Roddenberry "we don't believe her in charge of anything". Nichelle Nichols got a lot of crap thrown her way by the executives for reasons that today are obviously both racist and sexist; for the first season, she wasn't a regular member of the cast, and her fan mail was kept from her. She almost left the show, until she met Martin Luther King Jr. at a party, who convinced her to stay on and serve as a black role model.
    • If you believe Gene Roddenberry, the original Pilot episode for the original series, "The Cage", was considered "too intellectual" by the executives, so a new one was made (in fact, Gene had pitched the show as an action show, and the pilot contained little action). Gene Roddenberry then created the two-parter "The Menagerie" as a Framing Device in order to utilize footage from "The Cage". "The Menagerie" won a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.
  • However, when Star Trek: The Next Generation had its pilot, the Meddling was a positive. "Encounter at Farpoint" was originally just about the crew visiting a strange starbase, in a one-hour pilot show. When the Execs wanted a "Two Hour Event", Gene and DC were forced to add in a new alien threat to pad the show out. This would be Q, one of the most beloved and important "villains" in Star Trek history.
    • Roddenberry actually invoked Executive Meddling when he cast Picard. Initially he and Patrick Stewart were worried that the producers would not allow Stewart to take the role because he was bald, Gene then had Patrick do a reading for the producers in the silliest wig he could find. In the end, the producers approved Stewart on the condition that he not wear a wig.
  • This is why Star Trek: Voyager became disliked by many - UPN wanted Voyager to have The Next Generation ratings, and figured that the easiest way to do that would be to make Voyager like The Next Generation, meaning no character conflict (which having the mixed Starfleet/Maquis crew was meant to allow), no story arcs (the one attempt at it was given a greatly disliked ending that neatly avoids any consequences), and the enforcement of Status Quo Is God.
    • It was so bad that when Ron Moore joined the staff after Deep Space Nine ended, he wrote one episode, was there three weeks, and left in disgust. When he asked about how to write a character, the response was essentially "We don't know, do what you want."
    • This is also what saved Harry Kim. His character was scheduled to die from an alien infection at the end of the third season. Then the actor made the list of 'Top 50 Sexiest Men on TV' that year, and Harry was kept, and Kes was booted off instead to make way for Seven of Nine.
      • And that was because ratings were falling, and the network execs said sex sells, and the one attempt to make Kes sexy (complete with much longer, wavy hair for only a single episode) apparently failed miserably and thus Seven of Nine was created and deliberately made sexy (in fact, a TV Guide interview with the actress at the time indicated that she was hired because she had had a baby and her breasts were therefore larger than normal; there were apparently complaints when her figure went back to normal).
    • Robert Beltran slammed his employers at a Star Trek convention for ignoring him and the rest of the cast (especially Tim Russ, who played Tuvok, and Garrett Wang, who played Harry Kim), over 7 of 9 and the Doctor. He then threatened to leave. As a compromise, the producers introduced a relationship between his character and 7 of 9, who was at that time the most popular character on the show.
  • The most egregious example from Star Trek: Enterprise is the episode "Dear Doctor", in which Doctor Phlox discovers that an apparent pandemic among the Valakian species is actually a widespread genetic disorder. Phlox is able to create a cure, but wants to withhold it because the disorder came about naturally, and the fall of the Valakians will make way for the ascendency of a second intelligent species which are currenly oppressed by the Valakians. In the original version of the script, Phlox refuses a direct order from Captain Archer to give them the cure, ending the episode with tension between the characters. UPN execs, however, were unhappy with the characters holding so strong a disagreement, so the script had to be changed for Archer to agree with Phlox instead. There is still significant argument over whether or not this counts as genocide.
  • The original series concept for The Mary Tyler Moore Show was about a young divorced woman, but CBS executives were afraid that viewers would think that meant Mary had divorced Dick Van Dyke (Moore having previously played Van Dyke's wife in The Dick Van Dyke Show). To protect their investment from the legions of morons they believed were watching, the execs forced the producers of the show to turn Mary into a young unmarried woman fleeing a failed romance.
    • Some tropers may also not recall that in 1970, a divorced woman was usually thought to be morally suspect and deeply flawed (even at that late date, divorce was still thought to be almost always the woman's fault). Having a divorced young woman as the main character would have been a problem no matter who she'd been played by.
  • The series Homicide: Life on the Street was a repeated victim of Executive Meddling, with NBC pulling the series off the schedule so frequently that only thirteen episodes were aired in the show's first two years, and several episodes in the first season aired out of order. Critical acclaim and a vocal cult audience kept the show on the air. Later, NBC pressured the show to cut loose veteran actors Ned Beatty and Daniel Baldwin and add younger, more photogenic cast members, including two unrealistically glamorous female detectives in seasons six and seven. Similarly, the show's original gritty, idiosyncratic camera style became much more polished and traditional as the series went on. Even the original squad room set was repainted and modernized. Finally, NBC agreed to renew the show for an eighth season... if the show moved to Miami Beach rather than Baltimore, became about a private detective agency rather than a homicide unit, and fired the entire cast save Richard Belzer and the two aforementioned glamorous female detectives. Luckily for all concerned, the creators of the show refused to play ball.
    • Law and Order suffered from the same type of meddling, when the show was forced -- in the name of expanding the demographic reach -- to replace Lt. Cragen and Paul Robinette with Lt. Van Buren and Claire Kincaid, respectively.
      • Of course, this is arguably a positive example. Claire Kincaid quickly became one of the show's most popular characters (as well as one of the most well-beloved female characters on the show, to the point that the show repeatedly tried to recreate the character after the actress left the show) while Merkerson remained until the end, having stayed for 17 of the show's 20 years.
    • Considering the below Criminal Minds example being so concerned about the "gender ratio," the execs probably were not only right in the Law and Order case, but actually ahead of their time...
  • In 1935, Sinclair Lewis published a novel called It Can't Happen Here, about the election of a fascist government in the United States. In 1982, Kenneth Johnson adapted it as a possible TV miniseries called Storm Warnings, but it was rejected as "too cerebral". Eventually it was modified such that the American fascists became extraterrestrial invaders who ate people. The result was V.
  • In the second season of Babylon 5, The WB execs insisted on the creation of a hotshot fighter pilot character that they actually called "the Han Solo of Babylon 5", a phrase series creator J. Michael Straczynski hated due to its implication that the viewer would be unfamiliar with any kind of science fiction besides Star Wars. Since it was the only way the show would survive past its first season, he went along and created Lt. Warren Keffer. However, he got his revenge by giving Keffer as little to do as possible, and at the end of the season, killed him off in a very painful manner. By this point, the executives had completely forgotten that they insisted upon the character in the first place.
    • J. Michael Straczynski's experience creating the Babylon 5 sequel series Crusade for TNT was full of meddling; Turner execs reportedly asked him to add more sex and violence, and write a second pilot directly under their oversight. They even forced changes in the color scheme of the sets and uniforms after filming had begun. A lampshade was hung on this in one episode, with a sarcastic comment about interfering higher-ups back on Earth. The series was canceled before it even aired, and to add insult to injury, the episodes were aired out of their intended order.
      • After the intended first episode was thought to be too cerebral and therefore uninteresting, the execs actually insisted on a new pilot that would open with a fist fight.
  • Tracy Torme was forced out of the Sliders staff by Fox executives, who wanted less political and philosophical exploration in the show, and more action and sex appeal.
  • Similarly, Andromeda executive producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe was constantly fighting with the Tribune suits, and he was ultimately fired halfway through Season 2. The plot of the show changed drastically at this point; Dylan's attempts to create a new Commonwealth were rushed to completion so he could be at odds with them instead.
  • The Syfy has apparently implemented a policy that any series that has only middling ratings instead of stellar ratings will be canceled, despite whatever vocal, devoted following it has. Three examples that jump out include Mystery Science Theater 3000, Farscape, and at the end of its tenth season, after being the longest running U.S. hour-long science fiction show ever, Stargate SG-1, which annoyed the two main factions of the fanbase for different reasons: half wanted it to continue, and half wanted it to have ended two seasons before it did. Note that each of these series replaced the last. They have more generally replaced cancelled shows with such things as Monster movies, Professional Wrestling, and whatever syndicated series they could get on the cheap.
    • And when Mystery Science Theater 3000 came over from the abusive Comedy Central, the execs decided that it needed more sci-fi movies (which is partially justified, this was before their Network Decay started to kick in), and eventually feature wacky subplots during the host segments such as Pearl Forrester wanting to become a licensed mad scientist, because that's what the audience will care about. Proof that you can run a network with no clue about why people watch your programs. Luckily, none of this hurt the ratings and they made that stuff funny.
    • Stargate Atlantis is now getting this treatment as well.
      • At least Atlantis got the dignity of a five-season run. Stargate Universe only got two.
      • The fan reaction to Universe's two season run was the same as the reaction to SG-1 getting ten. Half thought it deserved a longer run, and half thought it should have been canceled after the first season.
  • ABC executives tried to meddle around with Lost a few times:
    • At one point in the Season 2 finale, the foot of an otherwise missing statue was revealed, sporting only 4 toes. As stated by executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse here [dead link], the statue was originally stated to have 6 toes in the script, but the network asked them to change it to 4 toes. According to their own words, Damon and Carlton didn't mind as long as it wasn't 5 toes.
    • Lindelof also revealed here that ABC had mandated some changes to the original draft of the Season 2 episode "Dave", which implies that all the events from the entire show had merely taken place inside the mind of Hurley, one of the main characters who had once been an inmate in a psych ward. Supposedly, ABC execs were afraid that the episode might offer an explanation for the mysteries of the show as a whole, years before it would actually end. Since the general implication is still included in the final episode, it's uncertain what changes, if any, have been made to the draft to accommodate ABC's concerns.
    • Oh, no, they succeeded, all right. Originally, Jack was supposed to be a one-shot character shown only in the pilot (and played by Michael Keaton), who would be killed off by the Monster before too long. Instead of Jack, it would have been Kate leading the Losties. The ABC executives allegedly had a problem with this, protesting that it would lead to reactions of "betrayal, anger, and bewilderment" in the audience, and insisted that Jack be kept on as a main character, permanently altering the show's dynamic.
      • Before fans of Kate as she exists now get uppity about this change, it should be noted that Kate was going to be slightly older, not a fugitive and traveling with her husband whom she believed was alive somehow even though he had been in the rear section of the plane. If this sounds familiar it is because those elements were incorporated in the recurring character of Rose.
  • The Sci Fi Channel was unhappy with [[Battlestar Galactica {2004 TV series)|the 2000s Battlestar Galactica]]'s plot-heavy story arc-based episodes, since it required a lot of background and internal knowledge to understand and made it difficult to pick up new viewers. When the first two seasons didn't pull in the ratings Sci-Fi desired, the executives pressured Moore into creating more standalone episodes that weren't as plot-heavy. This plan backfired and the third season took heavy criticism from both fans and critics, particularly the infamous episode "The Woman King". Fortunately, the executives decided to let Moore call the shots in the fourth season.
    • In one of the weirdest examples of Executive Meddling ever, a higher-up at Sci-Fi insisted that the show's intro tune be changed. This is why, on Sci-Fi's airings, season one has a different intro theme, for apparently no reason. The intro theme you hear on the Sci-Fi channel in later seasons already existed for season one everywhere else it was broadcast. The reason for the insisted change? The original music was deemed too depressing. Yes, for a show about the end of the world via nuclear holocaust, an ominous Sanskrit chant is just going to drive the audience over the edge for how much angst they can take. The original was changed back because of a negative fan reaction that surprised Sci-Fi by how disproportionately large it was compared to the actual issue at hand. Anyone who hadn't seen the first season of Battlestar Galactica via Bittorrent before it finished airing in the United States, but after it finished airing everywhere else, probably heard the original theme on YouTube.
  • Power Rangers SPD got hit especially hard: Executive Meddling caused a good chunk of the budget to go into the final episodes, meaning Disney didn't have enough money to, of all things, hire an actual actor to play the Sixth Ranger. Their solution? Come up with some contrived plot about him being a time traveler who manifested as a ball of light when not morphed, and just get a voice actor to play him. Sam only ever appears as a stuntman in the ranger suit or as the CGI ball of light, making interaction between him and the other characters exceedingly awkward; the creative team was apparently so frustrated that they just wrote around him more often than not, and probably would have sent him back to the future, if not for Stock Footage constraints. Fans despised this move, even before the Grand Finale threw in the sucker punch of Sam appearing unmorphed for about two seconds before returning to the future. Sam rivals Cousin Oliver Justin as one of the most unpopular characters in the franchise's eighteen-year history. It's been pointed out that at least Justin was a character, as Sam was basically treated like a weapon or a Zord.
  • NBC's Green/Earth Weeks; weeks in November and April respectively where every NBC show had to contain environmental themes. It was a great way for the suits to show off how "green" they were without actually doing anything.
    • My Name Is Earl lampshaded this one when Earl is required to organize a "Scared Straight" Program and Executive Meddling forces him to include environmental themes. He protests, because it wouldn't have anything to do with the story and would just be awkwardly shoehorned in.
    • 30 Rock lampshaded this one as well, when David Schwimmer's character who is initially a "Corporate-Friendly Environmentalist" starts to assume his eco-hero personality even when off the set.
    • Meanwhile, The Office simply relegated its "green" moment to a deleted scene, available only on DVD. One wonders if that editing decision was made deliberately late into the process...
    • Knight Rider kills two birds with one stone (Product Placement and lampshading): Dr. Graiman and KITT show off a 2010 Mustang concept to the visiting Eco-Friendly inspector as a ruse of it being KITT's next shell. It's made obvious to the viewers that the green statistics KITT gives are either a full blown Ass Pull, or, at best, a theoretical guess by Dr. Graiman.
    • As for the other NBC networks (USA, Bravo, CNBC, The Weather Channel, etc)... all it means is their corner logo turns green for a week and we get some PSAs about how it's easy being green, and maybe a lettuce quickfire challenge on Top Chef.
      • And why is NBC doing "Green Week" every year? Because their parent company General Electric is trying to make a ton of green products, therefore they are using all of the networks they own as a way of advertising their products!
    • In late May 2011, NBC decided to force their networks to do another theme week called "Healthy Week", which didn't go so well as it was the last week of sweeps (when NBC didn't have any programming at all except The Biggest Loser to tie in a healthy theme), which only the Today Show and some MSNBC shows took seriously, while for every other NBCU network, it was just 'throw on inane health tips on the screen and PSA's during commercial breaks to satisfy the brutes upstairs'.
  • As they have co-funded Degrassi the Next Generation, the "N" Channel has exerted more and more influence over the writers and producers of the show. Their meddling can be seen most notably in the opening credits for the seventh and eighth seasons, which have moved away from showing the ensemble cast during an average school day and towards emphasizing the individual characters, much in the style of Beverly Hills, 90210.
    • In-universe Executive Meddling by the school board has to take a lot of the blame for Degrassi's slide from "high-tech magnet school" to "rough school with metal detectors, standing police presence and a bad reputation".
  • Because of the general subject matter and dark sense of humor, Titus was eventually cancelled because of Executives who didn't want to worry about it any more. Christopher Titus was on the phone at least twice for every episode trying to convince an executive why the current episode works the way it is. "It's funny that we are having an intervention to convince my Dad to start drinking again."
  • You know that infamous episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun where a race of super-hot Venusians, all played by supermodels, attempt to take over Earth during the Super Bowl? Well, it's revealed on a DVD Commentary that that episode was the result of Executive Meddling. Yeah, we're not surprised either.
  • The Vogler arc on House. An article in the New York Times described how ratings for the initial episodes were low, which led to executives proposing a "bad guy" who would conflict with House. The writers acceded, but before any of those episodes made it onto the air, the show was moved next to American Idol. Ratings soared, giving the writers enough clout to do away with Vogler. Given that fans generally regard the arc as a low point in the season, it was a fortunate break. And for those keeping score, the show is on (what else) FOX.
  • iCarly: Parodied in "iCarly Saves TV". iCarly was given a TV contract, but proceeded to be meddled with by a director fixated with a traditional sitcom and not the original idea of expanding iCarly into something of a variety show. This included replacing Sam, making Freddie an errand boy for the director, and eventually adding a talking Barneyesque dinosaur.
    • Happened with the show itself. Nick ordered a 5 episode storyline panding to the Sam/Freddie pairing fandom. That fandom is an incredibly loud online following that looks bigger than the show itself because they'd driven out every other type of fan during the major Shipping Wars that happened earlier in the shows run. Nick and the creator expected ratings to beat the 12.7 million ratings that "iSaved Your Life" recieved. Incidentally that involved the Carly/Freddie pairing. The first episode drew 7 million, which was good but likely a disappointment for the Nick who expected 13 million or more. It Got Worse, as the rest of the episodes drove away viewers in their millions. By the time the arc ended, the final episode posted the lowest ratings in the history of the show. The show has never recovered, and continually breaks it's record for lowest rated episode now. Due to it's status as Nick's top show, it's dragged down shows it's ratings support like Victorious, and has dragged down the network as a whole to the point where the Nick execs stated in public that they believed that the ratings system was broken, although this was quickly proven incorrect.
  • The firing of Brooke Smith, Grey's Anatomy‍'‍s Dr. Hahn, for inexplicably offending network sensibilities by portraying a popular 40-something lesbian character, may well go down as one of the more offensive examples of Executive Meddling ever.
  • The commentaries on the DVD release of The Weird Al Show reveal the truly epic levels of stupidity that were constantly forced on the show, mostly from the network's constantly fluctuating standards of behavior they were worried kids would imitate. For example, one of Al's few victories was to keep a gag about sticking his arms into a barrel full of melted chocolate, by arguing that most kids wouldn't have a barrel full of melted chocolate on hand to imitate the scene.
  • Portrayed over the fourth season of Seinfeld, which features a story arc of Jerry and George trying to pitch a show much like Seinfeld itself to NBC, which is slowly ground down into another lame cookie cutter sitcom. Unusually, no one seems to notice and they seem pretty proud of the final product. The most notable is Jerry pitching an idea to spend an entire episode simply on the characters waiting for a table in a restaurant (the setup of one of the show's most popular and iconic episodes) which the execs don't get. A flustered Jerry then gives an alternate idea for a ridiculous story where a man is sentenced to be Jerry's butler after hitting his car, which cracks all the execs up and becomes the story of the pilot episode.
    • In the last episode, where Jerry's sitcom is finally greenlighted, an exec forces him to make his character and the character based on Elaine a couple.
      • This may be in reference to an actual bit of Executive Meddling; when Seinfeld was in development, the character of Elaine was created because of an executive mandate that there needed to be a female lead. Seinfeld would later admit that this actually improved the show dramatically.
    • There is also the altering or pulling of reruns due to various rights issues would be considered executive meddling. This tends to mostly happen when they're released on DVD, usually manifested in changes to the show's soundtrack because the asking prices to certain mainstream tunes cannot (or will not) be met. Most infamously seen in the DVD release of WKRP in Cincinnati's first season, and pretty much any TV release to come from CBS DVD since the inception of CBS/Paramount.
    • And how about Vanity Plate plastering?
      • And in recent years, there has been the extremely annoying habit of releasing Edited for Syndication episodes on DVD. Perhaps the most infamous example of this was ALF, where the arrogant studio executives continously ignored the complaints from fans and released the entire series in a butchered form.
    • This as well happened to Mission Hill, where every single song that was played in an episode, except the theme song ("Italian Leather Sofa" by Cake), was replaced with cheaper music in order to be released on DVD.
      • This reason is probably the largest that Daria has took so long to come to DVD. The show at the time used, literally, every single song played on Top 40 and/or alternative radio during the show's run. This meant that the show used hundreds of songs, most only 5 or so seconds, the longest being the credit closer. The two movies released, Is It Fall Yet? and Is It College Yet?, have their music intact; the two regular episodes included as bonus material are silent, beyond the opening, actual speech, and a generic closer.
  • Sexy Frasier character Roz Doyle was impregnated and turned into a single mom by executives.
  • A rare positive example in Generation Kill: the first episode had major issues running over-time, partly because HBO kept re-inserting a lengthy scene that the director and producers were perfectly willing to live without and kept taking out of the cut. In the end, HBO simply allowed the episode to run over the original limit.
  • The Showtime executives objected to an episode of the Genre Anthology series Masters of Horror called "Imprint", directed by Takashi Miike, for its extremely graphic and disturbing content. Executive producer and creator Mick Garris made cuts to the episode, but it was shelved anyway, and is now only available on DVD. Another episode, "Jenifer", had several cuts made for violence, with the deleted scenes being available on DVD.
  • Another example that ultimately worked: Mel Brooks and Buck Henry originally wanted Tom Poston for the lead role in their spy comedy Get Smart. NBC insisted on Don Adams because he was already under contract.
  • One name in Toku is synonymous with Executive Meddling: Kamen Rider Hibiki. Originally it wasn't even intended to be a Kamen Rider series, but was shoehorned into the role. However, the unusually introspective and character-driven Hibiki quickly gained popularity -- but not toy sales. So around episode 30, most of the head staff was changed and the series was retooled to be more action-centric. This also included Eiki and Shoki being Demoted to Extra, as well as the introduction of The Scrappy Kyosuke Kiriya. Shigeki Hosokawa, Hibiki's actor, reported that the new writing staff was "fraudulent" and harder to work with, to the point where they were re-writing the final episode while the final battle was being filmed. Just to cap it all off, the ending was changed at the last minute, denying Asumu the chance to become an Oni, the staff actually scrapping his costume in order to enhance Kiriya's; fans were livid at this revelation, and several Toei executives were upbraided for letting things go so far.
    • As for the cast, Hosokawa has said that he'd gladly reprise his role as Hibiki, provided a more competent director were in charge; Kiriya's actor Yuichi Nakamura redeemed himself with his performance as Yuto Sakurai in Kamen Rider Den-O; and while Asumu remains screwed, his Kamen Rider Decade Alternate Universe counterpart (played by a different actor) receives the justice the original universe incarnation should have got, as he himself becomes Hibiki after his mentor passes on his powers to the boy.
  • In one of the more controversial aspects of Heroes, Claire Bennet was given a lesbian relationship, despite previous seasons heavily implying that she was straight. According to some sources, the issue was Hayden Panettiere's idea, although the E! preview before the first episode of the fourth season indicated that Hayden and Madeline were not too happy with what happened. The change among other factors, needless to say, not only got the show cancelled, but also killed the franchise.
    • On the flip side of the coin, way back in Season 1, Claire's friend Zach was originally supposed to come out as gay. This was scrapped due to pressure from Thomas Dekker's agent who believed him playing a gay character would affect Fox's interest in hiring him for the role of John Connor.
  • Heavily subverted by Kenny Everett; when he devised for his show a new character called Mary Hinge, he was ordered by Thames TV executives to change the name because the Spoonerism was "too blatant". So change it he did -- to Cupid Stunt, which is far more blatant.
  • Home Improvement actually depicted in-universe Binford Tools executives meddling with Tool Time, the Show Within a Show. Among examples were an executive threatening to fire Tim if he didn't promote an inferior power tool on Tool Time, and another one making the cast wear tacky yellow jumpsuits with the Binford logo on them (except Heidi, who got a yellow bikini), allowing only Binford tools to be used on the show and confiscating all non-Binford tools, and finally trying to Trash the Set for a Grand Finale of Tool Time by staging an accident (ironically, the last idea was overturned, but Tim ended up accidentally starting a fire on the set, nearly trashing it except the firefighters were on hand).
  • CSI: NY (or at least, one of its characters) was a victim when Angell was killed solely due to budget cuts.
  • Positive example: When Penn & Teller did a special for ABC, a trick involving Teller "drowning" in a water tank came in the middle of the show, resulting in an uncommented-on "resurrection". The network suggested that the trick come at the end, leaving Teller "dead". As Teller would later tell The Onion AV Club, "I was amazed and stunned... I think they were absolutely right [about the water tank trick placement]. This may be the first time I've ever said that sentence in relation to some television activity. They were right."
  • Another positive example: Hill Street Blues, which was famous for stretching multiple intertwining plotlines over several episodes (for example, the shooting of Officers Hill and Renko in the pilot wasn't resolved until the end of the first season). One of NBC's conditions for renewing the show for a second season was a requirement that at least one storyline had to be wrapped up in each episode.
    • Ironically, this wasn't just a rare example of positive executive meddling at NBC, it was a rare example of executive meddling at NBC overall, as it occurred during Grant Tinker's tenure as chairman and CEO. With rare exceptions, Tinker generally hated executive meddling as he felt that it stifles creativity and that TV writers and producers do their best work without interference.
  • The original '60s run of Outer Limits was rife with executive meddling from ABC. First, creator Leslie Stevens wanted to do a serious science-fiction show, but the network wanted a "Monster of the Week" kind of show. Stevens and producer Joseph Stefano reluctantly agreed, calling the monsters "bears", from an old vaudeville saying "bring out the bear", as in when the audience is restless, bring out the dancing bear. The original air date for the episode "A Feasibility Study" was delayed for months because a network censor objected to the ending where a community sacrificed itself to save the rest of Earth from being enslaved. The last straw for Stevens and Stephano was when the network decided to move the show against Jackie Gleason for the second season. They walked. The network then put one of their own executives in charge of the show, in a hope to keep the budget under control. It ended up being cancelled in mid-season.
  • SCTV faced this numerous times, mainly from NBC, who gave them almost No Budget, and tried to influence the show's content.
    • One instance of meddling in particular resulted in the creation of one of the show's most famous sketches. When the CBC picked up the show, they requested that an extra segment be included in the Canadian airings that was "identifiably Canadian content" ... which the show's staff thought was a bizarre request since it was already a Canadian production. So what did the show do? They came up with a Take That in the form of "The Great White North", an ad-libbed filler sketch featuring two Overly Stereotypical Canadians, eh? Shockingly, the purposely crappy sketch backfired, as Bob and Doug became Breakout Characters.
  • The X-Files suffered from this terribly, especially in later seasons. On the whole, the show was not supposed to go 9 seasons; it was originally supposed to go five seasons and then be completed in a series of feature movies. When Fox extended the contract, it was agreed that seven seasons was long enough. "Requiem", the season seven finale, was written and designed to be the series finale, pulling in almost every major character from the series and setting it in the same place the pilot took place. But executive meddling wins again, and the Chris Carter and Co. ended up with the terrible task of writing two more seasons when most of the plotline had already been resolved. New, confusing plotlines were developed, new characters added, and it pretty much dissolved by Season 9. A bad end to a good show.
    • Ironically, a more positive example came right when the show first began. The network brass told the writers to include plotlines that had to do with Earthly monsters, as opposed to just UFOs and aliens. Chris Carter agreed that the series couldn't have sustained itself that way, and the first Monster of the Week plot was the extremely memorable Squeeze, featuring cannibalistc monster Eugene Tooms.
  • Apparently the people behind the low rated Joan of Arcadia were pressured to make the show "less talky" and stunt-cast in order to increase ratings. They were also forced to change the missions God gave to Joan from "For Want of a Nail" interventions that changed the course of people's lives to an endless stream of "life lessons" for her alone.
    • And of course demanding Adam cheat on Joan, which his actor was not pleased about.
  • Executive pressure forced David Lynch to reveal Laura Palmer's killer in the second season of Twin Peaks, essentially guaranteeing is decline and fall.
    • This is probably one of the worst examples of this trope. In most cases, Executive Meddling is merely irritating or ludicrous. Here, it was fatal. Concerned by the show's declining ratings, the execs pushed the creators to reveal the identity of Laura's killer - the central mystery of the series - in the middle of Season 2, thirteen episodes away from the finale. Without the focus provided by the search for the killer, the show quickly ran out of steam; the sub-plots, which before added colour to the story, soon became all Twin Peaks had to offer. The rationale for this case of Executive Meddling was ludicrous; attempting to end Twin Peaks' ratings slide by revealing the identity of the killer was akin to trying to stop the Titanic from sinking by blowing a hole through the middle of it.
  • In the original draft for the show Glee, there was no Sue Sylvester. FOX decided the show needed a villain, so Sue was created. She quickly became one of the most, if not the most, popular characters on the show. It was a case of Executive Meddling working out for the better.
    • Just to show that this trope can go both ways on the same show, Sue Sylvester has become increasingly more and more out of place and less popular on Glee, but Executive Meddling demands that the writers keep her on instead of disposing of her.
  • Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights was originally going to be called "Deal With This, Retards" but Frankie Boyle was told that if he wanted the show broadcast on Channel 4 he'd have to change the name.
  • This happened when they[who?] changed "Best Week Ever" to "Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins".
  • Parodied by a sketch[context?] with Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Laurie in which Shakespeare (Hugh Laurie) complains about the changes that Rowan Atkinson's executive is making to his script of Hamlet. The twist is that the changes made by the executive result in the play we know today.
  • In a blunder reminiscent of the rounding of Spock's ears in early Star Trek promotional material, some executives at ABC insisted that the new series Happy Days dress the character of Fonzie in a red nylon windbreaker and loafers, because they were afraid audiences would be driven away by the sight of an apparent motorcycle-gang member in leather jacket and biker boots. After the pilot the network compromised, agreeing to let Fonzie wear the jacket and boots only when he was on or beside the motorcycle, so that they could be perceived as "safety gear". Naturally, this spawned the Running Gag where Fonzie took his motorcycle everywhere, even into living rooms and stores, in order to completely eliminate any moment where they would be forced to put him in the windbreaker and loafers. Of course, audiences were just as repulsed by the character of Fonzie as they had been by the character of Spock nearly a decade earlier; and once he became the show's breakout character, the leather jacket and boots suddenly, mysteriously, became far less threatening to the executives.
    • Ironically, in another form of executive meddling, once Fonzie's popularity became well established, those same executives demanded that the producers rename the show to Fonzie's Happy Days or just simply Fonzie. Threatened resignations from the entire cast (including Henry Winkler) nixed this idea.
  • Roy Huggins experienced both good and bad Executive Meddling:
    • The bad was on Maverick: although he created the series, Warner Bros. compelled him to base the official pilot ("The War Of The Silver Kings") on a property they owned so that they wouldn't have to give him "created by" credit and the royalties thereof (something they hated to do on ANY of their television series in the beginning). Huggins understandably wasn't thrilled.
    • The good was on Run For Your Life: NBC (and the American Medical Association) asked Huggins not to name the terminal disease which Ben Gazzara's adventure-seeking lawyer was suffering from (he was told it would kill him within two years... the show lasted for three) so viewers wouldn't start thinking they had it.
  • Yet another FOX example: Method Man and Redman's short-lived sitcom Method and Red suffered in part because FOX execs decided to among other things, add a laugh track to the show against the creators' wishes, Method Man and Redman were so disappointed with how the show show turned out that they told people to not even bother watching it, apparently they listened because the show got cancelled after a mere four episodes had aired.
  • The Lisa Kudrow vehicle The Comeback features fictional examples of this before it was canceled by executives who couldn't see the humor.
  • The Battlestar Galactica spinoff Galactica 1980 had to deal with this constantly. Its spot in the day-to-day schedule caused it to be labeled as a "kid's show" by the network, forcing them to work kid-friendly Aesops into every episode along with a cast full of unprofessional kids, Stage Moms, and teachers that insisted that they were from on high when they told the show's executives something. The show's ABC censor also apparently saw something wrong with everything, making production almost impossible. She even had problem with the mention of meatballs in one episode, thinking that it was some kind of innuendo. The director got her back for this, sprinkling several more meatball jokes throughout the rest of the episode and its second part.
  • Bam Margera became incredibly fed up with MTV during the run of Viva La Bam: for example, an elaborate first episode that involved Bam turning his parents' entire property into a skate park went mostly unused, ending up as ten minutes' worth of filler when another episode resulted in scanty material (to ensure that the amount of work put into the skate park was seen and appreciated, two lengthy compilations of unused footage from this episode appeared on the Season 1 boxed set and Viva La Bands Vol. 2 DVD).
    • Another example of wasted footage was the "CKY Challenge" episode, rendered almost unintelligible by MTV's editing. On the DVD commentary, Tim Glomb is watching the finished episode for the first time, and becomes angry at how terrible it turned out.
    • The constant on-screen graphics proved to be another major annoyance to the cast. In an episode where Bam and friends plan an elaborate European vacation for Phil and April, Ryan Dunn tiredly comments that time is running out, and tells MTV to superimpose a clock in his outstretched hand (they did). The biggest issue concerned "Bam on the Bayou," in which the cast's numerous antics prompt an ever-increasing "Fun-o-Meter" to appear on the screen. Bam spends much of the commentary complaining about how stupid the Fun-o-Meter is, noting that it doesn't actually match how they felt (likewise, Bam gripes about a superimposed spedometer that appears on-screen during his race with Ryan in the fifth season).
  • CBS insisted that All in The Family be carried on past its obvious ending point (Season 8)... which they informed Carroll O'Connor was strictly for ratings. Five seasons later, they would cancel the show, which had struggled in the face of numerous changes necessary after Mike and Gloria (and later Edith) departed. O'Connor insisted that they allow for one final episode to give Archie a proper exit; CBS refused.
  • An extremely unusual, and possibly unique, case is found in Land of the Lost. The executive in charge of the show directly ordered the Krofft brothers to hire a properly trained linguist to create the language of the proto-human Pakuni. Victoria Fromkin, Ph.D., is listed in the show credits, and the DVD set of the first includes the entire 200 word Pakuni vocabulary, which makes it clear Pakuni isn't just English with other words.
  • Aaron Sorkin fought vicious battles with ABC over Sports Night, most notably in regards to the laugh track (he hated it, ABC wanted it). Interestingly, the Executive Meddling was introduced into the show itself as a Reality Subtext plot point; most of the second (and final) season focuses on the fictional show's fictional executives meddling and planning to cancel it for low ratings. The plot is pretty much a representation of what was going on behind the scenes at ABC.
  • Scrubs got a beautiful send off and series wrap at the end of its eighth season. For some reason, it has a ninth season with a third of the original cast.
  • AMC is showcasing Executive Meddling brilliantly. They've only recently started showing original programming, and they've done so with Emmy Bait that is nothing short of marvelous. Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead have all been incredibly popular with fans, critics, and award shows. So of course AMC is slashing their budgets. And firing the show-runners. And everyone is applauding these well-thought-out, incredibly wise, surefire winning moves.
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus occasionally suffered from this. A particularly blatant example is the final sketch of the second series set in a funeral parlour where the funeral director suggests that the grieving widower eats his wife. The BBC said they could only broadcast it if the studio audience was shown reacting with disgust. The audience reactions were not particularly convincing.
  • In 1995, nearly the entire cast of Saturday Night Live was fired by NBC in the hope that "starting fresh" with a new cast would boost the show's poor ratings. 9 cast members, including Chris Farley and Adam Sandler, were cut from the show while a few others (such as Mike Meyers and Janeane Garofalo) resigned before they could be fired. These days the Farley/Sandler/Meyers years are remembered fondly by many fans who view it as a high point in the show's history.
  • Hilariously averted with The Good Wife, at least with season one. According to the producers, they were surprised that CBS requested them to streamline the legal plots so that the family oriented drama can be more front and center, in which they replied, "that's what we've been doing this entire time!" More specifically in this Entertainment Weekly cover story:

While Margulies says she was originally worried that doing a procedural drama might get boring — "One of the reasons Murder, She Wrote was on for so long was that America loves an ending after each show, where you can solve it and it's done" — she and the rest of the cast have been pleasantly surprised to see CBS continue to ask the writers to keep the Florrick family drama front and center. "You'd expect a network to say, 'No, no, no! More cases! More cases!'" says Robert King, who created and executive-produces the series along with his wife, Michelle. "Our biggest challenge is figuring out how little we can tell about the courtroom case and get by."

  • Subverted in the short-lived show Action, which itself was subject to meddling by executives at...you guessed it, Fox. In the series' primary story arc, the screenwriter for the movie Peter Dragon is producing is constantly being given notes to change his script from everybody involved in the film until he has a nervous breakdown under the pressure.
  • This was attempted on Living Single. Kim Coles (Synclaire) was told that she needed to lose weight for her character, but her castmates said they would quit the show if the exectutives made her do that.
  • The short-lived E! reality show Living Lohan, which centered around the lives of Lindsay Lohan's family (though Lindsay herself never appeared in the show [she was heard on the phone in one episode]) supposedly because she thought it was exploitative and wanted no part of it) ended because the producers started demanding the family to do more "crazy" things for the sake of drama, like Dina faking being pregnant and Michael Jr cheating on his girlfriend, which did not go over well with Dina, she refused the demands and quickly ended the show.
  • Forever Knight very nearly fell victim to it-the execs wanted to get rid of the focus on Nick's redemption and get rid of Natalie and Janette because they felt Debora Dunchenne and Catherine Disher weren't sexy enough for their demographic. Fortunately, Geraint Wyn Davies threatened to quit if all of the changes went through. Duchenne/Janette was still cut, but the rest of the change ideas were dropped (although Lisa Ryder's Tracy character was probably an attempt to up the sexy factor a bit).
  • NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt admitted to burning off part of the final, half-length season of Chuck by airing episodes during the low-viewership year-end holidays so that the season and the series would be finished with as quickly as possible. His reason? The rabid online fan community that had pushed NBC into renewing the show wasn't actually watching the show in its Friday night timeslot (where several cult favorites were competing for the already smaller Friday audience). His frustration over this dissonance between popularity and Nielsen audience decided him to get the show off the air as soon as he could.

Greenblatt: Unfortunately, that rabid fan base that was going crazy on the net didn't come to the show. And maybe they didn't come to the show because it was Friday, but you would think that audience would find the show. The show was getting a 1 rating. So I think Chuck's time had come. ... Chuck is over, let's alert the masses.

  • Castle had an in-universe example in Season 2, when the Body of the Week, a late-night talk show host played by Tom Bergeron, was poisoned because the network execs forced him to fire his best friend and hire a Younger and Hipper replacement.
  • In the sixth season of Criminal Minds, the execs announced that they were going to fire A.J. Cook and limited Paget Brewster's screen time for "creative reasons" [1]. The fans were not happy. After many protests and letters, A.J. was able to come back for the first two episodes of the season, Paget's "goodbye" episode, and the season finale to announce she was returning next season. Paget was brought back as a regular for season seven as well.
  • Bones Season 5 had an episode with a rather silly subplot (even by the show's standards) devoted to Hodgins, Sweets and Fisher going to see the movie Avatar... which not incidentally was made by FOX.
  • Supernatural Season 3's Bela Talbot was the result of Executive Meddling.
  • Community... oh sweet god, Community. After getting okay ratings the first season (this is NBC we're talking about), Community was moved to Thursday nights, 8 pm EST. The problem was that this put it up against The Big Bang Theory, and the ratings suffered. It also didn't help matters that creator Dan Harmon was utilizing whatever Protection From Editors he had to introduce more and more weirdness into the show. While this was appreciated by the cult fanbase, NBC did not take it well. After a forced move to mid-season during Season 3 (which was widely protested by fans), Community was finally renewed for a fourth season... and then NBC (possibly pushed by Sony) pulled a dick move and ejected Dan Harmon from showrunner position, replacing him with the consulting producers from Aliens In America and Happy Endings. The following exodus of executive producers, directors, and writers, coupled with circulated letters suggesting the actors only speak positively of the new show direction and the explosion of fan outrage, suggests the executive meddling here will not be taken well if Community does not perform to expectations - near impossible, considering it has been moved to the Friday Night Death Slot.

Reality TV

  • The American version of Big Brother has had numerous cases of Executive Meddling. Obviously such cases would wind up slanting the game... but slanting it towards a few houseguests won't always work (Janelle winning would have been best for ratings... yet Maggie wound up taking home the prize in the end). But there were several notorious instances where it severely affected the outcome of the game on top of player stupidity.
    • In the third season of Big Brother, they found out the hard way that letting the houseguests see what was going on in the house after they were evicted and would cast votes for who should win made a large impact on the game. Daniele was known for playing the best game and by all means, they'd vote for her to win, right? Well even if she made it with Jason in the finals, the other houseguests saw her insulting them in the Diary Room and would have picked the person who was nicer to them (Jason or Lisa).
    • The eighth season tried to keep the Jerkass and his whiny spoiled daughter around because they were good for ratings. The idea of "America's Player" wound up affecting the game in their favour because they loved to see Jerkass prank people and just be mean. There was also a time in which he was practically assaulting another player with cigarettes. If anyone else did that, they'd have been kicked out of the show in a heartbeat. Then there are also rumors of how they allowed Jerkass and whiny spoiled brat to break rules that would have earned other players reprisals because they were good for ratings, and how one player's machinery during a crucial veto competition was malfunctioning and they never noticed. If it was Jerkass or Whiny brat, they'd have stopped the competition in a heartbeat.
      • On top of this, America's player also revealed that when he could have turned the game around with a crucial veto win, he was ordered by producers not to use it (subsequently... his #1 ally was evicted the following Thursday... oy...). Then there were other rumors about how he wasn't even in the option to play for Veto for similar reasons ("But we can't decide who to use it on without spoiling it ahead of time!").
    • The ninth season also had a highly controversial head of household competition. One houseguest who needed that one question to win Head of Household (in the final four, the second most important one in the game) managed to get it wrong... well that was her fault, right? Her fault for not being on the same train of thought as the producers. The question was "True or false... There were more than two pre-existing relationships in the house." She answered false, like pretty much every person who had been watching the show would have in her boots. But then there is a slight pause and Julie Chen reports there were three. What was this third relationship? Were two houseguests' lies about being a lesbian couple true? Nope.... it was the guinea pigs that served as the house pets. Now how on earth was anyone supposed to figure that out? This of course wound up screwing houseguest Sharon.
      • Other conspiracy theorists believe that in the slight pause in between the houseguests revealing their answers and Julie Chen revealing the Guide Dang It answer that she was even told right there on the studio on live TV that it was three, and that for the MST-PST feeds that this was edited out.
    • In Season 13, it seemed kind of convenient that instead of the usual Majority Rules competition, they had a competition where the outgoing Head of Household was allowed to pick the order which people would make their shots in. Note that Rachel's alliance, the Veterans, are the returning players and are obviously on the producers' good sides, so people are watching and wondering if they had this in mind. It's been pointed out numerous times that producers may not be able to flat out fix the shows, but they can certainly slant them (see the Survivor example). Rachel has said on the live feeds that they (the veterans) were promised to at least make the jury.
      • Season 13 is known of amongst some of its fans as being the most slanted season of the series. It even features the most blatantly contrived bailout in reality TV history. When the game suddenly turned around and resulted in Jeff being voted out, Porsche (who was not on Jeff's side anymore) won the next head of household. Before she even makes nominations, she is forced to open Pandora's Box (she confirmed she had to open it) which re-introduced the "Duos" twist meaning that people would be nominated and saved as duos for the week. Conveniently; she didn't get to pick the duos herself. The following Veto required the houseguests to grab onto a dummy that was suspended above the ground and hang on as much as possible... Quite literally the exact same challenge as the first head of household, which was won by... Rachel. Rachel then proceeded to win the next veto and take herself and Jordan, another Ratings Machine, off the block and forced Shelly to be completely and utterly screwed. A few days before the live eviction, Rachel talks about the first have not competition in Big Brother 12, which she said she did very well in. What was the next Head of Household competition? The exact same challenge as that have not competition. Rather obvious who they wanted to win 'that competition, isn't it?
    • Some have also argued that the act of selecting people for reality TV is Executive Meddling in itself. The people in charge try and pick a diverse series of contestants (there is almost always at least one openly gay guy, one princess, one dimwit, etc) but they try and pick the contestants who are most likely to clash and fight with each other because that's what gives ratings. If they pick huge fans of Big Brother they won't pick the people who can practically predict the flow of the game a week in advance because they'll be sitting around observing... they want people who'll be up and about picking fights and confronting other houseguests. The same has often been said for other shows like Survivor or The Amazing Race.
      • Obviously in Survivor, if they picked people who really knew how to play the game, they'd be constantly trying to one-up one another and it'd turn into Death Noteand wouldn't be very interesting to watch, especially when players like Brett, Cassandra and Vecepia wind up in the end despite spending the entire 39 days sitting around the camp with their mouths shut. Crystal and Randy made Gabon.
  • Two episodes of the Reality TV show Criss Angel, both dealing with gun-related illusions, including the infamous Bullet Catch trick, were kept from airing by executives due to concerns of viewers attempting the stunts themselves. This wouldn't have been too much of a problem... had the executives not gone so far as to remove the rights to the episodes from the show's Executive Producer and star Criss Angel himself to ensure they couldn't be aired. He recently[when?] regained the rights, and is attempting to gain permission to release them in upcoming[when?] DVD specials.
  • The first season of Last Comic Standing nearly had this backfire on the producers. After the last round of auditions, the final cut for who was going to be in the house and actually contestants was supposedly going to be decided by a panel of celebrity judges including Drew Carey. When the final cast was announced, the judges stormed out because their picks for who were the best comedians had been overruled by the producers' picks for who would generate the most in-house drama. The producers managed to turn this around for themselves by turning the judges' anger into a drama spot.
    • Actually, it was revealed later within the episode mentioned that the producers had votes themselves. While the judges were initially angry at the outcome, they were reminded of this fact and apologized for the outburst. It's still executive meddling, but not underhanded like is suggested above. This was how the voting system worked from the start of the show.
  • Comedy Central turning Battlebots (a show about remote control robots fighting in an arena for a crowd of cheering fans) into nothing but shots of Carmen Electra in revealing outfits and crappy filler. It is disgraceful when the filler takes up more time during the show than what the game is supposed to be about!
  • Survivor's recent seasons not only overuse Manipulative Editing highlighting a Creator's Pet, but many fans suspect that they're slanting the actual game in the Pet's favor as well. (Disclaimer: None of these have been confirmed as deliberate producer interference.) Examples include:
    • In Heroes Vs Villains, there seemed to be a preference for the Villains. Isn't it amazing how James (from the Heroes tribe) had to sit out of a challenge, yet the challenge continued without the Villains being asked to sit someone out or asking the Heroes to put Colby back in?
      • It's obvious that the game was borderline-fixed towards the villains that season. Not only was one immunity challenge much more easy for the villains (due to "Villains" having more recognizable fragments than "Heroes" on the box-stacking challenge) but the villains team is almost entirely composed of players who are good at Puzzles. And guess what all the immunity challenges have been? Puzzles. What a shocker. And what happened to the puzzle immunity challenges after Rob was voted out? They mysteriously disappeared... it's amazing nobody noticed that in the game! To be fair; the box-stacking challenge may not have been intentional, but that's some amazing luck to have so many puzzles in the first part of the game.
    • One that has been confirmed: Russell somehow knew that he didn't win Samoa during Heroes vs. Villains... This is rather strange. Considering that the filming for Heroes vs. Villains begun less than a month after the filming for Samoa ended, and that the finale for Samoa didn't air until December. There would have been no way for him to know unless somebody in the crew told him. However, it's not clear whether other players were told this as well, and it would have had little effect on Russell's chances in the game so is not as bad as the other examples here.
    • Redemption Island either was slanted or the players were just idiots to let Rob walk away with the win (or both, if you think production deliberately cast idiots, but you'd think they would have done the same for Russell's tribe). The players of Ometepe were just that dumb to not realize there's a huge threat sitting right in front of them, with the exception of Kristina. This shows a good example of how producers might have the ability to slant these kinds of shows. Take a look at the challenges post-merge for Redemption Island - Balance, then obstacle course, then endurance. Then after that, Puzzle, Logrolling, Memory, Puzzle, Puzzle, Puzzle race, and the final immunity challenge wasn't the traditional endurance, but a maze and a puzzle. It may have looked more diverse, but note that those are the challenges that Rob had to compete in. The Redemption island duels were card stacking, Shuffleboard, tile breaking, table maze and Puzzle, Endurance. Note the disproportionate amount of puzzles on the ones that Rob had to compete in. And again, What's Rob good at? PUZZLES. Rob really got the equivalent of the Royal Flush if the producers weren't trying to slant the show.
    • Another good example people have pointed out is that Jeff Probst seems to be conveniently forgetting who was sitting out of the challenges.
  • Despite all the negative examples of Executive Meddling in Survivor, there were actually still positive examples of Executive Meddling in the forms of Obvious Rule Patches from season-to-season, and shows that this is not always a bad thing. These include:
    • Eliminating the Purple Rock from being used as a tiebreaker... only at the Final Four though. Instead, it was replaced with a firebuilding (and later Firemaking) Challenge between the two contestants (why they still do that at other parts instead of a nature quiz or vote countback like in previous seasons is beyond several viewers though). Jeff Probst admits that using the purple rock in the final four was a mistake because there was no fair way to do it at that point - as if there's actually a fair way to do it period. (A way to eliminate someone who had no votes cast against them without evacuating them or them quitting? sounds fair to me! They only keep it in for drama's sake.)
    • The removal of the "$1,000,000" fan favourite prize. Producers feared that people would be trying to cater to the fans instead of playing the game since it was as much as the prize for winning the game. While it still exists today; it is only $100,000 and is awarded by a third party company. (Sprint) The winner is also eligible to win this prize, too, but so is literally anyone around the final six. (If you're not in the final Five and are even a finalist for the Sprint Player of the season prize? You're lucky.)
      • When Russell Hantz came in third place, he gestured towards the audience as proof that "America needs to control a portion of the votes" should have been part of the game. Jeff Probst immediately told him "That's not Survivor".
    • Several times they stepped in and gave the players food outside of a reward challenge when they had run out. This did not come free; as the two times they did this they had to either give up their shelter and start from scratch or have a player give up the reward.
    • Changing how the Hidden Immunity Idol worked. In Guatemala, you had to play it before the votes. Granted; this didn't affect the outcome outside of some dramatic blindsides in later seasons. In Cook Islands, it more or less made Yul nigh untouchable and gave him a free ride to the final three. In later seasons, it could only be played as late as the Final Six.
    • In Nicaragua and above, the clues to Hidden Immunity Idols were changed and they were hidden in different spots due to Russell managing to find them before clues were even given.
    • Evacuating injured players; usually a good thing.
    • It's rumored that this is why they changed some of the challenges in Nicaragua. Specifically to avoid injuries like those in more recent seasons that caused sometimes numerous evacuations/people being voted out, and the challenges pre-merge were more puzzles and tribal cooperation efforts. It's another case of positive meddling because the theme of Nicaragua was "Young vs. old". Fighting/Wrestling type challenges would be a very bad idea not only to avoid evacuations which potentially set the show behind a week but also for balance issues (only Yve, Tyrone and Jane would have survived such a challenge).
    • Due to Kelly and Naonka quitting yet still landing on the jury, the rules around quitting have changed (i.e. the producers are now allowed to take quitters off the jury).
    • Frosti was actually allowed to play in China despite being too young at the time.
    • Changing how the hidden immunity idol clues were given due to fear that the game would turn into an idol-hunt. This worked in Nicaragua, but was undermined in Redemption Island when Kristina managed to break a Survivor record and found the idol before the first tribal council. Specifically, to keep it out of Rob's hands.
      • South Pacific has taken this a step further: Clues to the idol are now hidden in places where an idol would normally be, and any clue won in a challenge is going to be a lead to the hidden clues.
  • The American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? came extremely close to suffering from this. The higher-ups wanted the show to appeal to a younger audience, so they were going to get rid of most of the cast (particularly Colin) and replace them with celebrities with no improv experience. Luckily, the producers of the show (including executive producers Drew and Ryan) managed to override all the ABC execs' ideas, bringing the show across the pond with nearly the exact same format as the original. The only meddling that remained was that the credits reading was removed for being too "weird"--but it was brought back in season 2 when the execs found out that people were switching channels during the vanilla credits.
    • The finalized show suffers a more active form of Executive Meddling: the producers will step in and veto game ideas and order redos if they don't like certain elements. (Like vetoing "Songs of the Mortician" for the game Greatest Hits, prompting Greg to snark, "Wouldn't want dead people calling in.") In one famous example, the audience suggested "Cosby and Hitler" for the name of an unlikely Sitcom pair, only to get shot down because of the Hitler reference. The rest of the episode is a Crowning Moment of Awesome for the performers as they work in Take Thats against the director for the veto. This is apparently one the producers will cop to, because the final episode shows all of this, even the part where "Cosby and Hitler" is shot down.
      • Several games were unaired in the first season; probably because they were a little too afraid to air some of them. Part of the reason was that Ryan Stiles and Greg Proops, whenever they messed up on a Hoedown, swore like mad. Later seasons they didn't censor as much.
  • Practically the majority of reality TV shows, especially talent shows like American Idol. Some things that are staged are so blatant (such as shoving someone with almost zero skill in whatever the show wants onto the show) that it can feel like you're really just watching unpaid actors that are doing improv for a season. Not to mention that most reality and talent shows seem to have scenes that are filled to the brim with drama on screen due to careful editing. Of course, this all works as people keep tuning in to watch.
    • They aren't even trying to hide it on American Idol anymore. The last two seasons, they've implemented a "Judge Veto" system. So if a fan-favorite performer gets voted off, the judges can veto the decision. To keep it somewhat fair, they can only use the veto once per season. Now Kara Dio Guardi has been fired and Ellen DeGeneres and Simon Cowell quit with Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler joining as the new judges.
  • In The Amazing Race, they often step in with a sync point, Double-Length, or non-elimination leg if teams get too far ahead or behind. This is actually showing that this is not always a bad thing for several reasons. One was because they do like to save fan (or network) favourites, but another was because it's easier to film and edit when the other races aren't a couple legs behind. However; they don't always step in as there are a couple cases where a team got about a day behind or another team got extremely lucky and manage to walk right on to the checkpoint a day ahead of everyone. Normally they manipulate hours of operation or put in charter buses.
    • Jeff and Jordan were not originally wanted by the show's producers; it was CBS who wanted them in.
    • Season 11 had a very blatant sync point when one team managed to get 36 hours ahead of everyone, wherein one team was basically kept on an island and told a storm was making it too rough to depart (Despite no signs of it) and by the time they were allowed to leave, three other teams caught up with them.
    • Dustin and Kandice once got stuck waiting half a day for a charter bus.
  • Many fans of Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen accused Fox of this during the 2011 season, when Manipulative Bastard Elise managed to stay until the final three despite pulling all sorts of stunts, up to and including outright lying to Ramsay on two different occasions.
    • The show has a nasty history of keeping the worst chefs or the chefs with zero teamwork skills for as long as possible as if the executives aren't bothering to hide it anymore or are possibly hinting at the chefs to act in a certain way. Chefs that horribly suck at their cooking skills can last several episodes but chefs that can't work with anyone and resort to cliched reality TV tactics, but are skilled in their cooking will usually last a lot longer like with Elise.
  • Food Network viewers, as shown on the network's Facebook page, went up in arms after the second episode of The Next Iron Chef: All Stars. There has been violent disagreement with the decision to eliminate Robert Irvine, whose hummus was "a little too thick," as opposed to Geoffrey Zakarian, who broke rules during the competition.

Documentaries and Review Shows

  • Dinosaur Revolution would have been a purely animal-centric animated Edutainment Show, with the entire series consisting of highly anthropomorphic prehistoric animals doing their stuff, with no obtrusive Narrator or any Talking Heads. Then, to explain the science behind the stories, there would have been a companion show in which we see real life paleontologists, well, explaining stuff. This was deemed too "risky", so they added "sparse" (yet at times still obnoxious and unneeded) narration, and cheesy holograms of talking scientists and various Stock Footage cips now interrupt the stories.
  • This was basically what killed Tech TV: Upon their "merger" with G4, the executives demanded that all the Tech TV staff either move to Los Angeles (where the G4 studios were already located) or simply get sacked. Less than a third of Tech TV employees, only 6 of which were actual cast members, picked the former option. To make things worse, all of two Tech TV shows -- Anime Unleashed and X-Play -- survived the "merger" unscathed (three if you count The Screen Savers, which itself saw a ridiculous amount of Executive Meddling (see below), though some fans say it doesn't exist). The end result was massive Network Decay and a sharp decline in the network's ratings, both of which may be the fastest in the history of cable TV.
    • The Screen Savers was also subject to heavy meddling during the merger. Practically overnight, it went from a tech show to... well, it was unwatchable and aimed at the Lowest Common Denominator. Yoshi DeHerrera's went from doing computer and electronics mods on the show to demonstrating a messy homemade blender and doing a report on drift racing full of rap slang and bikini-clad women. Mere months after he moved to Los Angeles to stay with the network, they fired him to Retool the show.
    • G4 continues its downhill slide. As of this writing,[when?] the only Tech TV show to have survived is X-Play, and even it is beginning to show signs of this trope: it now resembles a sketch comedy show more than a video game review show.
      • It actually has been going in a better direction as more of a general game journalism group.
  • Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe demonstrates this trope with brutal cynicism by illustrating how an anthropomorphic "Idea" is gradually altered and diluted for the worst as a result of changes requested by multiple television networks.
  1. ↑ It was to fund a spin-off
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