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Executive Meddling/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions
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* ''[[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, {{spoiler|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 {{spoiler|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 {{spoiler|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 (TV series)|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.
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** [[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 [[Missing Episode|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 [[Coronation Street|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 Movie|the 1996 movie]] and [[Revival|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... [[Hollywood Homely|Alyson Hannigan]]. She wasn't recast for this reason, however -- she frequently flubbed lines and generally played the character as too nervous.
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* ''[[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 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.
* [[
** The space hooker turned out OK; the second pilot, the reshoots, the out of order broadcast, and the general [[Screwed by the Network]] definitely count, though.
** ''[[Head Trip]]'' has a [http://headtripcomics.comicgenesis.com/d/20071107.html solution for this problem].
* The first season of ''[[Dollhouse]]'' was heavily meddled with. The pilot was reshot because [[
** 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 "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 [[Friends Rent Control|obviously couldn't afford]] with [[The Couch|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.
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** 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 [[Broken Base|significant argument]] over whether or not this counts as [[A Million Is a Statistic|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.
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* 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 2nd 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 [[Diablous Ex Machina|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 Note]]''and 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.
* 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.
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** 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 [http://www.thefuselage.com/Threaded/showpost.php?p=1853178&postcount=40 here], 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 [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1562722,00.html 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 [[Syfy]] was unhappy with ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|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 4th 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 as We Know It|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 disproportionally large it was compared to the actual issue at hand. Anyone who hadn't seen the first season of ''BSG'' via Bittorrent before it finished airing in the United States, but after it finished airing everywhere else, probably heard the original theme on [[YouTube]].
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* Because of the general subject matter and [[Gallows Humor|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."
** On Sirius radio, Titus also said that executives wanted Titus and Erin to break up in the show, much like ''[[Dharma and Greg]]'' did at the time. But since real life truly wrote the plot here, Christopher had to say no ([[Funny Aneurysm Moment|though these days, it wouldn't be a stretch that Titus and Erin are broken up, as Titus divorced his real-life wife {who is also named Erin, but on the comedy special, "Love is Evol," she was renamed "Kate" for legal reasons} in 2006]]).
* 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 (TV series)|House]]''. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/arts/television/30hous.html 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) [[
* ''[[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 [[Barney and Friends|Barney]]esque 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 [[Gay Panic|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?
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* 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.
* The [[Showtime]] executives objected to an episode of the [[Genre Anthology]] series ''[[Masters of Horror]]'' called "Imprint", directed by [[Takashi Miike]], for its [[Nightmare Fuel|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 [[Dolled-Up Installment|was shoehorned into the role]]. However, the unusually introspective and character-driven ''Hibiki'' quickly gained popularity -- [[Merchandise-Driven|but not toy sales]]. So around episode 30, most of the head staff was changed and the series was [[Retool|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, {{spoiler|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.
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* ''[[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''. [[Sarcasm Mode|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 & 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 Patch|Obvious Rule Patches]] from season-to-season, and shows that this is [[Tropes Are Tools|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 Fire''making'') 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? [[Sarcasm Mode|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 [[Entitled Bastard|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.
** [[Non Gameplay Elimination|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. (ie, 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 [[Follow the Leader|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 [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|before the first tribal council]]. [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|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.
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* 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 "[[Bill Cosby|Cosby]] and [[Adolf Hitler|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 That|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.
* ''[[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.
* 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 De Generes and Simon Cowell quit with [[Jennifer Lopez]] and [[Steven Tyler]] joining as the new judges.
* Apparently the people behind the low rated ''[[Joan of Arcadia]]'' were pressured to make the show "less talky" and [[Ratings Stunt|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 [[And Knowing Is Half the Battle|"life lessons"]] for her alone.
** And of course demanding Adam cheat on Joan, which his actor was ''not'' pleased about.
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* 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, [[Writer Revolt|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 (TV series)|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.
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* 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 Classic|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 Mom|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 One 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.)
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* [[AMC]] is showcasing [[Executive Meddling]] brilliantly. They've only recently started showing original programming, and they've done so with [[Oscar Bait|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 [[Blatant Lies|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 ''[[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 [[Tropes Are Tools|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.
* 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.
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* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
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