Why This MattersSteve Harvey, B&C's Personality of the Year, has found constant reinvention to be the key to his longevity.
You can hardly turn on a television without seeing Steve Harvey.
He's currently hosting five primetime television shows; several one-off specials, including the Miss Universe pageant; one syndicated game show, Family Feud; and one daytime talk show, Steve. On top of all that, he's still deejaying his nationally syndicated radio show, The Steve Harvey Morning Show, every weekday morning, as well as executive producing a series for BET called Man Caves. And all of those shows are successful.
Though it seems as if the comedian has always been here, it's not like Harvey is an overnight success. In the 1990s, after kicking off his standup career in 1985 and spending some time living in his car, he landed a gig as host of Showtime at the Apollo, a job he held for many years and is currently working on bringing back. He starred on a short-lived ABC sitcom, Me and the Boys, in 1994. He hosted the earliest version of The Steve Harvey Show, also a sitcom, on The WB from 1996 to 2002. His longest-running job continues today: host of The Steve Harvey Morning Show, which began syndication in 2000.
A late-career breakthrough came for Harvey in 2010 when he was tapped to be the host of Family Feud, produced by FremantleMedia North America and distributed by Debmar-Mercury. The show, which has been on the air in various incarnations since 1976, was foundering in the daytime syndication ratings. Debmar and Fremantle decided to give it one more go with a new host. If that didn't work, it would be time to shelve it.
Harvey premiered on Feud in September 2010 and it's been an upward climb ever since. In the week ended Aug. 20, Family Feud was the second highest-rated program in syndication, behind only CBS Television Distribution's Judge Judy at a 6.2 live-plus-same-day rating in households. It's been the top-rated game show for more than a year, overturning CTD's long-running champ Wheel of Fortune. But more importantly, Family Feud is first-run syndication's highest-rated show among daytime's key demographic of women 25-54 - and second only to Warner Bros.' The Big Bang Theory overall - averaging a 3.1 season to date.
Harvey also published a book in 2009 titled Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. It was a best-seller that was turned into a movie in 2012. That newfound cred in the world of relationships, self-help and dating led to the launch of Harvey's first daytime talk show, Steve Harvey, in 2012. The show was co-produced by Endemol Shine North America and NBCUniversal. It was produced at WMAQ Chicago's studio and focused on real people and relationships, just as Harvey did in his book. The show aired from 2012-17, but Harvey's life was increasingly pulling him to Los Angeles, and he wanted to make a change.
Meanwhile, Hollywood had noticed Family Feud's success, and had come calling. Primetime series such as Celebrity Family Feud, Little Big Shots and Steve Harvey's Funderdome followed. While Harvey wants to make as much hay as possible while his sun shines, he's strategic about his choices. He knows his brand and he plays to his talents.
The man is busy, but he still found time to sit ringside at the vaunted Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight on Saturday, Aug. 26.
Named B&C's inaugural Personality of the Year, Harvey spoke with contributing editor Paige Albiniak to discuss that outing, which became a trending topic on social media, as well as what motivated him to relaunch his daytime talk show that premiered Tuesday, Sept. 5, and how he handles mistakes, such as the infamous memo he wrote to his Chicago talk-show staff last fall. An edited transcript follows.
Here's the question on everyone's minds: How the heck did you get better seats to the Mayweather-McGregor fight than LeBron James?
Does age not matter any more? I'm older than LeBron; I've been in Cleveland longer than LeBron. It's just seniority. Oh, and also I've been friends with Mayweather and folks at the UFC for years.
You said at the TCA Press Tour in August that your daytime talk show, renamed Steve, is your highest priority. That's saying something, considering how many other shows you have on the air. Why is your daytime talk show so important to you?
For starters, it bears my name. I make them do that so in case they want to get rid of me, they can't just plug in another guy.
It's the show that requires the most of my time, the most of my focus. I don't have to prep for Family Feud, Little Big Shots or Funderdome. I don't meet the contestants beforehand. This talk show, I have to get a monologue and desk segment together, and I have to be prepped because all of these stars have press people and publicists. There's much more prep with this.
Did you expect there to be this extra work when you decided to make the move to Los Angeles and turn toward a celebrity focus?
I'm a celebrity, so I've done all of the shows except I don't have a rider when I come to your show. We get that from celebrities. I get it; they want to be comfortable wherever they go.
Why did you want to make the move to Los Angeles? It wasn't an easy deal to make. You definitely had to keep pushing to get the show where you wanted it to be.
I think it's important that you reinvent yourself every now and then so they don't get used to you. This will allow me to be a lot more funny and light-hearted. I can make fun of a lot more things with a monologue and talk to guests in a different way to show more of their fun side, their human side instead of just talking about their latest movie or book. Ellen [DeGeneres] needs some company. Everyone else is solving problems and healing peop
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Why This MattersSteve Harvey, B&C's Personality of the Year, has found constant reinvention to be the key to his longevity.
