What is network television, and is it ever commercial free?

What are some effective strategies to launching a cooking show on a television network?

• Assuming that you are an excellent cook with a novel idea for a cooking show that is as of yet unexplored by any network,  what would be the best way to approach this?  Would if help to first publish a cook book or run a blog with recipes?  How important would it be to have connections with senior management at a television network?

• Answer:

  My observation is that an approach like Alton Brown's would be most effective. Cookbook writing and getting a book published is a long arduous road and isn't related to TV directly. Most TV chefs do not come from that route. Bloggers who have thousands of followers are rare and is ultimately not a short path to TV stardom. Written communication is a different animal from broadcast communication - go straight to the heart of what you want to do. Don't copy Brown's style and content, but he is a trained film maker who was torn between making films and cooking (he has a culinary degree from a school in Vermont). He made a pilot episode and sent it out to the food network. End of sponsor search, start of great show. I would make a pilot that is 22 minutes long (for the allotted eight minutes of commercial ad time) including credits/graphics. Fortunately video equipment isn't expensive. If you have a friend who is talented with a camera, enlist his/her aid. The production quality won't be professional, but what you need to convey is what the show is going to be, that it has "legs" - that it will be as good the 50th episode as it was the first, and that you "wear well" with the viewer (you're a person viewers will want to see regularly). Don't ad lib unless you're a master. Writing is as important to good TV as the recipes are - if you're not a great writer, get one. Most TV cooks have catch phrases they use in every show and after a while they grate on a viewer's last nerve. Once you have a viable, marketable product, networking is valuable ... six degrees of separation and all that - but so is finding someone low on the food chain, pun intended. Check out the websites of production companies specializing in food shows ... find an assistant to call, engage, and then send your tape to. It could be a boost to his/her career and (s)he's less likely to be jaded and could be your biggest booster, too. Post the video on youtube - let viewers clammer for your show - and on FaceBook et al.