Kevin Reilly, president of TBS and TNT and chief creative officer of Turner Broadcasting, has been creating breakthrough TV for more than a few years now. He first had a meteoric rise at FX Networks, working with Peter Liguori and green lighting such shows as The Shield, which broke the Emmy barrier when star Michael Chiklis was the first actor on basic cable to be named best actor in a drama, and Ryan Murphy’s plastic surgeon drama Nip/Tuck.

He left FX when NBC cherry-picked him to be president of entertainment, and there he developed such shows as The Office, 30 Rock, Heroes and Friday Night Lights. Heroes — NBC’s recent lackluster reboot Heroes Reborn notwithstanding — was a bonafide hit. The comedies were less so, but they were successful niche players and a little before their time considering today’s comedy revolution that’s mostly taking place on cable and SVOD.

Now Reilly’s taken his cutting-edge creative vision to TBS and TNT, two networks not exactly known for that point of view. According to TV Guide and TV Insider’s Michael Schneider, Reilly is giving himself three years to reinvent the two networks. TBS and TNT practically invented basic cable, and were the first and most popular cable networks to offer broad entertainment and sports programming. But in an age in which it’s hard to stand out and in which networks such as FX and USA are breaking all the rules, something’s got to change.

As a result, TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles will end its run after this summer. Instead, Reilly is bringing on shows such as Good Behavior, starring Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery and Animal Kingdom, starring Ellen Barkin, to TNT. Over at TBS, People of Earth from Conan O’Brien’s production company will premiere later this year.

Here are a few key takeaways from Schneider’s sit-down with Reilly.

On why TNT is moving away from the procedurals — both original and off-network — that have driven TNT’s business for years:

“If you go half-in and make slightly edgy versions of shows–which is also what the broadcast networks suffer from–you’re now making a show for nobody. You’re not making a show for somebody who watches Rizzoli & Isles, and you’re not making a show for somebody who watches Breaking Bad.

“There’s too much good television out there now and I think if we make the more traditional, expected kind of television, I just simply don’t know how to make noise in this incredibly competitive environment.”

On the constantly-declining direction of TV ratings:

“The Nielsen measurement is so out of whack. On the other hand, until we replace the universal measurement on the ad sales side, that is a problem. That is our metric and until we all move to a better metric, it really gets in our way on the business front.”

On inserting fewer ads into shows:

“It means a deeper involvement with the show, almost going back to being an exclusive sponsor. We have to acknowledge that’s [the number of advertisements during a one-hour show] is not a great consumer experience when there are now other choices. We’re determined to try and make it better. Will someone watch a mediocre show because there are less ads in it? No.”

Read the entire interview at TV Insider.

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