Not sure anyone cares, but just in case....
I'm listening to 10/21/2002 and Scott Einziger is winning a FM-Emmy for being the victim "'Howard's Cruelest Moment". He left the show to produce reality TV shows. Anyway, I found this from an interview with Scott years later:
Primarily what happened was that around 2001, early 2002 I started to see that reality television was becoming a primetime business which is to say that the networks were giving up primetime slots to shows like Survivor 1, Amazing Race 1, Big Brother 1, Bachelor 1, American Idol Season 1.
My gut told me … and it was hard to leave Howard. He was very loyal to me and I certainly was loyal to him. I felt like I had done my job and set up the system, and there were those below me that I thought it was time for them to step up, you know, sort of passing the baton. I said to my agent at that time, I want to get into that. That meaning 'primetime reality television'. That was my plan.
I knew Howard wouldn’t be thrilled with my leaving but I was at the point where I guess, honestly I wanted to sort of make my own way, and I saw an opportunity and a window. I was in California, because E! was based in California. I would make trips from time to time. I was literally supposed to fly black to New York the next day, my agent said, “You need to go and take a meeting with a gentleman name Ghen Maynard who is the head of alternative at CBS.
Ghen was the one who discovered Survivor, discovered Amazing Race, launched Big Brother. He’s a super, super, super smart guy. Said, “You’re going to go meet with Ghen that The Amazing Race is looking to do a restructuring for their second cycle, and they’re looking to bring in some new meat, fresh blood. They’re looking for someone to come in at a co-executive producer level; one person to oversee frontline logistics and one person to take over story and post- production.”
After meeting with Ghen I was being promptly sent over to meet with Bertram van Munster, who created The Amazing Race with his wife, Elise, and was the executive producer. I was a huge fan of Cops. Many people may or may not know this but Bertram was the original cameraman for Cops. Bertram had sort of been the guy in the Cop car who developed that technique of shooting. To me, there weren’t many sort of reality rock stars in reality TV but I was enthralled to meet with Bertram.
I’m sitting there meeting with somebody who was in an odd way, sort of an idol of mine because he had worked in that show and I think he had worked his way up to the ranks, and obviously left it. I definitely kissed the ring but totally from a genuine place which I think worked. I was given another phone call … this is all happening within the same day. I was called back by my agency who said that CBS and Bertram would like you to stay in Los Angeles for a month and see if you could sort of help them in the edit bay.
I’m like, “I have a job. I’m responsible for running Howard’s show.” My agent at that time, his response was, you know, this is about your future. I don’t specifically remember how I convinced my boss at E! or Howard that I was going to stay in Los Angeles but I do recall that I was pretty transparent about my desire to move to Los Angeles. I don’t think it was a huge surprise. I literally moved into the Oakwood Apartments in Marina Del Ray, and lived in an edit bay for a month, I think.
My assignment was to cut episode 12 season 1 of The Amazing Race. That was my test. Based upon the quality of the first cut, meaning how many notes I was going to get from CBS and Ghen would determine if I would get the job. I got the job. It was bittersweet leaving Howard but I ended up on a big production, you know, Jerry Bruckheimer’s name attached and I was in it.