Which
of your skills provide the greatest reason behind you and production's
success?
My production company is doing very well because I
am a very ambitious person and want to become a major force (one of
the biggest entities in town) within the entertainment industry. I
am very hungry and would like to a major influence in this business.
We have a lot of projects in development, a lot of projects that we
are pitching and a lot of projects that we are trying to get going.
Hopefully we will have ten to eleven television shows on air at the
same time and have a lot more power in this business.
What factors motivated
you in producing the television movie “The Tiger Woods Story?”
I thought
it was fascinating story of a minority making big inroads into a sport
(golf) that
was traditionally white. So we bought the rights to a biography that
was written by John Streggy and made into a movie.
What
makes your reality shows different than others?
What is different about our
shows is that our programs is not the “end all” –
it’s not the contrivance of the show – it is just a means
to achieve a dream.
In Fox's "American
Idol," the winner gets a recording contract and gets a career
launch. At “Top Model” – the winners gets an IMG
Contract and hopefully a modeling career. So it is a platform for
the contest to get to another level in their career that provides
added interest and tension to the show.
| WENDA
FONG - Co-Founder & Chairperson of CAPE's Board of Directors |
Thus
magna cum laude graduate from USC in Asian American Studies
is a producer and director of television and live events
with a track record as an executive and community force.
She has over 200 television programs ranging from all-star
variety specials, award shows, live spectaculars, sitcoms
(i.e. Steve Harvey Show), talk shows to documentaries.
Her production credits include four Emmy telecasts, five
Disney specials, seven specials with Presidents Ford,
Reagan, Bush and Clinton and TV specials with Bette Midler,
Michael Jackson, Barbara Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Mikhail
Baryshnikov, Neil Diamond, Shirley MacLaine, Luciano Pavarotti,
Paul Simon, Madonna and Elvis Presley. She has launched
productions across the United States and around the world,
including China, Canada, and Europe.
She
has served as President of East West Players. Wenda has
been a member of the Directors Guild of America since
1980 and serves as its founding co-chair of the DGA Asian-American
Committee. She joined FOX as its first Vice President
of Creative Diversity Development Department in 2001 where
she created and launched its diversity initiatives. In
2002, she was appointed the project coordinator for American
Idol. In 2003, she was promoted to Vice President of Specials
and Alternative Programming for FOX Broadcasting Company.
|
THE
FUTURE
What
professional goals do you have for the future? (feature films, producing
sitcoms, high-profile award shows such as the Grammys/Oscars/AMA’s/CMA/Globe/SAG?
One of my
upcoming project that I
am producing for VH-1 is “The Partridge Family”–
a reality series where we will be looking for the new “Partridge
Family” that will transform to a sitcom series.
What
stage are you at?
Currently
it is in pre-production and will be shooting in a couple months. We
will be having an open audition stage that we will be seeking to cast
a multi-ethnic cast.
| |
|
| |
NBC and producer Ken Mok are taking "The Simple Life"
and turning it on its head. Peacock has teamed up with exec
producer Mok ("America's Next Top Model") for "The
High Life," giving a pilot commitment to the unscripted
half-hour laffer.
UPN will continue to ride on the success of "America's
Next Top Model" through the 2004-05 season, as the network
announced today it has picked up the series for a third and
fourth cycle.
The
show ranked first in its time period each week during the current
cycle among women 18-34, and the most recent episode (1/27/04)
ranked second in its time period among UPN's target demographic
of adults 18-34 (3.9/11) and persons 12-34 (4.0/11).
The
show also delivered UPN's best ratings EVER in the Tuesday 9:00-10:00PM
time period among women 18-34 (6.1/15) and women 18-49 (5.1/11),
the most recent episode of America's Next Top Model also ranked
as the third highest rated telecast in UPN's history with women
18-34.
America's
Next Top Model also scored UPN's second best time period performance
ever among adults 18-34 (3.9/11), adults 18-49 (3.4/8) and total
viewers (7.11 million). |
What
other projects are in your immediate future?
I have a number
of projects at various networks that are at various stages of development.
There are two specials on magicians on NBC that I’ve directed.
There are a bunch of other shows that you will be reading about.
One area that
I would like to get into is feature films and producing sitcoms. We
are making some inroads into those ventures. Hopefully those projects
will be something that we do full-time in the near future. At the
present time, we have our hands filled with all the “reality
shows” that we are involved with.
How
do you see the international markets will be shaped in the near future
- especially as it deals with piracy, downloading on the Internet,
targeting international audiences/Asia, the present merger guidelines,
Murdoch’s acquisition of DirectTV, etc.?
I always think that if there are more programming
opportunities, there’s more opportunities for more people to
be involved – especially evident in the witnessing of the large
number networks, cable outlets and stations that are springing up
are forming into more niche areas. Opportunities breed opportunities
for everybody and it can only help the Asian Pacific American communities.
PARTING
WORDS
What
three words best describes you to people that don’t know you?
Focus, Driven and Positive
