You’ve said that “firing people is a good thing.” Why?

My philosophy from Eco-Challenge (a 300-mile team trek through unforgiving terrains) is "choose your teammates wisely." Whether it’s a marriage or a business, don’t get involved with people who are going to pull you down with their energy and negativity. And if you end up finding that you’ve gotten into a personal relationship or a work relationship with someone who is dragging down the group, then you’re better off letting them go than trying to carry them. It will only defeat the team in the long run.

Are reality shows sound investments for you and for the networks?

In the last decade, approximately half of the top 10 shows on television have been nonfiction reality shows. American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Survivor, The Apprentice, The Biggest Loser—some of the most important shows on the networks [account for] about half of their advertiser income.

Why have others, like American Inventor, done so poorly?

You’re hearing more and more about the same idea week after week after week. This show is nothing like that. It’s a close-ended hour where each week between four to six entrepreneurs step into the Shark Tank and pitch their idea for actual money. And this is not ABC’s money or my money, this is the investors’ actual money. So, quite frankly, in one episode, everybody who comes in could get financing. On the other hand, maybe nobody gets it. Every time you watch the show, it’s always fresh, new ideas. It’s not a weekly elimination game. There’s no game.

You ventured into the Web with Gold Rush in 2006. Three years later, do you see Web-only reality TV eventually doing better than traditional TV?

That was a trivia game, and it was a great experience. It was very successful when we did it. We had about 11 million players playing it, with an average of 16 minutes per play, so it was a huge success. [But] the Web is continually changing, and search clearly became a much more important focus for these big portals than creating original, expensive content.

I suppose that very soon, the television hanging on your wall will also be the Web. Eventually everybody will be getting their television via the Internet, and therefore everything will be Internet and there will be more and more channels. So it’ll all depend on who’s making the content. Is it a television network making the content? Is it a cable company? Or is it some private owner? And as you are able to search on the Web for millions and millions of pieces of content, your television will also be able to do the same thing for you, and I suppose it won’t even really be called a television.

Are you worried that Hulu and other similar sites will cannibalize your audience?

No. I think that Hulu and these kinds of sites just provide more opportunities for the content makers to reap revenues.

Which one of your shows would you do best and worst in, respectively?

I think Survivor or The Apprentice. I very much like both genres. The idea of surviving in a group on an island is a thrilling idea, as is competing in an apprentice business-type show. In terms of most challenging, I’d say the same, for obvious reasons.