THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 41 NOVEMBER 13, 2019
GRO
OM
ING
BY^
SU^
HA
N^ A
T^ D
EW
BEA
UTY
AG
ENC
Y
H
oward Lee goes where
he is needed. As presi-
dent and GM of TLC,
he’s technically based out of the
Discovery-owned network’s Silver
Springs, Maryland, headquar-
ters. But on this early November
morning, still on East Coast time,
the 53-year-old exec is posted up
in his lofty Century City office a
good hour before his Los Angeles
staff starts to roll in.
As the guy who has launched
such eccentric series as 90 Day
Fiancé, Dr. Pimple Popper and
Long Island Medium, he took an
equally colorful path to the top
creative post at the network,
which he’s held for nearly two
years, overseeing a staff of about- A first-generation American of
Chinese descent, Lee, the young-
est of three, grew up in Queens.
He sidestepped familial expecta-
tions to attend New York’s famed
High School of Music & Art, ulti-
mately pursuing TV — where he
cut his producing chops on PBS’
Where in the World Is Carmen San
Diego? and segued to a now-20-
year tenure at Discovery.
Lee knows his shows aren’t for
everyone, but the viewers who do
like them are on the rise. TLC just
spent its first quarter as cable’s
No. 1 network among women
25-to-54, largely on the back of
its 90 Day franchise. He met with
THR in L.A. to discuss the appeal
of the green-card romance that’s
spawned five spinoffs and reflect
on a career that’s included casting
a then-unknown Bradley Cooper
to spend the night with bears and
spearheading the eleventh-hour
edit of Jon and Kate Gosselin’s
“very special” divorce episode.
You were producing by the time you
joined Discovery in 1998. What was
your initial role there?
I was tasked with finding new
hosts for shows, so I’d watchgazillions of casting tapes. One
of them was actually Bradley
Cooper. He ended up doing
a few episodes of this show
called Treks in the Wild World. We
sent him to the woods to sleep
overnight with bears. He was
great, but I sensed he didn’t want
to keep going in that direction.
(Laughs.)What was the identity of TLC when
you started there in 2008?
It was Jon & Kate Plus 8 and 19
Kids and Counting — so, very big
family-centric. We had license to
find new talent at that time, so
one of the first shows we launched
was Cake Boss and then Theresa
Caputo’s Long Island Medium.Have you ever had her do a psychic
reading for you?
I have not and don’t think I would.
I am very careful about what I
accept from our talent. (Laughs.)And who is the TLC audience now?
It’s a primarily female audience,
and the female viewer lives by a
code of wanting to see people like
themselves whom we don’t judge.
That’s what TLC is about. They
get to come see people they would
never see elsewhere on other lin-
ear platforms. They’re lower class,
middle class, upper class.Jon and Kate Gosselin’s divorce is
a big chapter in TLC’s history. What
was that like on the inside?
It was a massive training for me.
America had not seen the disinte-
gration and breakup of a beloved
couple. And it was the first time
our company had to deal with
tabloid covers weekly. That was
completely new for all of us. When
their marriage was dissolving, we
did that “very special” 75-minute
episode on Memorial Day. It was
the most anticipated program
we’d ever had, and it still wasn’t
complete the Friday before. I went
down to North Carolina to work
with the producers and never
went to bed. We had a satellite
truck outside, ready to upload it
to the sky on Monday. We had to
make sure it was just right, and,
by that time, the two of them
wouldn’t even sit together.One of your biggest hits is a show
about a woman who performs
pretty gruesome skin extractions.
When Dr. Pimple Popper came in,
the team was really torn about
what to do with the show — but
she had a popular YouTube chan-
nel. We were evaluating whether
or not that visual shock of what
she does was going to be a turnoff
for people, but I fought for it.
The best programming prompts
extreme polar reactions.What’s the most extreme pitch
you’ve considered but passed on?
There was one project out of
Japan that was just so fascinat-
ing. If a person didn’t feel they
got to say a proper goodbye to
someone who died, they’d have
somebody in makeup to replicate
your deceased spouse or whatever
so you could pay your respects to
them. We couldn’t stop looking,
but we couldn’t do it.Why do you think 90 Day Fiancé
has clicked with viewers?
I don’t think viewers have ever
seen this vast array of cultures
intersect with Americans before.
There is somebody from every
country who’s been on this series.
I’m proud of all the diversity on
this series and on the network.Your entrée to entertainment was
going to the Fame high school. Did
you want to be an actor?
No, but I knew that I wanted to do
something arts-related. I took the
7 train every day from Queens to
Manhattan — almost two hours
each way. Then I went to N Y U.Did you make a student film?
I couldn’t afford to. I was always
amazed at how many students
could. My parents couldn’t give
me that kind of money. They were
lower middle class. My mother
couldn’t even speak English.What was your first TV job?
Before Comedy Central, Viacom
had a network called Ha! with a
Denis Leary talk show, AfterDrive.
I did cue cards for him. I did such
a good job that the crew and all
the producers recommended I do
cue cards for a living.RÉSUMÉ
CURRENT TITLE
President and GM, TLC
PREVIOUS JOB
VP development,
TLC, and the late
Planet Green network
BIG HIT
90 Day Fiancé and its
five spinoffs, which
have fetched as many
as 3.4 million viewers
per episode← “After we did Cake Boss, every kind of
baker came to us,” says Lee, who saw the
original series run 10 seasons on TLC and
inspire this Buddy Valastro bobblehead.“When your show inspires a bootleg adult
coloring book, you know you’re onto
something,” Lee says.That’s a career path?
Yes! Not everybody uses a tele-
prompter, especially when you’ve
got to move your eye line on
Saturday Night Live or some talk
shows. I said, “You’re all crazy if
you think that’s my future.”Discovery got a lot of flack for the
move to make unscripted produc-
ers pay production costs up front.
What’s been your dialogue with the
production community since?
They recognized that it was a net
neutral proposition for them.
They’re not holding the baggage.
We’re paying the bank. It was
about cash flowing and how to
fund productions and going to
outside parties for that. There
are other entities doing it now
as well.Interview edited for length
and clarity.