members of congress and fcc commissioners i'm public policy commissioners. public policy commissioners. an amazing the world of technology. that is pretty cool. yesterday we got to meet many men and women who have served in the armed forces and might soon call cable their home. theave got a glimpse into views of cable contributions in our observatory. way, we had some fun on the show floor. it is hard to ask any more of the cable shows that what we have experienced the last two and a half days. it is time to mark your calendar for next year. 1 inl 29 through may beautiful los angeles. a few weeks earlier than this year.

thank you for participating in this year's cable show. and thank you for all you do to help us generate huge success and bringing so much joy to our customers. let's get down to business and kick off this morning's impressive session. these welcome to the stage west coast editor of entertainment weekly. ♪ [applause] >> hello. excitedhat you are all to check out the secretary of education. last month in new york it was announced that jennifer lopez did not have enough time in her life and decided to be that chief officer of nuvo. here is a little bit more on that. ♪

>> this is where i belong. right here. i'm involved in everything creative about the network. i'm committed to supporting diversity both in front of and behind the camera. it is time for television to reflect who the modern latino is now. ♪ >> nuvo tv, it is us, front and

center. he will say, that is my family and my friends. new stories without the stereotype. real stories. we are it. >> ladies and gentlemen, jennifer lopez. [cheers and applause] ♪ >> a couple of little notes. i want to repeat the quote that you just said. you said latinos are a force in this country and it is time that tv reflects who the modern latino is now. how is tv falling short?

been about aways lot of stereotypes. things have changed. you see more latinos on tv. but it is not a reflection of who the modern latino is. this is an english-speaking network. is that for us? >> yeah. [laughter] this is an english speaking for the modern latino. it is a different thing. it requires different programming and they targeted agenda. >> why this and why now? you have so much else going on. >> yes. theynuvo first came to me, wanted me to be the face of the network. we started talking and he realized i had a lot of ideas about the network and what it could be an programming for latinos.

my point of view came from my upbringing. i grew up watching marcia brady, but i did not really see myself. when i think about growing up in onceronx and watching tv, a year "west side story" would come on. this movie inspired me so much to do everything i have done. when i thought about nuvo and the network, i thought this was a great way to communicate with the community. if i could be inspired by one movie once a year at then if you had a cable network that ran 20 for hours a day with programming imagine howatable, many people can be inspired and how many things can be done. it is an opportunity to empower. >> how is your role going to

work? will you be there day in and day out? >> i can be there day in and day out, but i'm the creative chief officer. the whole look and feel of the network, i'm involved in it creatively. marketing and how it looks and how the network looks itself. the programming and the development of the programming. being and distribution meetings and that kind of stuff. it is a big job. it is really important. it represents something bigger than just television. it represents doing something for the community that has been underserved for so long. talk about the distribution beginnings? what were they like? >> eke. all --e very creation educational. distribution was a different thing. what i've learned from them was

that everyone is trying to target this community. they're trying to figure it out and crack about not. it is not an easy thing -- and crack that nut. it is not an easy thing. >> how do you think your celebrity will help launch the network? , it bringscelebrity awareness. also i have had 20 years in front of and behind the camera. one of the things i bring is relationship. we have attracted different talents and agencies are willing to work with us in a different way. writers and all of that kind of stuff, it makes a huge difference. we are able to boost the programming and the quality of the programming in a way that hasn't been done before. >> when you were in distribution

meetings, where their ideas about what would work for tv that had a lineup of tele- novella? with a bunchaling of smart people. when you grow up as a mother, i understand it. i know how it affected me and will affect me. i'm able to bring that knowledge and my whole family and all of my friends. i'm able to bring that knowledge to it. i want to see this and i don't want to see that. great art, great television, it is so cutting-edge. ands about making quality doing quality stories and making great television. that is what i feel we have to concentrate on. this should be a network for latinos and anybody. i often think of the movie "the joy luck club."

young and when i was knowing nothing about asian culture in any shape or form come up with this movie touched me. i was young at the time. i knew the movie very well. it was a great story. it didn't matter that it was about asians. it was about that culture. you saw yourself in it. some story in every movie touched people. that is what great art does. that is what we want to accomplish. you want to accomplish great art, great programming that is targeted toward the margin -- toward the modern latino, but it is for anyone. that is the goal. >> do know what the perfect nuvo tv show is? >> the perfect line?

-- one? many facets. that is trying to put us into a box again. i think we are very diverse. there are many different things that interest us. music.my when you think about -- infuse more music. theyhe think about bet, driven in with music first and then the network grew -- when bet, they'dbout drew them in with music first and then the network grew. you?d >> there are some things i'm involved with. if using the network with energy.

it takes years to get it right. we have put on such a fast track. we have a new head of marketing. we are on the right track already. it is the pace of where we are going. want to go into scripted. that is a big thing for us. one show can launch a network. one amazing show. we are constantly on the lookout for that. >> you're not exclusive. [laughter] >> there are some things that were announced. a special involving you is one of them. >> yes. one of the things that was important to me is to have some

education. way.tion in an interesting give important figures of their history. it can be politics or comedians or actors or writers or figures, or political historical figures come at people who a change things and had turning point in their lives that led them down a path that wound up being inspiring or aspirational. doing ise shows we are -- i will be in the first episode. [laughter] mightthere a chance you train on some relationships? >> absolutely. we are going to everyone. i have worked with a lot of great agencies. there is a wealth of writers and

directors and actors. all of my relationships i'm calling on for this. an importantt is initiative. i do not know what the word is. it is bigger than just a channel. >> of all your accomplishments, where will this rank in terms of your legacy? >> my legacy. i don't want to. i want to have fun creating the show. i do not know. remembered as a place where we gave a home to artists that did not have a home before. have a place to tell their stories, our stories.

and literally change the face of television. >> are there any shows on tv now that you still think speak to the modern latino? >> i will have to get back to you on that. fosters." >> how will you balance this with going back to "american idol"? >> what? that is just a rumor. i do not have any announcements to make on that right now. i'm concentrating on building this network. i'm working on my 10th out of. -- album. >> wow. ladies and gentlemen, jennifer lopez. [applause] ♪ >> thank you.

>> good morning. and now it is my great leisure to introduce a very special guest, a man who shares our belief that all americans should enjoy the benefit of broadband, that all children through the power of our technology can be good, digital citizens. cable and broadband technology can transform our schools, their classrooms, and our children. over the past four years, arne duncan has forged a reputation as one of our nation's most distinguished secretaries of education. building on his success in his he hasn of chicago,

instilled energy into our nation's educational system through innovative programs such as race to the top and through his personal commitment to america's educators and their students. you has lifted the u.s. educational system into global competitiveness. he has lifted the u.s. educational system into global competitiveness. ensuring that critical broadband technology is acceptable to -- accessible to american schools. mention thatid i he has got a hell of a good jump shot? gentlemen, please welcome the u.s. secretary of education, mr. arne duncan. [applause] ♪ thank you for that kind introduction.

i always love following jennifer lopez. sexyl talk about some topics like academic learning standards, but i promise you it will be more exciting. i will talk to you about the andrsection of technology education. i will take you into the future. last month i visited a school in the heart of detroit. one of the lowest performing in the state in a tough neighborhood. we are working hard to turn the school around and create opportunities for the children there. you wouldn't know any of the challenges without visiting the classrooms. see young, you children working independently in small groups. you'd see them discussing the solar system and building 3-d models. you would see others and learning games and apps on their laptops.

you would see the teacher not at the front of the classroom lecturing, but simply working quietly with a few students who need help. all of her students are on individual learning plans. they are working at their own pace. if that sounds like great teaching, it is. that sounds a wonderful way to learn. it is an example of what technology makes possible through >> ability it gives teachers and the opportunity it gives to students. -- of what technology makes possible through the flexibility it gives to teachers and the opportunity it gives to students. they are expected to know how each a student is motivated and match that to the right content and instructional approach. that is powerful and often hard to do. technology helps turn those goals and aspirations into reality. it also allows fantastic

teachers to give her students experiences that you and i can never dream about having in school. she can send them on virtual trips to other countries. she can let them apply physics by designing a bridge using tools that real engineers used. she can connect them with real tutors and experts in real time or take a class on linear oculus . to help her continue to learn , sherow as a professional can share her ideas and lesson plans with others anywhere in the country. that reality, that sense of empowerment that is strong is sadly not the norm today. the simple problem is that most teachers cannot do any of that is most schools have about as much internet bandwidth as your house. probably less than many of your homes. let's talk megabits for a

second. it takes about 1.5 or one student to do what he or she needs to do with broadband. a classroom would require maybe 45. for a whole school, about 120. we recommend that the school should have about 100 with a to get to a thousand that fiber optics provides. the typical school is nowhere near that. our competitors are far ahead of us. in south korea, 100% of schools have access to high-speed internet. here it is only about 20%. we are denying our teachers and students the tools they need to be successful. that is educationally unsound and morally unacceptable. because as aem country we are not keeping up. in a coldly competitive economy,

that is a job killer. the status quo is bad for children and bad for families and communities and bad for our nations economy. what will be due about it? we need to innovate and invest. pockets -- ate a the federal level, we are pushing for fundamental change in the education system from cradle all the way to career. make it available to every family. as obama has outlined a plan to do that. it is expensive and paid for. it needs to happen. investing in high-quality early childhood education is the best investment we can make. level, we are so porting

raising academic standards. -- we are supporting raising academic standards. this is a game changer. we need to set a high meaningful bar for students. investing billions of dollars that is creating online higher and tied to more rigorous standards. those assessments will replace traditional fill in the bubbles standardized tests. -- to givenows assessments, most schools require bandwidth that they do not have right now. at the college level, pushing new ideas to make all its more affordable because students and families cannot keep up with the costs. at every stage along the

educational continue on, we need -- continue on, we need new ideas. we need funding for school districts. we have to get better faster even during a tough economy. technology is critical to raise the bar for all students in what i call the opportunity gap. much of this depends on access to the internet. broadband internet has become the interface highway system for communication and ideas. today is simply does not reach most schools. it is time we built some on ramps. that is why president obama and i traveled to north carolina --st week to announce fiber optic connections over the next five years.

training teachers for the tech revolution. it challenges the private sector -- toe it as a portable make it affordable for our nation's children. spirit, i ask for your help and all of you to come together with us. there may have never been such a powerful culmination of content as exist in this room this morning. it offers us a huge responsibility. get behindeed you to present obama's goal of connecting our nations schools. residentg behind obamas goal of connecting our nation's schools. you can help us connect schools and also cost effective manner.

to build on what you have done, bringing the internet to lower income homes and families, we need you to help make sure our children when they leave school will not be living in a different century than more affluent children. i believe history will look back cables moment that the industry did the right thing for our nation's children and help close the digital divide. and your to you colleagues at comcast for your vision and leadership and commitment and the hard work you have done. content.e need your one of the most significant opportunities is to bring the engagement you generate through your programming to classrooms across the nation. it needs to be easier for teachers to find it and match it to the children's individual needs. we have created a platform called the learning registry to

help teachers find great digital learning content. please be part of that effort. to the, a personal plea leadership on behalf of our children's safety. both online and in their streets and neighborhoods. online, children need to be safe from predators and inappropriate contact and from the risk of making mistakes that could cost them the rest of their lives. teach them and their parents and teachers that it is also about the control that you can provide. finally, we need your leadership on the culture of gun violence. child dueat least one to gun violence on average every two weeks. staggering loss of life. that is not unique to chicago. karen's should not bury their children's -- parents should not have to bury their children. please help be part of the

solution. thank you. thank you for the opportunity. [applause] ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, lease welcome the moderator for today's education and technology panel, cnn chief political analyst. [applause] ♪ u.s.d now for the panel, secretary of education, arne duncan. is executive vice president of comcast corporation's david

cohen. zeal.-founder and ceo of ,fifth grade teacher valencia. >> thank you all for having us here today. thank you, secretary duncan, for following j. lo. we needed to have an exciting panel. let me ask you, you have heard the challenges that the secretary laid out for cable. contact done a lot of

and making broadband assessable, but are we succeeding? you are, thank moderating. we appreciate it. mr. secretary, thank you for an articulate vision for what this country needs. there is no more passionate advocate in the u.s. than the secretary of education. thank you. [applause] what i took out of this are two critical things. what we heard in that presentation was something i , which is essential solving the problems of education are not one offs. it requires innovative solutions. top'she beginning of the education and after the school days, providing support for them and their parents, graduate from college and into college, beyond college comic internships --

--ond college, internships the policies that the secretary articulated our policies that all of us in the education space share. i think he's in the right room. the cable industry has a new unique role to play. are we currently doing things, but we can be doing more. forward to look parsing apart those challenges and see what we at comcast and what all of us in the cable industry can do to advance that agenda. >> you have spoken a lot about parents, parents involvement in this. how do you integrate the parents with all of the new tools you

all are talking about? they can't help their kids if they do not have access or don't understand. >> probably the most important thing about getting families connect did is that you unlock the potential of parents to help their children. ofecially in the world rocket ships, most parents are very low income. they have never been on the internet. there is no way for them to with theirnyways teacher. connectivity is the first step and then information about what they're doing with the teacher and school. it's a huge change. >> where do you get the money to do that? >> that we were having this conversation five years ago, i would say i don't know. so many things have happened over the last several years that have blown those barriers down. the work that comcast and the

cable industry has done to have for,affordable programs activity, huge. the smartphone revolution we have not talked about as much year, but it's happening. a huge impact on very, very low income families. aredevices and connectivity getting in the homes, so now it's about the software and the tools. >> valencia, you are on the front lines. these you do what all of people are saying you need to do? what do you worry about? students bring their smart they are to class and involved in connecting to the internet that still need to connect to the teachers. are changing. we are no longer teachers but facilitators for learning. it is whetting the appetite of has becomed learning quite atypical. as i'm teaching or instructing,

they are teaching me and we're finding out information where they're going home and teaching their parents and it's a community working together and moving forward. that's what's happening within the community. >> mr. secretary, you have talked about digital textbooks and how that's going to be the next thing. can you explain to all of us what it means for our students, our schools, and how cable would be involved. >> it's fascinating that we are dollars -- $g nine nine million per year. the spend, it's interesting. we have states that are on seven-year adoption cycles. every seven years, they buy a new science, then english, etc. we're spending so much money on

something that is so outdated makes no sense to me whatsoever. >> why are are we doing it? >> it's the way we have always do things. we change way too slowly. we are challenging state and education leaders to take the textbook money and put it into this conversion. the school district revisited in north carolina they are 100 out per personerms of funding. they are second or third highest performing, much better than the resources that they have. seven or eight years ago, they have the vision to put all of their money into technology, teacher training, engaging families. ,uch higher graduation rates test scores going up very quickly. we need to take those kinds of examples and make them the norm rather than the exception. have 15,000 school district

in this country and we are not at scale. >> if i can? i think the secretary would agree that digital textbooks does not necessarily mean it's take the old textbook and put it .n electronic form as a pdf with electronic textbooks, you can make the lessons more vibrant and understandable. take a lifetime network and what they do in the education feeds, which stays with the vibrant educational content. some amazing learning modules into which actual video inps of the news has been bedded. it's just saving money. it is dramatically improving the quality and making them more engaging for the students, more interesting, and improving educational quality. it is a place where we can all be partners and where we has a cable industry can participate in this revolution in a fairly

seamless way to really advance the needle on quality of education and learning in america. >> it you are nodding. >> the secretary move the entire system. the other thing that's going on that i think is really helpful is that teachers are taking it on themselves to figure out how to adapt to this new world. what i saw int, rocket ship is teachers coming up with ideas on how to use the tools but no administrator, no secretary of administration would ever think of it because they are with the kids every day and can come up with better ideas. there is also a grassroots part where this may ultimately be a bigger change than anything we can do from the top down. let's see how that goes. >> you have said the model for

selling the technology to schools is totally broken. >> completely. >> can you talk about that? >> the secretary may disagree with me, but schools are possibly the worst single buyer of any industry group there is. extremely low funded, extremely long sales cycles. any company in the space that survives shifts all of this money from r&d to sales and marketing. goes toward sales and marketing and the products are terrible. our industry has gotten what it on theten, but the line rise and is that we are beginning to have a consumer business and learning. 2 billion kids come online over the net over the next 10 years, before it only made sense to sell products to schools, maybe there is a consumer market. that will be a much more rational --

>> i agree. i don't disagree. the further disability in the dysfunctional marketplace is every state had different standards, different goalposts. it was hard to take to scale what was working. now a lot of courage at the state level. 46 states and d.c. have raised standards. having a high bar for everyone and a common high bar creates a level playing field where people can compete and innovators can get out there. it's a huge opportunity going forward that literally has never existed in the history of education. to usechildren are going the technology that's in there. let's be proactive and make it educational. i'm doing standards in the classroom as well as my colleagues across the country. i very what i do based on the needs of the student, but the standards are still there.

>> can you talk about the evidence that this is actually working in the classroom? it sounds fabulous, kids using their smart phones to learn, but how do we know that it's working? scale and we at need to continue to improve and not rest on our laurels, but just to give you a few examples, this is a district that is significantly outperforming the state. toer exclusively in part due access to technology. you have many schools where they are doing some really creative things. a school i talked about in detroit, one of the worst, which tells you something historically, we are seeing students being engaged in their own learning in very different ways. we have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but there are enough early indicators saying this is transforming how they learn, how they teach. and veryecting parents

powerful ways and i'm very convinced we need to get there faster than we have been. knowing more about a student really helps you teach them better. one of the things that technology gets, you are collecting data on what are they doing well, what are they not doing well, so it helps you to figure out later on in the classroom, ok, this child is really struggling in this area, let me help them with that instead of something they are doing well. of course you run your business based on data, but education has been run in the classroom without data for the last 100 years. that's a huge change that we are now able to collect and use data for instruction proactively. >> i think you almost go back to your first question. we have not made enough progress

at scale in the technology space, and the classroom, at home to be able to have reliable data. john said and he, anecdotally, as i have traveled the country with the internet essentials program and have met with hundreds of teachers, i that teachers are constrained by the inability of their students to access technology at home. me, wes have said to even have technology in the schools and i'm always torn whether to assign homework that requires the work to be done at home because out the kids in class can do it and half cannot. they are so grateful about the existence of a program that at least provides more ubiquitous and increases their flexibility about what they can teach in the classroom to use that is not even adequate technology tools being provided

to the fullest of their intent. anecdotally, there is just no doubt in my mind that it makes a difference. i will give our front-line person the last word here about what you are seeing in the classroom and your crystal ball priorities for the next few years. >> come to school. they are able to take ownership of what they are learning and how they are learning. also, we are giving them the parameters. they own it. a few years from now, i see students coming ready for teachers in the door. ?re you here yet what time are you going to school? just to get in and work on something. not a game, but something academic. we are broadening the world of our children. we are taking it out of the neighborhood and we're actually beginning to own the world and that is what technology is going

to do. >> thank you all very much. thank you. ♪ >> these welcome the moderator for today's content creation panel, once again, west coast news editor for "entertainment weekly come: at bryce. weekly,"tainment lynette rice. executive producer for "desperate housewives," mark cherry. mark johnson. and the creator, executive producer, and show runner of "the americans."

♪ i am privileged to moderate the first-ever show runner panel at this convention. let's hope there will be more. i need to go right to the juicy stuff. you just collapsed a show with four very complicated minute. why are you jumping into a douche oh with four complicated women? >> what a good question. i love writing women. it's not really more complicated than that. i find women on television really work. i got my start being dixie carter's personal assistant when she was on "designing women." my first show was "the golden

girls." i did desperate and now i'm doing this one. i love getting gals together and talk. it's something i understand. i find them to be endlessly entertaining. i don't mind the complications, as you said. >> i should probably give you time to explain what your new show is about. >> it is called "devious maids." it is about their lives working hollywood. people in it is about how that workplace is different than any other kind of workplace because it was the in those homes and you just get exposed to different things and you become part of the family in a weird way. and tribulations become yours. the format was brought to me from mexico. when i saw it, i thought i had a

unique perspective on that because i was the help that one time. and now, many years later, i have people working for me. i have a lot to say about that world and i thought it would be fun. the show has turned out really well. it premieres a week from this sunday and i'm looking forward to people getting to take a look at it. >> this is a question for both marks. you started your career with television, creating content for broadcast. what were your early perceptions about content on cable and creating for cable? >> i have come from a future world. i have been producing movies since the 1980's. barry levinson did 11 movies with me. that was my perspective. the first tv i did was actually on cbs, a show called "l.a. and then "the guardian." i did not know about cable.

most of the future people i was working with had no idea what the possibilities wherein cable. . today, of course everybody am working with, writers, directors, there is not a person in the future world who does not desperately want to get involved, primarily cable. >> how about you? >> i got started 24 years ago when there were only four networks. fox had come into being. you know, that was what i did for the last 23 years and this past july, i started doing devious for lifetime and that is my first experience with cable. means now is something completely different than what it meant a few decades ago. even the most casual viewer in television, you can see the most exciting work is being done on cable. that is where the buzzworthy

shows come from. every once in a while the network spurred on something -- everyome attention once in a while the network puts on something that gets attention. they are so hungry for viewers and they are taking risk. is safest thing you can do take risks and that's what's going on there. it's a really fun world. >> the safest thing you can do is take risks. a good quote. ,"u started with "damages right? >> i believe been in television for five or six years. gotnnot honestly say i involved because it was more interesting. it was more lifestyle. i talked to my agent about what would be a better place to work in and he talked about what it was like to try to do 23 episodes on a broadcast network. backstage,out this the grind. i don't think i could survive

not really having any kind of a break, working long hours year- round. doing it for eight years, i don't think i had it in me. then he started describing cable. you could do 13 episodes, have a couple of months all off. right now i'm on hiatus from my show and that's why i'm finally in a good mood. if you had to see me two months ago, i was a different person, scowling all the time, exhausted. that was it for me. >> i asked how many episodes yet done of "breaking bad," and you said about close to 60. 180 on desperate housewives and i was much thinner and had much more hair when we started. it's incredible, the amount of get and effort because you two weeks off in may and that's it.

it may be different if you are doing a proced, but the intense plotting that goes into opera, the workload is just overwhelming. really watch my show, you can feel it around episode 14 where stuff starts to not make sense? i have run out of story at that point. [laughter] then i usually try to get it all together, like episode 21, before it all ends. that's one reason why i'm so impressed about what people can do on cable. literally, you look at some of these shows -- and by soap i mean a continuing drama -- you deeper, more sophisticated, complicated work on cable because you have more time. some people can really pull it

off on the network. "desperate," you think it might be compelling and then you go, ok, i was wrong. then maybe next season it will be better. with cable, when we started "devious," i had every episode planned out and i'd never had that with "desperate." they really allow the creators to have a vision from beginning to end and i think the potential is there for the work being better. the potential is there. >> let's talk about the difference between the two because the perception of cable is that the there is so much more freedom you can say and do what you want. how real is that perception? submitted toode is people at the network to tell us what is ok and what's not. -- can literally say

>> you cannot really say that here either. [laughter] just so you know. >> have you found this? >> different standards, certainly with "breaking bad" and "rectify." there are some rules we have to adhere by. we are constantly in a battle. rules are more lax, but at the same time, there are certain things we cannot do. there are different versions of all of our episodes, i think, that are slightly better than the ones who air. >> i know there is a certain amount of bartering. if i take out this butt shot, can i add tehe shower scene? >> i'm still in a network mode

of broadcast standards that my experience is that they have not given me a correction yet. i'm pretty well aware of what i'm allowed to do. you get pretty good after a lifetime on the networks. you can do provocative ideas, like we have a scene where a woman is undressing and so you kind of see a touch more cleavage than you would on the network, but we did not go so far that it would be a problem for cable. you're always finding that line. a little be conservative in how i approach some of it. we handed the pilot to hbo and i heard back from one of the executives was that it was not ready enough. there was no nudity. the language was tame. it was racy for abc, but not for cable. the kind of depends upon who you are as the creator and what you

are doing. i would imagine breaking bad, dealing with drugs, is an issue. the very idea there is potentially more dangerous than some of the stuff i do, which is more personality and character based things. do they stop you from a lot of drug ideas? >> thematically, we have total liberty. language,own to nudity, and to a certain degree violence, although we have certainly done things on "breaking bad" you could never do on a network. >> the only violence on "desperate housewives" was really behind the scenes. [laughter] with all of this liberty, there is a certain risk. you get an dramatic trouble. because you can do almost whatever you want, you start to think, the audience will love if we have this much sex or violence. you start to cross that line. no one else is watching you

really. >> let's talk about budget. there is the perception that an cable maybe you don't have as much money. if you wanted to stage a tornado or crash a plane, could you do it? >> i watch television completely differently than before i was watch -- before i was making. how did they do that? who did -- who is paying for that? it just outrages me. i saw the end of "downton abbey," and i know the car crashes, and i thought... oh. it's too expensive to pay for the car crash. i did not know that before. you could do anything, you decide to find ways to do it that are less expensive. i do not think that we don't ever have to not do them, but we have to find ways ways that do not cost as much. ofthey give you a set amount

money. so if you're going to do that which costs of this, you have to find the cost for it. i'm times you decide you're going to put money into this episode, a tornado or whatever natural disaster and then then these stories are going to take place in the same room for a few episodes. [laughter] you wonder why they are always in the bedroom? that's why. and that is part of the job of the show runner-creator-writer. it is just finding what creative ways to spend the money, the best way to do it. and it's easier to do, again, going back to if you have time. if you have time, you can do some really great spotting and planning, so it's all possible, but like i said, it's a little bit easier on cable. ifand you do have the time you're only doing 13 episodes a season. when youmuch harder

are doing network television. once the train starts, it does not stop. you cannot take the time and look at how you overcome a problem. is absolutely right. you have the time. do we have money battles? of course we do. but then we have the right amount of money to make our show and that is what we write to. what may come up with an obstacle, something we have not been able to do, we either do as mark says and do a bottle episode or we find some imaginative way to cover it. >> as a viewer, it is such a giddy time because there is so edgycreative, gritty, content on cable. do you have a fear now that there will be so much in the market is so saturated that they will just look like there's another diving competition show somewhere. is it too much of a good thing?

>> i don't think we have to worry about people leaving us for a diving show. [laughter] -- i wasd of the day very lucky with "desperate," but the interesting thing is it was always about something, the frustrations of the modern woman who has chosen to be a wife or a mother. the idea was always the strong part of it. whether you saw marcia cross wearing a teddy, that could be prerogative, but it was the idea that people came for, why the characters resonate. there will always be shows that maybe try to spice it up with language, violence, nudity. at the end of the day, what did the show creator, the writers have to say that is the major selling point? as long as someone is doing a show hopefully with a rocket of ideas, there will always be room for people to say provocative -- havehey have his or observed about society.

i do not think we run the risk of running out of those. nudity, swearing, violence are great but they are so ubiquitous. the ideas have changed and that is what will really determine who comes to your show, enough people relating to what you want to talk about. >> i have to ask you about "the walking dead." hugele show can get pretty ratings. is that putting some undue pressure on you with your shows? >> no, no. not at all. is., i think it even in relation to her last how to get an audience when there are so many good shows out there, popular shows, i worry about it a lot. i watch the twitter feed when "the americans" are on. and they say tonight i'm watching this, this, and this. how many people can watch

television all night long every night? there seem to be a fair just toout there are many good shows and i do not know how you get enough of an audience, high enough ratings for enough good shows. i worry about it a lot. >> numbers are always in the back of your mind. the truth of the matter is that the beauty of cable is that you don't need those huge numbers to be a success. i come from the feature world where reopening weekend means beauty of whathe we do now, as long as you have interesting characters and good, compromising situations and you label it with a lot of irony, you will have an audience. you will have an audience that will justify your being. >> are you sure you go >> positive. trust me. johnson,herry, mark joe