Admit it: You love television. But not in that stare-blankly-at-the-screen-haven’t-left-the-couch-all-weekend way. Not you. You actually think about television. You question the reality of MTV’s 3-camera show Laguna Beach. You screamed when Fox ended Arrested Development’s second season earlier than planned. And forget about reading TV blogs and forums—you’re the one people click to for Lost predictions.

Fortunately, you can put your TV addiction to work with the help of a business degree. While Finance 100 might not land you a guest spot on The O.C., it could land you behind the desk of a big network where you’d decide the programming fate of Marissa, Seth and the gang. Matthew Blank, W’72, Chairman and CEO of Showtime Networks, attributes much of his success to his business degree. The Wharton grad now heads up the channel that airs Queer as Folk and Soul Food, and sits on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Sundance Channel. He came to Showtime in 1988 from HBO, where he had been the Senior Vice President of Consumer Marketing, and became the cable network’s President and Chief Operating Officer in 1991. We sat down with the TV titan as he waxed nostalgic about ‘60s TV, Wharton in the Vietnam era, and the mastication habits of Mike Tyson.

As a high school student, did
you want to work in TV?

I had a general interest in the media world, which to me was advertising, television, film. I think kids today have a lot better understanding of what all these businesses are about. I’m not really sure I understood them all, but I didn’t think, ‘I want to work in a screw factory.’ I was a big television viewer as a kid. The things I saw interested me, and I always thought, gee, it would be kind of cool to do that stuff.

What were your TV favorite shows?

Superman and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E?

You’re too young to even remember that one. It was on in the mid-60s. It’s a classic.

Are there any moments during your
undergrad years that stand out as
being particularly significant?

It was a difficult time to be in college because of the Vietnam War, and there was a lot going on on college campuses. A lot of people thought in those days that in going to Wharton you were very conservative and part of the establishment. That wasn’t the case at all. There was as much interest in what was going on around us at Wharton as there was anywhere else. It was a very tumultuous time to be in school. There were all sorts of conflicts with local police, with authorities over war demonstrations. It’s sort of funny when I go back now and see my daughter there and see how mellow it is by comparison.

How did Wharton impact your early career?

I give Wharton a lot of credit for my career, because when I had my first couple of jobs, I was fairly well—focused for a recent college graduate. I did extremely well early in my career. I think it was a bit of a jump start, an advantage getting out there. When I entered the job force, it was during recession years, so not a lot of people were hiring high—priced MBAs. It was an advantage having an undergraduate business education, or maybe I was even a more desirable candidate than people who had MBAs at that time.

What were your first jobs? How
did you compare to your coworkers?

I worked at the marketing training program at Phillip Morris. And I worked at American Express, where I was a brand manager on the American Express Green Card when I was 25 years old.  The quantitative skills that were required to get through Wharton were extremely helpful competitively in a work environment.  (Awkward sentence—not sure what it is supposed to say) A lot of people weren’t used to doing that type of analysis and the type of things you do in first jobs.

I think those first few years when you are working help set your course. It’s important to come out of those starting blocks fast and with some understanding of what you want to do, learning what you’re good at and what you’re not good at. That’s probably the most important thing, because nobody is good at everything. Some of it is luck. But I think a lot of it is understanding what you are going to be good at, and taking the right risks, and making the right decisions when you are given the opportunity to do something different.

What advice would you give to someone
who wants to get into television?

It never is what it appears to be. About once every year or so, some client says ‘Can you get my kid a job working on a feature film in New York City this summer?’ We make calls, and we pull some strings and I’ll talk to someone. And the kids really don’t know what people do in these jobs—which is why summer jobs and those experiences are important. When you go into production, for example, and Woody Allen is shooting from 4 in the morning to 8 in the morning for five days in a row at the corner of 86th Street and Madison Avenue — you’re going to be standing at the corner of 79th Street and Madison Avenue speaking into a walkie-talkie and saying, “A blue truck just went by.” You’ll never be anywhere close to the things that are really happening.

I think part of a business education is giving you some of the experiences that put you in a position to make better choices about what you want to do. Because that’s what it’s all about: making the right choices and the smart choices. It’s not always the smartest person who does well. It usually is the person who has observed the best, and has worked the hardest, and has learned to have good judgment in business situations—in addition to being smart.

If you are in an environment like Wharton, you are going to be around people who are bright, and you’re going to see them succeed and not succeed in that environment. You’re going to hear about their experiences. And you’re going to have the opportunity to make choices based on some knowledge you developed about your own strengths. Because if you choose to do something you’re not really good at, you’re not going to be successful. If you are at a place like Wharton, you are more likely to have those experiences earlier. And I think it puts you just a little bit ahead of the curve.

So many people would love to have
your job. What’s the best part about it?

I really like working with people. I really like the variety in what I do. It’s never boring. One day I’m doing programming. One day I’m doing very corporate stuff. One day I’m involved with our clients on the revenue side.  A lot of time is spent on the administrative side of it. I like the marketing part. I like the programming part. I like dealing with our clients. But I think most of all, I like the fact that it’s very rarely the same. The job changes…constantly. The great thing about television is—if you are working on a toothpaste for Proctor & Gamble, every time that toothpaste comes out of the tube it’s the same. But our product is different every single day. If you turn Showtime on now, it’s different than it will be a couple of hours from now. It’s different from what it will be a week from now. The product is always changing. That always means new challenges, and it means you always have the opportunity to try something different, to do it again. I think for me that means you can do a job for a long time without being bored by it.

We’ve been very fortunate; we’ve done some fabulous things here. We like to think that we’ve really made a difference in television, and that’s not something you can say in a lot of businesses. You can work in a lot of businesses and be very successful for a long time, and it’s hard to point to what you did that really changed things. We like to think that we have had a substantial impact in a number of areas, not just from an entertainment standpoint, but from a societal point of view. It would be hard to find a better job than that.

Can you give an example of something
you did that changed or impacted society?

I think all of us are extremely proud that for a number of years we have reached out to underserved audiences. Whether it’s the gay and lesbian audience, the African-American audience, or subject matter that’s pretty important and for commercial reasons others have chosen not to do or were just unable to do.  It’s the Queer as Folks or the Soul Foods or the 300 movies we made in the past dozen years—a lot of that material would not have had a prayer of being made elsewhere for any number of reasons. At the end of the day, we like the fact that we’ve been able to fill that void.

Any tips on how to succeed
in the TV business?

Our business changes very, very quickly. You’ve got to be nimble. You’ve got to be very flexible, willing to change, willing to think a little bit out of the box, a little bit differently, willing to take risks. And that’s what makes it fun. A lot of people might have found that not so much fun and might have said “ugh, who wants to do that.” But with the right personality and the right opportunities, I have been very fortunate. Not for a minute do I forget the importance of luck and timing in all of this. I think it’s been a great place to be.

You must meet interesting people
every day. Who was the coolest?

I always like to say, “I’ve met with Presidents,” which I have, “and dined with kings—at least Don King.” This job has put me in rooms with Presidents of the United States. It has put me in rooms with the Mike Tysons and Don Kings of this world. It has put me in rooms with some of the greatest, most talented artists of our time. And I think they are all interesting and you learn from all of them because they are all very, very different. You know, it’s all really been fun.

Do you ever have “wow” moments or
think “I can’t believe this is my life?”

Probably my greatest “wow” moment was sitting ringside with 500 guests the night Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield’s ear. Live. On Showtime. Around the world. But I don’t think “wow” was the word I used.

Any parting words?

I think that it’s very important to learn as much as you can about business—and what it is about business that you think you are interested in. If you can get summer jobs that can teach you something about business, great. The worst thing is to get somewhere in your career and think, gee, this isn’t what I thought it was.

Whether it’s a job, whether it’s Wharton, I think it’s more important than ever to enter with your eyes wide open, and spend some time educating yourself.

^back to top