Reach: Hard Lessons and Learned Truths from a Lifetime in Television

One of the most daring, creative, and influential minds in nonfiction television, Arthur Smith draws on the most exciting moments of his pioneering career as a producer to show how far you can go when you reach for your dreams.

Arthur Smith is famous for his innovation and audacity, and as the man behind some of the longest-running unscripted series in television history. His groundbreaking hit Hell’s Kitchen forged the modern food competition reality genre, while his Emmy-nominated American Ninja Warrior has spawned a cultural movement, with Ninja-inspired gyms in every major American city.

In Reach, Smith shares adventures, triumphs, and hard-won lessons from his astonishing career, beginning with his unprecedented ascension from the ranks of sports production to become the youngest-ever head of CBC Sports. Never one to rest on his laurels, Smith moved from Canada to the United States to produce a wide variety of entertainment programming with his mentor, television icon Dick Clark. Years later, he spearheaded an entirely new approach to sports television at FOX Sports Net, helping to grow the fledgling business into a true industry powerhouse. In 2000, Smith made the biggest reach of his career with the launch of A. Smith & Co. Productions, which has produced over two hundred television shows on more than fifty networks. Across genres, formats, and platforms, Smith and his A. Smith & Co. team have earned a reputation for original, emotional, buzz-worthy, and deeply personal storytelling.

In these pages, Smith takes us behind-the-scenes of dozens of pivotal moments in sports and television history, ranging from the high-intensity control room at the Olympics to the development of The Titan Games with Dwayne (“The Rock”) Johnson. We learn about a show that never was with Donald Trump, as well as a super-far-fetched idea that became the bizarro-classic genre-buster I Survived a Japanese Game Show. Through winning anecdotes involving a disparate cast of famous characters, including Marlon Brando, Gordon Ramsay, Magic Johnson, Little Richard, Wayne Gretzky, Simon Cowell, and Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, Smith illustrates just how far you can go when you work hard, take risks, and reach for your dreams.