"This could put everybody back in the game," a program executive at one of the competing networks said.

Nearly 650,000 people applied to be contestants on such shows last year, a figure that program executives said was higher than ever before.

"There's still so much short-term thinking there," said one program executive who has worked at multiple networks.

Reflecting a widely held view, one former top program executive from a competing network suggested a couple of reasons for this.

Nobody could afford to be that patient with a program executive now.

The network will do more of them next season, but its program executives have their eyes on another goal.

The organization has been without a chief program executive since last May.

That must be the reason there are new top program executives at three of the No. 1 networks.

Last week's meeting was the first time top program executives had ever met.

He began to believe his press a little bit," one program executive says, "that he created all these shows.