After Season 5, I really wanted them to cancel the show.

I mean, it wasn’t working. We had a new host, and the fit wasn’t great. We weren’t attracting any (or many, at least) “name” guests. We were losing in the ratings to—of all things—a public affairs talk show on the ABC affiliate.

And I didn’t know how to fix it.

The big problem was the interview segments. The caliber of the guests didn’t help, but adding to that was the fact that the new host just wasn’t a good interviewer.

During the summer hiatus, I racked my brain for solutions.
Can we increase the budget to attract better guests?
Can I find training for the host?
Can we somehow change the structure of the interview segments to make them better?

Aaaaaargh!!! Please, just cancel the show. Put us out of our misery!

Think, Bill, think….

The late-night desperation thought: It would be so nice if we could just eliminate those stupid interviews altogether!

But then…how would we fill the time?

Audience participation?
Live music?
Something else?

Aaaaaaaargh!!!

Another late-night desperation thought: It would be so nice if we didn’t have to fill the time!

But then we’d only be a half-hour show.
A half-hour of just comedy.

The one part of the show that was working.

The jokes were working. The sketches were working. That’s what we did best.

So…WHAT IF…we just focused on what we did best—and dropped the rest?

What if we became a tight, funny, half-hour show?

Well, if we did THAT…then maybe…just maybe…we could move out of our miserable Sunday 6pm time slot, and—again, maybe, just maybe—move to the much more comedy-friendly time slot of Saturday at 11:30pm (if—and it’s a big if—we could convince NBC to let us push Saturday Night Live up to midnight, so that we could be its lead-in—something that nobody else in the country was allowed to do).

[A bunch of stuff happens.]

Season 6.
Saturday. 11:30pm.

You tune in to the Seattle NBC affiliate.

And you don’t see Saturday Night Live.

You see my show. Almost Live!

That’s our time slot for the next 10 years.

And during those 10 years, we were never—NEVER—less than #1 in the ratings.

Sometimes (often), innovation isn’t about adding new things.
New features. New functions. New bells and whistles.

Sometimes (often), innovation is about letting go of what’s not working, and focusing on what you do best.

Because, in the end, innovation isn’t about doing more.
It’s about daring to do less, better.