Why Steve Harvey says Hollywood buys formats instead of inventing them
This article draws on our conversation with Steve Harvey.
Steve Harvey says Hollywood often buys TV formats instead of inventing them, then renames them, adds Hollywood polish, and sells them back to the world. He still says America dominates entertainment, but in his account the dominance comes from scale, repetition, and infrastructure as much as original creation.
He ties that argument to a bigger misconception he says people carry about fame and greatness: the idea that the West creates everything worth watching. Harvey pushes against that. He says some of the biggest hit competitions American audiences treat as homegrown were imported first, then repackaged for a much larger machine.
Why does Steve Harvey say Hollywood buys formats?
Steve Harvey says Hollywood buys formats because many of its biggest television hits start elsewhere and are then adapted inside the American entertainment machine. His point is not that the US lacks skill. His point is that people confuse ownership and scale with invention.
Harvey’s examples are specific. He says American Idol, X Factor, and America’s Got Talent are not American shows in origin. In his telling, Hollywood goes to markets and festivals, finds proven concepts, changes the name or presentation, puts what he calls Hollywood dust on them, and turns them into giant US products.
That matters because it flips a common assumption. If you watch those shows only in their American form, you can easily come away thinking the US created the template. Harvey says that reading is wrong. The machine is brilliant at packaging, promotion, and global resale, but the first spark often comes from somewhere else.
He folds Cedric the Entertainer into the same argument about cultural hierarchy. The misconception, as Harvey frames it, is that greatness only comes from the West. So the argument about TV formats is really an argument about credit. Somebody else can create the structure, and Hollywood can still end up owning the spotlight.
Which shows does Steve Harvey say prove the point?
Steve Harvey points to American Idol, X Factor, and America’s Got Talent as proof that imported show formats can become huge American hits without being American ideas at the start. Those are the examples he names when he argues that Hollywood often commercializes a format rather than originating it.
American Idol is central to that claim because many viewers remember it as a defining American competition show. Harvey’s point is that recognition in the US does not equal origin in the US. The same goes for X Factor, which he places in the category of major franchises Americans know well but did not invent. He says America’s Got Talent fits the pattern too: a format that arrives, gets localized, then expands under the force of the American system.
His wording also explains why these particular examples matter. They are not obscure titles. They are exactly the kind of big, glossy, mainstream shows people point to when they talk about American entertainment power. Harvey uses them to separate two different talents: creating an idea first, and industrializing that idea better than anyone else.
So if you ask whether the US entertainment business creates the world’s biggest shows, Harvey’s answer is narrower than people expect. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it buys the framework, refits it, and wins on distribution, production muscle, and visibility.
If Hollywood buys formats, why does America still dominate?
Steve Harvey says America still dominates because it has had more practice, a massive domestic audience, and the production muscle of Hollywood. In his account, the advantage is not magic. It is repetition and scale.
A report on the television market size put the US market at 354 million people (2:44), and Harvey treats that kind of scale as a built-in advantage. If you can launch a show inside a market that large, you are not starting where smaller countries start. You already have a giant audience, giant advertisers, giant promotion channels, and a system that knows how to turn one format into an institution.
He also says America has simply had more practice. That sounds simple, but it carries a lot of weight in the way he explains entertainment dominance. The US has spent decades building studios, talent pipelines, distribution networks, marketing teams, and a public appetite for spectacle. So even when a format begins somewhere else, Hollywood can refine it fast and make it feel definitive.
Harvey still calls Hollywood the Mecca. He does not say that to flatter it. He says it because the place still concentrates money, visibility, and production know-how in a way few ecosystems can match. In his account, the center keeps winning because the center has the deepest bench and the biggest amplifier.
Has technology weakened Hollywood’s control over TV success?
Steve Harvey says technology has weakened Hollywood’s monopoly because people can now build fame outside the old gatekeepers. That is his counterweight to everything he says about Hollywood’s size and reach.
He points to YouTube and Instagram as the clearest examples. A performer, comedian, presenter, or personality no longer has to wait for a studio executive, network buyer, or casting office to hand them a shot. You can build an audience yourself, in public, and do it without asking permission from the people who used to control access.
That does not mean Harvey thinks Hollywood stopped mattering. He still describes it as the Mecca. But his argument is that the walls are lower now. A person with a phone, timing, and a repeatable idea can become visible first and formalize the business later. The old route was closed-door approval. The newer route can start with direct attention.
And that shift matters to his larger view of TV formats. If the old entertainment capital once controlled what reached mass audiences, technology now lets audiences discover talent and concepts earlier, from more places, and with fewer filters. That makes the misconception he talks about harder to defend. Greatness does not need to be born in Los Angeles to travel.
Why has Steve Harvey chosen to work outside Hollywood?
Steve Harvey says he has chosen to build outside Hollywood because he does not want to depend on that ecosystem for his identity or his work. He makes the point personally, not just as an industry theory.
Harvey says he is out of Hollywood completely. He pairs that decision with a concrete example: shooting Family Feud in Atlanta instead of Los Angeles. That choice matters because it turns his argument into practice. He is not only saying the old center can be bypassed. He is arranging his own work around that belief.
Atlanta, in the way he presents it, represents a different route. You can make a major television product without planting yourself inside the party circuit, the daily social ladder, or the pressure to stay visible in the traditional capital. For Harvey, that separation is protective as much as professional.
He also links that choice to brand damage. His warning is that Hollywood party culture can hurt a personal brand instead of building one. In other words, being seen in the right rooms does not always help you. It can blur what your audience actually trusts you for. So while he still respects Hollywood’s industrial power, he keeps his own life and business at a distance from its social machinery.
Listen to the full episode
Listen to the full conversation on Spotify — the episode goes further than any article can, and following the show means you catch the next one.
Watch this episode on YouTube · 
Listen on Spotify · Subscribe to One On One with Kris Fade
Links from this episode
Mentioned in the episode. Some of these may be affiliate or sponsored links.
This content was created with the help of AI (Antradus AI - gpt-5.4).