He Wrote The Book On Doing Business The Right Way. Again.

A long, long time ago I was considered a wunderkid, an overachiever who clawed his way into an executive position before my 30th birthday through tenacity, perseverance and yes, a little luck.  Plus, I was known for winning a few bucks on a game show, which always provided some fodder for slightly more gentle teasing from my colleagues than, say, what I endured as a kid.

So when I first got the opportunity to celebrate the many victories of sales and ratings with my then-new colleagues at Sony, now in more of an “elder” statesman’s  role, I was urged to spend some time with an up-and-coming business affairs executive who I had already observed in staff meetings was one of the more confident and outspoken members of their team.  And when it was revealed to me that Ken Basin is also known in the quiz show world as the “guy who lost a million dollars”, I was assured we’d have a lot in common despite our significant age difference.

Basin’s appearance as the final contestant to play WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE with Regis Philbin, on a special 2009 prime time 10th anniversary edition, is even more storied than my obscure daytime stint.  You can follow parts of his exciting ascension on YouTube, and believe me, it’s worth the ride. And as the show’s Fandom site chronicles it, they couldn’t have asked for a better way to close out a celebratory week:

Kenneth “Ken” Basin, an entertainment lawyer and Harvard Law graduate from Los Angeles, California, was the last contestant on the 10th Anniversary Special of the U.S. version of the show on August 23, 2009. He achieved the unfortunate distinction of becoming the first person in the U.S. to miss the $1,000,000 question, thus losing $475,000 and leaving with $25,000.

• Ken became the first and only contestant to correctly answer the $500,000 question on the Clock Format (and the first one to do so since Lyn Payne in 2007).

I didn’t know that answer, BTW.  But I did know the one that he lost on:

Ken had a hunch, but decided to use his last lifeline, Ask the Audience, with Yoo-hoo being the most voted answer (40%). Ken also thought it was Yoo-hoo, and after pondering for a minute if he would regret more losing $475,000 than not winning an additional $500,000, Ken decided to go with his hunch Yoo-hoo with 1 minute, 12 seconds remaining. Unfortunately, his hunch turned out to be wrong, as the correct answer was A: Fresca.

In a case of absolute irony, Sony has invoked copyright restrictions on being able to see that miss online, which I have little doubt Ken isn’t all that upset about.

Besides, it gives the rest of us the chance to appreciate his far more significant range of knowledge and depth of acumen which he displays in the just-released second edition of his seminal work THE BUSINESS OF TELEVISION.  In more than 600 detalied and meticulously researched pages Basin shares with anyone currently or aspiring to be in any form of enterainment the necessary terms, nuances and background needed to effectively navigate one’s way through the complicated and often aggravating road to fame and fortune.  Most recently the Global Head of Business Affairs for Riot Games, and before that the Head of Business Affairs for the sadly now-defunct Paramount Television, Basin brings a remarkable grasp of just about every aspect of deal-making, and provides numerous case studies written in an engaging and accessible manner that far belies its potential utility as a textbook.  Indeed, having shared with Ken the experience of working for one of the few major studios that was–and still is–producing content for every significant broadcast, basic and pay cable network as well as every streaming platform open to business from unaffiliated sources, I know exactly how valuable working in so many different sandboxes is.  And as he shared with VARIETY! earlier this month, it’s perpetually a work in progress:

In the six years since writing the definitive book on dealmaking in the TV industry, Ken Basin has had to rethink plenty before updating his masterwork for a second edition.

“One thing that I think I underestimated when I sort of wrote my very optimistic end to the first edition, where I expressed my belief in the power of innovation and dealmaking to kind of set a course for the industry, was how many incentives there were against that kind of innovation,” he said on the latest episode of the Variety podcast “Strictly Business.”

Last night, Ken magnamimously threw a celebratory bash for the book, not to mention his recent milestones of the birth of his first child and his (ugh) 40th birthday at a top-flight Hollywood rooftop location, where I discovered one of the best cocktails I’ve ever had and admittedly took full advantage of the open bar to enjoy.  I reconnected with many other former colleagues and had the pleasure of meeting some wonderfully brilliant and engaging folks from his world.  To them, it was just another day at the office–more accurately, a night following one.  For me, it was a sobering (despite the cocktails) reminder of the wunderkind I once was and, at least for a night, again felt connected to an industry it seems we all still revere.

One more note:  The year after I learned about Ken’s “secret” , and when my long-ago hopping to a payoff a mere $400 more than Ken’s MILLIONAIRE haul had been divulged, our devilish co-presidents conspired to pit us and another trivia-loving executive in a special Sony-centric game of JEOPARDY! at the next celebratory retreat, utilizing the actual lock-out device and electronics the show employed for its traveling editions.  I learned then as I had in previous chances to play the “professional” version that those of us not young enough to have grown up playing video games have slower reaction times, so unsurprisingly Ken was ringing in far more often than I was.  But I did happen to find two of the three Daily Doubles and, more importantly, I knew the answer to Final Jeopardy.   So I somehow emerged victorious.  One for the old school crowd, I suppose.

Ken may have lost on game shows, but he’s succeeded in real life in ways far more important.  And in my mind, he’s a de facto millionaire.  As  you’ll likely figure out when you read his book (and I strongly urge you to do so by ordering it via Amazon), you can be just as smart without having to live as many years as us old schoolers.  And you might just be the next wunderkind.

Until next time…