The domestic syndication business, which is controlled by a handful of buyers and sellers, is riddled with obvious pitfalls and has not seen a breakout hit since "Dr. Phil" debuted in September 2002. Mr. Burnett, however, is confident he can break into domestic syndication distribution, provided the content is worthy.

"It all depends [on] if the people want the show enough, then you have the leverage to self-distribute," he said. "Personally, I think the syndication business has a potentially huge upside; my job is to look for vacuums in the marketplace."

All of this considered, he insisted that he doesn't run his business "around license fees and financial models-that's dumb. I run my business around what I think is good content and high production values. The deals I make are just to get treated fairly by the networks. That's all."

"The drive here is a commitment to excellence, a commitment to not putting crap on the air," he said.

?

?