Fox reality czar Mike Darnell will be somebody's strike insurance this fall

Up on stage, top executives at the Fox network were fielding questions about their fall lineup from a roomful of TV critics, while in the back of the room, by the coffee service, lurked a small, wiry dude in denim who might hold the real power at Fox this season.

His name is Mike Darnell, and his name and profile -- well under five feet tall, with long, brown, 80s-pop-star hair -- are familiar to anyone who covers the industry. Since 1998 he has been Fox's head of alternative programming, and he is widely considered the king of American reality TV. He is every bit the pioneer that William Paley was, only instead of Jack Benny and Lucille Ball, Darnell gave us Joe Millionaire and Paris Hilton. He's made money off the middlebrow ("American Idol," "So You Think You Can Dance") and lowbrow alike ("When Animals Attack," "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?").

There is widespread fear throughout Tellywood of a crippling writers' strike this fall. If the writers' guild and the networks don't have a deal by Oct. 31, production could halt on the scripted dramas that make up most of the Nielsen top 30. But Darnell's world would actually begin spinning faster, since reality shows, which require no writers or actors, would become the only game in town. In fact, Darnell has not renewed his contract at Fox, and other networks are said to be wooing him to bring his special brand of strike insurance.

Darnell's latest hit is "Don't Forget the Lyrics!", a singalong game show that Fox announced it was picking up for another 13 episodes. “Lyrics,” hosted by Wayne Brady, debuted the day after NBC's "The Singing Bee," sparking what one website called "karaoke wars," though both sides have since declared victory, with NBC picking up "Bee" for the fall.

Rivals have accused Darnell, more than once, of making quick knockoffs of other networks' reality shows. ABC's "Wife Swap" was followed by Fox's "Trading Spouses," NBC's "The Contender" seemed to beget "The Next Great Champ" out of Darnell's camp.  And then there was "The Chair" and "The Chamber," and if you stuck me in either one I couldn't tell you which network thought of which, they were here and gone so quickly.

But on this day the king of quickie TV cheerfully insisted his karaoke show had been in development longer than the other guy's. Not only that, he insinuated that "The Singing Bee" was the one that looked like it had been rushed to air. (Joey Fatone is the host of “Bee,” so he may have a point.)

  Up on stage, Fox entertainment chairman Peter Liguori was asked about Darnell's future. "We look forward to having Mike for a number of years at Fox," came the reply. Liguori then took more questions about “Idol” and another Darnell creation -- an upcoming reality show in which, as a colleague put it, "women would rule and men would serve."

  As for the contract negotiations, which are stuck on how much writers will get paid when their work is used in new media, Liguori said, “For the sake of the industry, we gotta get this resolved.”

  But what if it's not? I asked Darnell if he had taken his vacation time already. He seemed to be taken aback by the question. "Wow," he said, "I haven't taken a vacation in 10 years."

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  In other news, Fox announced that the next president on "24" will be a woman, played by Tony-winning actress Cherry Jones. Liguori took issue with a critic's contention that the action thriller took a huge dip in quality last season. "There's more energy there than there has been in years," he said.

  Two of Fox's summer shows, "Dance" and "Hell's Kitchen," will be back next summer (or sooner, one presumes, if there's a strike). At “MADtv,” standup comics Johnny Sanchez III and Anjelah N. Johnson and improv actor Dan Oster will join the cast this fall, the late-night show's 13th season on Fox. And Spike Feresten, who follows “MADtv” on Saturday nights, won't have to lean so heavily on conceptual gags next season. The former Letterman and “Seinfeld” writer taped the entire first season of his “Talk Show with Spike Feresten” in a shooting marathon last fall. This season, he'll tape shows on Thursday for airing on Saturday.