Producer Alexander Mitroshenkov told what the TV is silent about

A few days before the round date, Alexander Mitroshenkov is clearly not in the mood for festive troubles. At the start of a new season, a producer of many programs (Mr. Mitroshenkov’s company produces dozens of formats, from Good Night, Kids! to Andrey Malakhov’s big projects) feels something like a storm coming. Television is about to take on a new life, ceasing to be a media about the stars and for the stars. Thirty years of television experience allows Alexander Viktorovich to compare the situation of these days with what happened on TV in the nineties, when everything needed to be urgently changed. In a conversation with MK, Alexander Mitroshenkov discussed the new reality, Songs from the Heart, Western formats and Prokhor Chaliapin.

– From the outside, it may seem that your cases have diminished, because recently new projects of a non-socio-political content have become much less likely to get on the air …

– But nevertheless, I can talk about the premieres of the new television season. First of all, this is Andrei Malakhov’s musical Sunday show “Songs from the Heart”. In our vast country there are an infinite number of talented people who have not been able to break through for a long time. Over the past thirty years, the stage has not changed much. The same last names. The heroes of “Songs with all my heart” are people who found their own way, began to compose songs, sang already famous ones, having received millions of views on the Internet or became stars in their hometown. They didn’t have a chance before, we gave them the opportunity to reach out to people. Andrey Malakhov and Natalya Galkovich nurtured this idea for a long time. For example, here is a plot from the new program: in the village of Kotov, Kursk region, there lived a 72-year-old grandmother who played the harmonica and sang wonderfully. Unfortunately, with a difficult fate. Her husband died, then her only son died, and all she had left was an accordion and songs. In her village, she was the main attraction, a person who gave people some kind of hope. We brought her to Moscow, her performance made a splash. She became famous all over the country, a real star. And, of course, instead of a broken harmonica, we gave her a new one.

– It can be assumed that pop stars are not very happy with the fact that the music program is dedicated not only to them …

– I recently spoke with Yuri Antonov, and he said: “I haven’t watched pop concerts for a long time, but your program just drove me crazy. For myself, I find emotions there that are no longer on the stage! And he’s right. In order for the musical life to revive somehow, a fresh wind, a turning point, is needed. It is important that we show not a varnished picture, but the real life of people. Sometimes very hard. Honesty is the only way to get into the future that television has. If you remember the nineties, at that time the real producer was Vlad Listyev. He was the first to create television formats that were not previously on our television. Now the situation is similar. Much of what was before is gone, because people no longer want to watch programs where there is no sincerity, which is so important now. We need to create something new.

– But some of Listyev’s programs, such as “Field of Miracles” or “Rush Hour”, were clearly created under the impression of foreign TV hits …

– It just seems that we are talking about tracing paper. Look at today’s “Field of Miracles”. It can hardly be called a game program in which words are guessed and prizes are awarded. Rather, we are talking about the show of Leonid Yakubovich, where guests come with gifts and talk about their lives. Vlad was never afraid of some kind of crossover with Western projects, because his programs were essentially made from scratch. A producer always has to try something. I remember that Vlad and I flew to Gothenburg, where Volvo factories are located. Vlad really wanted to see how these machines were made and maybe buy one of them. We filmed a lot of material about production, and in the evening the plant manager left a new Volvo model at the hotel in order to continue the story about it tomorrow, and gave us the keys to the car. In the morning, the director has breakfast with us and says: “We have a very quiet city, after nine in the evening everyone is at home, sleeping, but this night the incredible happened: some crazy man drove through the streets in a car and woke everyone up.” Of course, Listyev drove it, because he wanted not only to hear a story about the car, but also to feel it, sitting behind the wheel. And this desire to get to the bottom of the matter, immerse yourself in reality, perhaps even take a chance, is the position of a producer.

– If we continue the topic of popular Western formats … Many of them have taken root well on our television, and these programs can sometimes hardly be called unsuccessful. Don’t you think that the now widespread desire to abandon them is something opportunistic?

— Each format reflects its place of birth. For example, the famous children’s project Sesame Street. The show was bought in dozens of countries around the world, but it was financed by the US State Department. Naturally, the program reflected the mentality and American standards of life. I have confidence that we, having considerable experience and the best studios in Europe, should take other people’s ideas and do it the way they have. Of course, it is much easier to buy than to make. After all, it is not just the idea of ​​a program that is bought, but a clear scheme for its production. Every sneeze, every movement on the site is recorded. Special Western consultants come to the shooting, who can say that the presenter can only turn his head in one direction. Maybe this is not bad and convenient, but with the diversity of our lives, we are able to invent everything ourselves. They came up with “KVN”, “What? Where? When?”, “Good night, kids!”. There was a moment when the French wanted to buy our legendary children’s show. And I am for our formats to develop and be presented abroad. If we want to be a modern country, we need our own television.

– Apparently, if in the nineties it was believed that everything Western suits us, now the situation is reversed …

– Nobody says that. You need to take everything that is interesting there, and do not just not worse, but even better. In our country, over time, such a Western format as a talk show has turned into a reality show. Andrei Malakhov has all the real stories, there are no invented heroes. Recall the program about scammers who steal money from people’s credit cards. We managed to introduce a journalist girl into a team that was engaged in deceiving pensioners. By the way, the scammers were in Kyiv. And when they began to suspect our agent, we had to save her, take her out through the United Arab Emirates. This is real television, where sometimes they really shoot.

I want to talk about another premiere of this season – the Malakhov program. The premiere issue told about the family of Vladimir Zhirinovsky. For many, it became a real sensation that the politician had children who were never reported in the media. And Andrei Malakhov found these children and plunged with them into the world of their relationship with their father. Zhirinovsky is known as a rather tough politician, but it turned out that at home he was a gentle, caring dad. And this story showed Vladimir Volfovich from a completely different side. The program, one might say, was watched in every Russian family. The result was a frank story, devoid of stereotypes. I note that no one coordinated this program with the Presidential Administration and the State Duma, although it spoke about many of Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s predictions. We hope that the new issues will contain no less unexpected and very modern themes, as well as stories that sink right into the soul.

– For many viewers, talk shows are also secular scandals. Is there a place for such entertainment in the changing television?

– The story about the fate of the stars, of course, will remain. But it will not be dancing on the bones, but rather a romance that evokes empathy. But conditionally Tiktok topics, for example, about bazooka hands, of course, will go away. In the context of today’s life, pompous stars, all sorts of botoxed and decorated girls no longer arouse interest.

– It is curious what will happen to the characters from the so-called talk show star pool. Anna Kalashnikova and Prokhor Chaliapin will lose the status of experts on any issues?

– I know that Anna found herself in a new TV quiz. Samples showed that there it is very organic. She finally does not have to comment on the events related to the life of Sofia Rotaru and Alla Pugacheva. The story of Prokhor Chaliapin seems rather sad to me. In my opinion, he just burns life, although he has a beautiful voice. In terms of timbre, it resembles the voice of Peter Leshchenko. I somehow persuaded him to sing several songs from the repertoire of Pyotr Leshchenko at one concert; as a result, the voice and image coincided so much that the hall simply roared. Here is his path, not scandals, sucked from the finger. Television is a tough industry, and if you come there important and inflated, but empty inside, sooner or later it will become clear to everyone.

– Do you think pop music will disappear from the big channels in the form in which it has been shown in recent years?

– If you look at the ratings of solo concerts of stars, you will be surprised – they tend to zero. Production numbers, studio-recorded phonograms no longer touch anyone. And, for example, the contest “Come on, all together!” look, he does not leave indifferent. I would like to touch upon the issue of the producer’s responsibility again. For example, Viktor Drobysh created a whole set of amazing duets: Stas Piekha and Grigory Leps, Valeria and Irina Allegrova. It’s bright and fresh. There is no escape from such producers. Music producers must come to television.

– Literally a year ago, there were very confident opinions that terrestrial television had almost died and only the Internet would remain. Now everything has changed, the influence of the Internet has diminished due to blocking and sanctions, and television has clearly received another chance …

– Everything is very simple. The time of primitive projects on the Internet is gone. Even bloggers realized that they need to shoot and edit professionally. Only television teams can do this. It is not the expansion of the Internet, but television has burst into the Internet. Now only television is able to unite all genres, whether it is reports from the scene or from the field of hostilities, discussions in the studio or documentaries. And where can experts appear – major military leaders, politicians? Of course, on TV. And the Internet cannot exist without bright personalities, many of whom still come from the TV screen. Such as Andrey Malakhov, doctor Alexander Myasnikov, writer Zakhar Prilepin. Today, rather, television has burst into the Internet and is ready to change it. And those who say they don’t watch TV actually watch it through their gadgets.

– On your birthday, it is customary to indulge yourself and complain a little about the fact that you have to work too much. What do you say to that?

– The life of a producer is sometimes like running in front of a locomotive that is accelerating more and more. Maybe you want to stop, but in this case, the locomotive will definitely crush you. It seems that everything has been done and invented, but this year it became clear: a new era of openness and utmost honesty has come. So we cannot stop, and I am very glad that my wife Valentina has been helping me in recent years. We have two producers in our family. And when you are producing your life, the main thing is to have a like-minded person nearby.