Stephen Chao

Background

Stephen Chao was born to a middle class Chinese American family and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, moving to New Hampshire when he was eight years old. His maternal grandfather was a prominent official in pre-revolutionary China, once serving as the nation’s economic minister to the United States. Chao is the nephew of Zao Wou Ki, a well-known Chinese Impressionist painter. Chao attended Fay School and later earned a scholarship to the Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. He attended Harvard University where he majored in classical studies, graduating cum laude in 1977. He later went on to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1981.

National Enquirer

Between Harvard degrees, Chao co-wrote a Fodor’s travel guide for Turkey, shoveled manure on a farm in France, and reported for the National Enquirer. For two years, he covered such topics as celebrity infertility problems and funerals for the supermarket tabloid. He broke the story of OJ Simpson's budding romance with Nicole Brown and tracked UFO sightings throughout South America for three months. Chao believed the Enquirer was an intriguing media phenomenon and enjoyed his role with the newspaper despite its worldwide criticism.

Fox Television

Upon graduation, Chao developed an interest in movies. Multiple rejections by the studios led him to New York working in finance for movie producer Dino De Laurentiis. In 1983 Chao was hired as the Vice President of Acquisitions and Corporate Development for Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Two years later, Murdoch purchased Fox Studios. Looking to expand the studio into television, he asked Chao to become a part of the creative team for the nascent Fox Television network.

Chao’s new position was under Fox President, Barry Diller. His duties were to develop innovative, low-cost shows for the owned and operated station group. The idea was to greenhouse promising shows, and to ultimately migrate them to the network. Some of his first attempts included short-lived programs such as The Ron Reagan Show, a talk show hosted by Ronald Reagan's son, the children’s show Dr. Science, and the game show King of the Mountain. Both strong minded executives, Diller and Chao often butted heads. The most talked about controversy surrounding the two individuals occurred when Diller became so enraged with Chao that he hurled a 3/4" videocassette tape across the room, denting the wall. Chao framed the dent, convincing Diller years later to autograph it. Despite their intense conflicts, the controversial ‘reality’ formats they launched at the beginning of the fourth network, both remained on the network for more than two decades.

Chao’s first success was a concept that had been in his head for years after seeing the "Most Wanted" poster in the post office. Chao's original pitch was to marry High Noon with the 10 o'clock news. The concept he labeled "Electronic Lynching" became the television show America’s Most Wanted. The following year in 1987, Chao met John Langley who pitched a concept of following beat cops around Broward County, Florida. This show became Cops.

Chao was promoted to President of Fox Television stations and Fox News Channel in 1992. In June 1992, ten weeks after taking position as President, Chao spoke at a management conference in Snowmass, Colorado for Fox executives, board members and world dignitaries, including Rupert Murdoch and wife Anna Murdoch, and former United States Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and wife Lynne Cheney. He spoke on “The Threat to Democratic Capitalism Posed by Modern Culture”. Strongly emphasising that American television programs tend to be less critical of violence than nudity and sexuality, Chao hired a local waiter/model Marco Iacovelli to strip naked during his speech to illustrate his point about censorship – perhaps, nudity was less anti-social as opposed to violence and murder. Not at all amused, Murdoch fired Chao immediately afterwards.

McDonald's

After being fired, Chao took the opportunity to explore his fascination with McDonald's by getting a job at a McDonald's restaurant in Redondo Beach. A big fan of the fast food chain, Chao ate there every day. For six weeks, he flipped burgers, manned the fryer and cleaned the dairy machine, claiming it the hardest job he ever had.

Production work

In 1993, Chao formed his own production company, Stephen Chao Incorporated, creating and producing programs for ABC, CBS, NBC, Columbia TriStar Television, Universal Television and Nickelodeon. In partnership with Venezuelan media company, Cisneros Television Group , Chao launched multiple channels, including Playboy TV Latin America and the 24-hour animation channel, Locomotion. Chao also produced David Blaine's first television special, Street Magic.

USA Network

In February 1998, Barry Diller purchased USA Network and the Sci Fi Channel from Universal Studios, hiring Chao in April as president of programming and marketing, working with such shows as the WWF, La Femme Nikita, Highlander: The Series, Baywatch and the Jerry Springer Show. He was also responsible for the dramedy Monk. At the time he paid a record amount to buy the script from ABC, which had placed the project in turnaround. On March 23, 2000, Chao was promoted to President of USA Cable, where he supervised all cable services, including advertising sales, finance, administration, programming, marketing and the strategic growth of new services and digital offerings for the division. During his tenure, USA Network aired the second most watched original mini-series in basic cable history, Attila, and the hit original movies All-American Girl: The Mary Kay LeTourneau Story and Cabin by the Lake. He was also responsible in solidifying a relationship with Mark Burnett, working with him to bring the expedition race Eco-Challenge to the network. During Chao's tenure, the SciFi Channel emerged as the largest provider of event mini-series in primetime launching the six-hour mini-series, Frank Herbert's Dune, Steven Spielberg's 20-hour mini-series "Taken" and Crossing Over With John Edward. Chao resigned as President of USA Cable on November 5, 2001.

WonderHowTo

In 2006, Stephen Chao and Mike Goedecke founded WonderHowTo.com in Santa Monica, California. With backing from Cambridge, Massachusetts based General Catalyst Partners, WonderHowTo.com launched in January 2008. As of November 2009, WonderHowTo has more than 1 million monthly uniques.